The Potential of Preprints to Accelerate Scholarly Communication a Bibliometric Analysis Based on Selected Journals
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Humboldt University of Berlin School of Library and Information Science Master Thesis The potential of preprints to accelerate scholarly communication A bibliometric analysis based on selected journals by Valeria Aman Submitted for the degree of Master of Arts in Library and Information Science Referees: 1. Frank Havemann 2. Michael Heinz Date of submission: 7th March 2013 Table of Contents Table of Contents.............................................................................................. i List of Tables ............................................................................................... iii List of Figures .............................................................................................. iv List of Abbreviations ................................................................................... ix 1. Introduction ................................................................................................ 1 2. Acceleration of scholarly communication .................................................. 3 3. Preprints in scholarly communication ....................................................... 5 3.1 Defining a preprint ................................................................................. 5 3.2 The preprint culture ................................................................................ 5 3.3 Benefits of preprints ............................................................................... 6 3.4 Preprints vs. peer-reviewed articles ........................................................ 7 4. Materials and methods ............................................................................... 9 4.1 Primary sources ...................................................................................... 9 4.1.1 Scopus ........................................................................................ 9 4.1.2 arXiv ........................................................................................ 10 4.1.3 INSPIRE HEP .......................................................................... 11 4.2 Data collection ..................................................................................... 12 4.3 Data analysis ........................................................................................ 15 5. Bibliometric analysis ................................................................................. 17 5.1 High-energy physics............................................................................. 17 5.1.1 Physical Review D .................................................................... 17 5.1.2 Journal of High Energy Physics ................................................ 24 5.1.3 Nuclear Physics B ..................................................................... 28 5.1.4 Discussion ................................................................................ 32 5.2 Mathematics ......................................................................................... 35 5.2.1 Annals of Mathematics ............................................................. 35 5.2.2 Advances in Mathematics ......................................................... 40 5.2.3 Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications .................. 44 5.2.4 Discussion ................................................................................ 47 5.3 Astrophysics ........................................................................................ 49 5.3.1 Astronomy & Astrophysics ....................................................... 49 5.3.2 The Astronomical Journal ......................................................... 54 5.3.3 Discussion ................................................................................ 58 5.4 Quantitative Biology ............................................................................ 60 5.4.1 Journal of Theoretical Biology .................................................. 60 i 5.4.2 Physical Biology ....................................................................... 64 5.4.3 Discussion ................................................................................ 66 5.5 Library and Information Science .......................................................... 68 5.5.1 JASIST ..................................................................................... 68 5.5.2 Scientometrics .......................................................................... 70 5.5.3 Journal of Informetrics .............................................................. 71 5.5.4 Discussion ................................................................................ 72 6. Conclusion ................................................................................................. 74 7. List of References ...................................................................................... 79 ii List of Tables Table 1. Average citation rates for articles published between 1996 and 2009 in Annals of Mathematics. The citation window is three years after journal publication and the citation data is based on Scopus. ............................................................................................................... 39 Table 2. Distribution of all preprints over the first five primary categories in arXiv for the Journal of Theoretical Biology. ............................................................................................. 62 Table 3. Average citation rates for the Journal of Theoretical Biology. The citation window is two years after the date of publication and the citation data is based on Scopus. ................... 63 Table 4. Distribution of all preprints over the first five primary categories in arXiv for Physical Biology. .................................................................................................................. 65 Table 5. Average citation rates for Physical Biology. The citation window is two years after the date of publication and the citation data is based on Scopus. ........................................... 66 Table 6. Overview of publication growth between 2005 and 2012 for JASIST. ..................... 69 Table 7. Overview of publication growth between 2005 and 2012 for Scientometrics. .......... 70 Table 8. Overview of publication growth between 2007 and 2012 for the Journal of Informetrics. ......................................................................................................................... 71 Table 9. Average citation rates for the Journal of Informetrics. The citation window was set to one year after the date of publication and the citation data is based on Scopus. ..................... 72 Table 10. Top-5 authors publishing in JASIST, Scientometrics, and Journal of Informetrics between 2005 and 2012. The table lists the author’s name and the according number of preprints published in arXiv. ................................................................................................. 73 iii List of Figures Figure 1. Growth of publication numbers from 1996 to 2012 for Physical Review D. ........... 18 Figure 2. Distribution of preprints over months prior to journal publication. Those preprints are considered whose articles were published between 1996 and 2012 in Physical Review D. ............................................................................................................................................. 20 Figure 3. Time series of the median publication delay in days for articles that were published between 1996 and 2012 in Physical Review D and have a previous preprint in arXiv. ........... 21 Figure 4. Distribution of first citations over months after journal publication for papers in INSPIRE HEP that were published between 1996 and 2010 as articles in Physical Review D. The citation window is two years after article publication and the citation data is based on INSPIRE HEP....................................................................................................................... 22 Figure 5. Distribution of all citations over months after journal publication for papers in INSPIRE HEP that were published between 1996 and 2010 as articles in Physical Review D. The citation window is two years after article publication and the citation data is based on INSPIRE HEP....................................................................................................................... 23 Figure 6. Growth of publication numbers from 1997 to 2012 for the Journal of High Energy Physics. ................................................................................................................................ 24 Figure 7. Distribution of preprints over months prior to journal publication. Those preprints are considered whose articles were published between 1997 and 2012 in the Journal of High Energy Physics. .................................................................................................................... 25 Figure 8. Time series of the median publication delay in days for articles that were published between 1997 and 2012 in the Journal of High Energy Physics and have a previous preprint in arXiv. ................................................................................................................................... 26 Figure 9. Distribution of first citations over months after journal publication for papers in INSPIRE HEP that were published between 1997 and 2010 as articles in the Journal of High Energy Physics. The citation window is two years after article publication