IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/scient/v108y2016i1d10.1007_s11192-016-1956-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Using h-cores to study the most-cited articles of the twenty-first century

Author

Listed:
  • Elias Sanz-Casado

    (Carlos III University of Madrid
    Carlos III University of Madrid-Autonomous University of Madrid)

  • Carlos García-Zorita

    (Carlos III University of Madrid
    Carlos III University of Madrid-Autonomous University of Madrid)

  • Ronald Rousseau

    (KU Leuven
    Universiteit Antwerpen)

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to collect the most-cited articles of the twenty-first century and to study how this group changed over time. Here the term “most-cited” is operationalized by considering yearly h-cores in the Web of Science. These h-cores are analysed in terms of authors, research areas, countries, institutions, journals and average number of authors per paper. We only consider publications of article or proceedings type. The research of some of the more prolific authors is on genetics and genomes publishing in multidisciplinary journals, such as Nature and Science, while the results show that writing a software tool for crystallography or molecular biology may help collecting large numbers of citations. English is the language of all articles in any h-core. The core institutions are largely those best placed in most rankings of world universities. Some attention is given on the relation between h-core articles and the information sciences. We further introduce the notions of h-core scores and h-core score per publication, leading to new rankings of countries. We conclude by stating that the notions of h-cores and h-core scores provide a new perspective on leading countries, articles and scientists.

