Scientometrics

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Scientometrics

Scientometrics is a branch of science devoted to the quantitative and evaluative analysis of scientific activity. One of the methods of such analysis is bibliometrics. Bibliometric indicators based on citation data from Web of Science and Scopus databases are used in the formal evaluation of Lithuanian science 1.

Traditional science assessment is linked to the processes of peer review of scientific publications and the analysis of journal, article and author citations. The most valued scientific articles are those published in journals that are included in the Web of Science (Clarivate Analytics) database with citation indicators, as well as in the Scopus (Elsevier) database with citation indicators (SNIP).

The following databases and information retrieval tools provide indicators and data for evaluating research outputs and journals:

Web of Science – Journal Citation Reports (Clarivate Analytics) Accessed through the Web of Science interface. The database provides citation rates. Data available only to database subscribers.
Scopus – Scimago Country & Journal Rank (Elsevier) A free tool for evaluating scientific results. Search for journals indexed in the Scopus database.
Google Scholar The freely available Google information search engine provides citation data.

Key indicators for evaluating journals:

Aggregate Citation Impact (AIF) The average number of citations in the last two years for journal articles published in a single discipline category in the current year (Web of Science database index).
Citation rate Impact Factor (IF) It evaluates journals, not specific publications or authors. It shows the average number of times a journal’s articles published in the two preceding years have been cited in the current year (Web of Science database indicator).
Quartile in a science category (Q) An indicator showing a journal’s position in terms of its citation rate in a given scientific category: Q1 – highest citation rates; Q2 – average; Q3 – declining; Q4 – lowest (Web of Science database indicator).
Journal Significance Index (Eigenfactor Score) Displays the number of citations to articles published by the journal in a given year for the previous 5 years (Web of Science database indicator).
Number of self-citations (Self-cites) Indicates the citation rate of journal articles in the same journal (Web of Science database indicator).
Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP) An indicator that measures the influence of context (field of study) and allows comparisons between sources from different fields of study (Scopus database indicator).
Scimago Journal Rank (SJR) An indicator that measures the scientific prestige of the source analysed (it measures not only the number of citations, but also which journals are citing which papers). Starting in the second year after a journal is added to Scopus, it is updated twice a year (Scopus Database Indicator).
CiteScore indicator (CiteScore) Displays the average number of citations for the journal’s articles for the previous three years in the current year (Scopus database indicator).

Researcher evaluation indicator:

H index Researcher evaluation indicator (popularity of publications). The H index shows that: say H is 6, the author has a certain number of publications, of which there are 6 articles, each cited at least 6 times. The H index is presented differently by different tools.

As technology develops, science assessment is looking for more and more ways to measure the relevance of scientific activities. Altmetrics is one way. Altmetrics is a methodology developed by combining traditional sources (Web of Science citation data) with various social networks. Altmetrics tools are emerging: Altmetric, Plum Analytics / PlumX Metrics, ImpactStory. However, traditional science assessment remains central to the science system.

Ensuring the visibility of published research is important for a high ranking of scientific publications in the scientific system, and for providing citation opportunities. Recommendations to increase the visibility and citation rate of research papers.

We recommend using ORCID (The Open Researcher and Contributor ID) – One of the most popular author identification platforms for increasing the visibility and citation of authors and their research papers. ORCID iD, a persistent identifier for identifying authors and linking them to the scholarly output they produce – articles, monographs, conference proceedings, etc., has been developed by the Open Researcher Contributor Identification Initiative (ORCID Initiative), an international, community-based, non-profit organisation. eLABa has implemented a change to allow an author to enter an ORCID ID number in their user profile.

ORCHID ID import instructions

Sources:

  1. Trumpienė, A., Šegždienė E. Mokslometrija: teorija, šaltiniai, metodai. (2011). Mokslo ir technikos raida, 3(2), 105-106.
  2. How to find a journal to publish a scientific article. Effective use of electronic scholarly information resources: eMoDB.LT national project teaching material for researchers and students wpcodeself[interaktyvus] (2019). Online access: https://open.ktu.edu/mod/book/view.php?id=1211