Citation Indexing Impact Factor and “h-index” Where do we stand?

Citation Indexing Services: ISI, WoS and Other Facilities

Volker RW Schaa

GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung GmbH Darmstadt, Germany

JACoW Team Meeting 2012 IFIC@Valencia, Spain November, 2012

Volker RW Schaa Citation Indexing Services: ISI, WoS and Other Facilities Citation Indexing Impact Factor and “h-index” Where do we stand?

Citation Indexing Services: ISI, WoS and Other Facilities

Volker RW Schaa

GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung GmbH Darmstadt, Germany

JACoW Team Meeting 2012 IFIC@Valencia, Spain November, 2012

Volker RW Schaa Citation Indexing Services: ISI, WoS and Other Facilities Citation Indexing Impact Factor and “h-index” Where do we stand?

1 Citation Indexing What are we talking about? Citation Indexing: How does it work?

2 Impact Factor and “h-index” Popularity Usage JACoW in “ISI Web of Knowledge”?

3 Where do we stand? References, references, references, . . .

Volker RW Schaa Citation Indexing Services: ISI, WoS and Other Facilities WoS — Web of Science “Web of Science” is an online academic citation index provided by Thomson Reuters.

ISI Web of Knowledge Thomson Scientific & Healthcare bought “ISI” in 1992 and since then it is known as “Thomson ISI”. “Web of Science” is now called “ISI Web of Knowledge”.

Citation Indexing What are we talking about? Impact Factor and “h-index” Citation Indexing: How does it work? Where do we stand?

What are we talking about?

ISI — Institute for Scientific Information ISI was founded in 1960. It publishes the annual “Journal Citation Reports” which lists impact factors for each of the journals that it tracks.

Volker RW Schaa Citation Indexing Services: ISI, WoS and Other Facilities ISI Web of Knowledge Thomson Scientific & Healthcare bought “ISI” in 1992 and since then it is known as “Thomson ISI”. “Web of Science” is now called “ISI Web of Knowledge”.

Citation Indexing What are we talking about? Impact Factor and “h-index” Citation Indexing: How does it work? Where do we stand?

What are we talking about?

ISI — Institute for Scientific Information ISI was founded in 1960. It publishes the annual “Journal Citation Reports” which lists impact factors for each of the journals that it tracks.

WoS — Web of Science “Web of Science” is an online academic citation index provided by Thomson Reuters.

Volker RW Schaa Citation Indexing Services: ISI, WoS and Other Facilities Citation Indexing What are we talking about? Impact Factor and “h-index” Citation Indexing: How does it work? Where do we stand?

What are we talking about?

ISI — Institute for Scientific Information ISI was founded in 1960. It publishes the annual “Journal Citation Reports” which lists impact factors for each of the journals that it tracks.

WoS — Web of Science “Web of Science” is an online academic citation index provided by Thomson Reuters.

ISI Web of Knowledge Thomson Scientific & Healthcare bought “ISI” in 1992 and since then it is known as “Thomson ISI”. “Web of Science” is now called “ISI Web of Knowledge”.

Volker RW Schaa Citation Indexing Services: ISI, WoS and Other Facilities Z The problem with this strategy is that they are only going to point to research literature that is older than themselves.

Citation Indexing What are we talking about? Impact Factor and “h-index” Citation Indexing: How does it work? Where do we stand?

Which strategies can we use finding material on some piece of research?

Following references back to other work: We look through the books, articles, papers that we already know or found by searching on the web to find references (footnotes, endnotes, etc., so called “citations”) made by their authors to other works. We assume they will be related to the relevant document’s content.

Volker RW Schaa Citation Indexing Services: ISI, WoS and Other Facilities Citation Indexing What are we talking about? Impact Factor and “h-index” Citation Indexing: How does it work? Where do we stand?

Which strategies can we use finding material on some piece of research?

Following references back to other work: We look through the books, articles, papers that we already know or found by searching on the web to find references (footnotes, endnotes, etc., so called “citations”) made by their authors to other works. We assume they will be related to the relevant document’s content. Z The problem with this strategy is that they are only going to point to research literature that is older than themselves.