Suggested Citation

  • Elias Sanz-Casado & Carlos García-Zorita & Ronald Rousseau, 2016. "Using h-cores to study the most-cited articles of the twenty-first century," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 108(1), pages 243-261, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:108:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1007_s11192-016-1956-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-016-1956-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11192-016-1956-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11192-016-1956-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Leydesdorff, Loet & Wagner, Caroline S. & Bornmann, Lutz, 2014. "The European Union, China, and the United States in the top-1% and top-10% layers of most-frequently cited publications: Competition and collaborations," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 8(3), pages 606-617.
    2. George A. Lozano & Vincent Larivière & Yves Gingras, 2012. "The weakening relationship between the impact factor and papers' citations in the digital age," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 63(11), pages 2140-2145, November.
    3. Loet Leydesdorff, 2012. "Alternatives to the journal impact factor: I3 and the top-10% (or top-25%?) of the most-highly cited papers," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 92(2), pages 355-365, August.
    4. Qiuju Zhou & Ronald Rousseau & Liying Yang & Ting Yue & Guoliang Yang, 2012. "A general framework for describing diversity within systems and similarity between systems with applications in informetrics," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 93(3), pages 787-812, December.
    5. David A. King, 2004. "The scientific impact of nations," Nature, Nature, vol. 430(6997), pages 311-316, July.
    6. Ronald Rousseau, 1992. "Concentration and diversity of availability and use in information systems: A positive reinforcement model," Journal of the American Society for Information Science, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 43(5), pages 391-395, June.
    7. Vincent Larivière & George A. Lozano & Yves Gingras, 2014. "Are elite journals declining?," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 65(4), pages 649-655, April.
    8. Richard Van Noorden & Brendan Maher & Regina Nuzzo, 2014. "The top 100 papers," Nature, Nature, vol. 514(7524), pages 550-553, October.
    9. Lutz Bornmann, 2013. "How to analyze percentile citation impact data meaningfully in bibliometrics: The statistical analysis of distributions, percentile rank classes, and top-cited papers," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 64(3), pages 587-595, March.
    10. Leo Egghe, 2004. "Positive reinforcement and 3-dimensional informetrics," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 60(3), pages 497-509, August.
    11. Zhou, Ping & Leydesdorff, Loet, 2006. "The emergence of China as a leading nation in science," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 83-104, February.
    12. Per O. Seglen, 1992. "The skewness of science," Journal of the American Society for Information Science, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 43(9), pages 628-638, October.
    13. Ludo Waltman & Clara Calero-Medina & Joost Kosten & Ed C.M. Noyons & Robert J.W. Tijssen & Nees Jan Eck & Thed N. Leeuwen & Anthony F.J. Raan & Martijn S. Visser & Paul Wouters, 2012. "The Leiden ranking 2011/2012: Data collection, indicators, and interpretation," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 63(12), pages 2419-2432, December.
    14. Jakobsson, Ulf, 1976. "On the measurement of the degree of progression," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(1-2), pages 161-168.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Xiaojun Hu & Ronald Rousseau, 2017. "Nobel Prize winners 2016: Igniting or sparking foundational publications?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 110(2), pages 1053-1063, February.
    2. Wei, Shelia X. & Tong, Tong & Rousseau, Ronald & Wang, Wanru & Ye, Fred Y., 2022. "Relations among the h-, g-, ψ-, and p-index and offset-ability," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 16(4).
    3. Hu, Xiaojun & Rousseau, Ronald, 2016. "Scientific influence is not always visible: The phenomenon of under-cited influential publications," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 10(4), pages 1079-1091.
    4. Fassin, Yves, 2024. "The internal dynamics of journals’ h-cores over time," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 18(2).
    5. Gauffriau, Marianne, 2017. "A categorization of arguments for counting methods for publication and citation indicators," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 672-684.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yves Gingras & Mahdi Khelfaoui, 2018. "Assessing the effect of the United States’ “citation advantage” on other countries’ scientific impact as measured in the Web of Science (WoS) database," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 114(2), pages 517-532, February.
    2. Rodríguez-Navarro, Alonso & Brito, Ricardo, 2018. "Technological research in the EU is less efficient than the world average. EU research policy risks Europeans’ future," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 718-731.
    3. Zhenyue Zhao & Xuelian Pan & Weina Hua, 2021. "Comparative analysis of the research productivity, publication quality, and collaboration patterns of top ranked library and information science schools in China and the United States," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(2), pages 931-950, February.
    4. Bar-Ilan, Judit, 2008. "Informetrics at the beginning of the 21st century—A review," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 2(1), pages 1-52.
    5. Mingers, John & Leydesdorff, Loet, 2015. "A review of theory and practice in scientometrics," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 246(1), pages 1-19.
    6. Waltman, Ludo, 2016. "A review of the literature on citation impact indicators," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 365-391.
    7. Péter Vinkler, 2019. "Core journals and elite subsets in scientometrics," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 121(1), pages 241-259, October.
    8. Alonso Rodríguez-Navarro & Francis Narin, 2018. "European Paradox or Delusion—Are European Science and Economy Outdated?," Science and Public Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 45(1), pages 14-23.
    9. Brito, Ricardo & Rodríguez-Navarro, Alonso, 2018. "Research assessment by percentile-based double rank analysis," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 315-329.
    10. Thelwall, Mike, 2016. "Are there too many uncited articles? Zero inflated variants of the discretised lognormal and hooked power law distributions," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 622-633.
    11. Thomas Heinze & Arlette Jappe & David Pithan, 2019. "From North American hegemony to global competition for scientific leadership? Insights from the Nobel population," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(4), pages 1-14, April.
    12. Caroline S. Wagner & Lin Zhang & Loet Leydesdorff, 2022. "A discussion of measuring the top-1% most-highly cited publications: quality and impact of Chinese papers," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(4), pages 1825-1839, April.
    13. Harzing, Anne-Wil & Giroud, Axèle, 2014. "The competitive advantage of nations: An application to academia," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 29-42.
    14. Pentti Riikonen & Mauno Vihinen, 2008. "National research contributions: A case study on Finnish biomedical research," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 77(2), pages 207-222, November.
    15. Wong, Chan-Yuan & Wang, Lili, 2015. "Trajectories of science and technology and their co-evolution in BRICS: Insights from publication and patent analysis," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 90-101.
    16. de Oliveira, Thaiane Moreira & de Albuquerque, Sofia & Toth, Janderson Pereira & Bello, Debora Zava, 2018. "International cooperation networks of the BRICS bloc," SocArXiv b6x43, Center for Open Science.
    17. Jo Royle & Louisa Coles & Dorothy Williams & Paul Evans, 2007. "Publishing in international journals," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 71(1), pages 59-86, April.
    18. Maziar Montazerian & Edgar Dutra Zanotto & Hellmut Eckert, 2019. "A new parameter for (normalized) evaluation of H-index: countries as a case study," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 118(3), pages 1065-1078, March.
    19. Gregory J Hather & Winston Haynes & Roger Higdon & Natali Kolker & Elizabeth A Stewart & Peter Arzberger & Patrick Chain & Dawn Field & B Robert Franza & Biaoyang Lin & Folker Meyer & Vural Ozdemir & , 2010. "The United States of America and Scientific Research," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 5(8), pages 1-9, August.
    20. Leporia, Benedetto & Geuna, Aldo & Mira, Antonietta, 2018. "Scientific Output of US and European Universities Scales Super-linearly with Resources," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis LEI & BRICK - Laboratory of Economics of Innovation "Franco Momigliano", Bureau of Research in Innovation, Complexity and Knowledge, Collegio 201806, University of Turin.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:108:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1007_s11192-016-1956-8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.