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Correcting glasses help fair comparisons in international science landscape: Country indicators as a function of ISI database delineation

Author

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  • Michel Zitt

    (Observatoire des Sciences et des Techniques (OST))

  • Suzy Ramanana-Rahary

    (Observatoire des Sciences et des Techniques (OST))

  • Elise Bassecoulard

    (Observatoire des Sciences et des Techniques (OST))

Abstract

The increasing use of bibliometric indicators in science policy calls for a reassessment of their robustness and limits. The perimeter of journal inclusion within ISI databases will determine variations in the classic bibliometric indicators used for international comparison, such as world shares of publications or relative impacts. We show in this article that when this perimeter is adjusted using a natural criterion for inclusion of journals, the journal impact, the variation of the most common country indicators (publication and citation shares; relative impacts) with the perimeter chosen depends on two phenomena. The first one is a bibliometric regularity rooted in the main features of competition in the open space of science, that can be modeled by bibliometric laws, the parameters of which are “coverage-independent” indicators. But this regularity is obscured for many countries by a second phenomenon, the presence of a sub-population of journals that does not reflect the same international openness, the nationally-oriented journals. As a result indicators based on standard SCI or SCISearch perimeters are jeopardized to a certain extent by this sub-population which creates large irregularities. These irregularities often lead to an over-estimation of share and an under-estimation of the impact, for countries with national editorial tradition, while the impact of a few mainstream countries arguably benefits from the presence of this sub-population.

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  • Michel Zitt & Suzy Ramanana-Rahary & Elise Bassecoulard, 2003. "Correcting glasses help fair comparisons in international science landscape: Country indicators as a function of ISI database delineation," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 56(2), pages 259-282, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:56:y:2003:i:2:d:10.1023_a:1021923329277
    DOI: 10.1023/A:1021923329277
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    9. Zaida Chinchilla-Rodríguez & Ricardo Arencibia-Jorge & Félix Moya-Anegón & Elena Corera-Álvarez, 2015. "Somes patterns of Cuban scientific publication in Scopus: the current situation and challenges," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 103(3), pages 779-794, June.
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    11. Ekaterina L. Dyachenko, 2014. "Internationalization of academic journals: Is there still a gap between social and natural sciences?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 101(1), pages 241-255, October.
    12. Robert D. Shelton & Patricia Foland & Roman Gorelskyy, 2009. "Do new SCI journals have a different national bias?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 79(2), pages 351-363, May.
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    15. Michel Zitt, 2012. "The journal impact factor: angel, devil, or scapegoat? A comment on J.K. Vanclay’s article 2011," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 92(2), pages 485-503, August.
    16. Suzy Ramanana-Rahary & Michel Zitt & Ronald Rousseau, 2009. "Aggregation properties of relative impact and other classical indicators: Convexity issues and the Yule-Simpson paradox," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 79(2), pages 311-327, May.
    17. Bar-Ilan, Judit, 2008. "Informetrics at the beginning of the 21st century—A review," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 2(1), pages 1-52.
    18. Waltman, Ludo & van Eck, Nees Jan, 2013. "A systematic empirical comparison of different approaches for normalizing citation impact indicators," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 7(4), pages 833-849.
    19. Hamdi A. Al-Jamimi & Galal M. BinMakhashen & Lutz Bornmann, 2022. "Use of bibliometrics for research evaluation in emerging markets economies: a review and discussion of bibliometric indicators," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(10), pages 5879-5930, October.
    20. Vladimir Pislyakov & Ekaterina Dyachenko, 2010. "Citation expectations: are they realized? Study of the Matthew index for Russian papers published abroad," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 83(3), pages 739-749, June.
    21. Maria Cláudia Cabrini Grácio & Ely Francina Tannuri Oliveira & Zaida Chinchilla-Rodríguez & Henk F. Moed, 2020. "Does corresponding authorship influence scientific impact in collaboration: Brazilian institutions as a case of study," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 125(2), pages 1349-1369, November.
    22. Michel Zitt & Suzy Ramanana-Rahary & Elise Bassecoulard, 2003. "Bridging citation and reference distributions: Part I - The referencing-structure function and its application to co-citation and co-item studies," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 57(1), pages 93-118, May.
    23. Mladen Andreis & Maja Jokić, 2008. "An impact of Croatian journals measured by citation analysis from SCI-expanded database in time span 1975–2001," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 75(2), pages 263-288, May.
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