Volker RW Schaa Citation Indexing Services: ISI, WoS and Other Facilities Z This is a perfect way of getting an evaluated assessment of what the other in the research field are working with.

Citation Indexing What are we talking about? Impact Factor and “h-index” Citation Indexing: How does it work? Where do we stand?

Finding material. . . other strategy:

Using citation indexing In a citation index, any cited paper will lead to any other literature (book, journal, proceedings, etc.) which currently, or in the past, cites this work. A paper’s influence can be determined by linking to all the papers that have cited it. In this way, current trends and emerging fields can be rated. One may also search citation databases by topic, author, source title, and by address.

Volker RW Schaa Citation Indexing Services: ISI, WoS and Other Facilities Citation Indexing What are we talking about? Impact Factor and “h-index” Citation Indexing: How does it work? Where do we stand?

Finding material. . . other strategy:

Using citation indexing In a citation index, any cited paper will lead to any other literature (book, journal, proceedings, etc.) which currently, or in the past, cites this work. A paper’s influence can be determined by linking to all the papers that have cited it. In this way, current trends and emerging fields can be rated. One may also search citation databases by topic, author, source title, and by address. Z This is a perfect way of getting an evaluated assessment of what the other in the research field are working with.

Volker RW Schaa Citation Indexing Services: ISI, WoS and Other Facilities Z The usage of the Impact Factor is widely spread, both for appropriate and inappropriate purposes, as measure alone for ranking authors and papers is therefore quite controversial, but nevertheless standard practise in research and funding. The “h-index” gives a better approximation.

Citation Indexing Popularity Impact Factor and “h-index” Usage Where do we stand? JACoW in “ISI Web of Knowledge”?

Why are the citation indices so popular?

Impact Factor (IF) and “h-index” The summary measure known as Impact Factor, counts the number of citations to a journal for the previous two years, divided by the number of articles published in those years. The IF of an academic journal reflects the average number of citations to recent articles published in the journal. It is frequently used for the relative importance of a journal within its field. Impact factors are calculated yearly for those journals that are indexed in the “Journal Citation Reports”.

Volker RW Schaa Citation Indexing Services: ISI, WoS and Other Facilities Citation Indexing Popularity Impact Factor and “h-index” Usage Where do we stand? JACoW in “ISI Web of Knowledge”?

Why are the citation indices so popular?

Impact Factor (IF) and “h-index” The summary measure known as Impact Factor, counts the number of citations to a journal for the previous two years, divided by the number of articles published in those years. The IF of an academic journal reflects the average number of citations to recent articles published in the journal. It is frequently used for the relative importance of a journal within its field. Impact factors are calculated yearly for those journals that are indexed in the “Journal Citation Reports”. Z The usage of the Impact Factor is widely spread, both for appropriate and inappropriate purposes, as measure alone for ranking authors and papers is therefore quite controversial, but nevertheless standard practise in research and funding. The “h-index” gives a better approximation.

Volker RW Schaa Citation Indexing Services: ISI, WoS and Other Facilities Z The “h-index” is a better measure than the IF but still not optimal (see “Criticism” in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-index).

Citation Indexing Popularity Impact Factor and “h-index” Usage Where do we stand? JACoW in “ISI Web of Knowledge”?

“h-index”

“h-index” The “h-index” is an index that attempts to measure both the productivity and impact of the published work of a scientist. The index is based on the set of the scientist’s most cited papers and the number of citations that they have received in other publications. The “h-index” reflects both the number of publications and the number of citations per publication. And can also be applied to productivity and impact of a group of scientists, such as a department, university or research institute. Specific databases, such as INSPIRE-HEP can automatically calculate “h-index” for researchers working in High Energy Physics.

Volker RW Schaa Citation Indexing Services: ISI, WoS and Other Facilities Citation Indexing Popularity Impact Factor and “h-index” Usage Where do we stand? JACoW in “ISI Web of Knowledge”?

“h-index”

“h-index” The “h-index” is an index that attempts to measure both the productivity and impact of the published work of a scientist. The index is based on the set of the scientist’s most cited papers and the number of citations that they have received in other publications. The “h-index” reflects both the number of publications and the number of citations per publication. And can also be applied to productivity and impact of a group of scientists, such as a department, university or research institute. Specific databases, such as INSPIRE-HEP can automatically calculate “h-index” for researchers working in High Energy Physics. Z The “h-index” is a better measure than the IF but still not optimal (see “Criticism” in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-index).

Volker RW Schaa Citation Indexing Services: ISI, WoS and Other Facilities Z These indices are used for evaluation and funding of institutes publishing on JACoW. Therefore we have to react to the growing demand. INSPIRE-HEP (where all JACoW conferences will be indexed) can automatically calculate “h-index” for researchers, but the visibility and importance of “ISI Web of Knowledge” is far greater, therefore we have to deal with it.

Citation Indexing Popularity Impact Factor and “h-index” Usage Where do we stand? JACoW in “ISI Web of Knowledge”?

Why should JACoW try to get into “ISI Web of Knowledge”?

Impact Factor (IF) and “h-index” The institutes and with them the authors who publish their papers on JACoW are increasingly valued by their citation rate. The rather questionable Impact Factor for authors and papers and the “h-index” are often used as measure for scientific importance and funds are made dependent on these values.

Volker RW Schaa Citation Indexing Services: ISI, WoS and Other Facilities Citation Indexing Popularity Impact Factor and “h-index” Usage Where do we stand? JACoW in “ISI Web of Knowledge”?

Why should JACoW try to get into “ISI Web of Knowledge”?

Impact Factor (IF) and “h-index” The institutes and with them the authors who publish their papers on JACoW are increasingly valued by their citation rate. The rather questionable Impact Factor for authors and papers and the “h-index” are often used as measure for scientific importance and funds are made dependent on these values. Z These indices are used for evaluation and funding of institutes publishing on JACoW. Therefore we have to react to the growing demand. INSPIRE-HEP (where all JACoW conferences will be indexed) can automatically calculate “h-index” for researchers, but the visibility and importance of “ISI Web of Knowledge” is far greater, therefore we have to deal with it.

Volker RW Schaa Citation Indexing Services: ISI, WoS and Other Facilities Z We have to train and educate authors not to neglect the Reference section of their papers. Any ideas how to achieve this?

Citation Indexing Impact Factor and “h-index” References, references, references, . . . Where do we stand?

Where do we stand?

Citation practise in JACoW conferences It is clear from the way IF and “h-index” are calculated that the most important part of the conference papers is the Citation or Reference section. Nevertheless the Reference section is the most neglected part of most papers. Very often the citations are reduced to author name and Proceedings of . . . in the attempt to stay within the three or five page limit, producing meaningless entries for automatic citation indexing. This is the biggest obstacle for getting into “ISI Web of Knowledge”.

Volker RW Schaa Citation Indexing Services: ISI, WoS and Other Facilities Citation Indexing Impact Factor and “h-index” References, references, references, . . . Where do we stand?

Where do we stand?

Citation practise in JACoW conferences It is clear from the way IF and “h-index” are calculated that the most important part of the conference papers is the Citation or Reference section. Nevertheless the Reference section is the most neglected part of most papers. Very often the citations are reduced to author name and Proceedings of . . . in the attempt to stay within the three or five page limit, producing meaningless entries for automatic citation indexing. This is the biggest obstacle for getting into “ISI Web of Knowledge”. Z We have to train and educate authors not to neglect the Reference section of their papers. Any ideas how to achieve this?

Volker RW Schaa Citation Indexing Services: ISI, WoS and Other Facilities Citation Indexing Impact Factor and “h-index” References, references, references, . . . Where do we stand?

Thank you for your attention!

Volker RW Schaa Citation Indexing Services: ISI, WoS and Other Facilities