Review and Bibliometric Analysis of Published Literature Citing Data Produced by the Gap Analysis Program (GAP) By Joan M. Ratz and Shannon J. Conk Open-File Report 2013–1294 U.S. Department of the Interior U.S. Geological Survey U.S. Department of the Interior SALLY JEWELL, Secretary U.S. Geological Survey Suzette M. Kimball, Acting Director U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia: 2014 For more information on the USGS—the Federal source for science about the Earth, its natural and living resources, natural hazards, and the environment—visit http://www.usgs.gov or call 1–888–ASK–USGS For an overview of USGS information products, including maps, imagery, and publications, visit http://www.usgs.gov/pubprod To order this and other USGS information products, visit http://store.usgs.gov Suggested citation: Ratz, J.M., and Conk, S.J., 2014, Review and bibliometric analysis of published literature citing data produced by the Gap Analysis Program (GAP): U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2013–1294, 117 p., http://dx.doi.org/10.3133/ofr20131294. ISSN 2331-1258 (online) Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. Although this information product, for the most part, is in the public domain, it also may contain copyrighted materials as noted in the text. Permission to reproduce copyrighted items must be secured from the copyright owner. ii Contents Executive Summary ....................................................................................................................................................... 1 Background ................................................................................................................................................................... 3 Reference Search Methods ........................................................................................................................................... 4 Limitations of Literature Search Methods ................................................................................................................... 5 Data Recording Strategy ............................................................................................................................................ 6 Summary of Publication Characteristics ........................................................................................................................ 6 Authors ...................................................................................................................................................................... 6 Publication Outlet ....................................................................................................................................................... 7 Year ..........................................................................................................................................................................13 Dataset .....................................................................................................................................................................14 Durability of Datasets ................................................................................................................................................17 Summary...................................................................................................................................................................19 Qualitative Review of Comments ..................................................................................................................................19 Description of Data ...................................................................................................................................................20 How Data Were Used ...............................................................................................................................................21 Critiques ....................................................................................................................................................................22 Comparisons .............................................................................................................................................................24 Commentary .............................................................................................................................................................25 Reference to GAP Data ............................................................................................................................................26 Summary...................................................................................................................................................................26 Bibliometric Analysis .....................................................................................................................................................27 Publication Count ......................................................................................................................................................28 Journal Impact ..........................................................................................................................................................28 Citation Count ...........................................................................................................................................................35 Summary...................................................................................................................................................................64 Discussion ....................................................................................................................................................................64 Acknowledgments.........................................................................................................................................................66 List of References.........................................................................................................................................................66 Figures Figure 1. Proportion of authors receiving credit categorized by number of publications ........................................... 7 Figure 2. Percent of publications by outlet type ........................................................................................................ 8 Figure 3. Number of publications citing state, regional, and national GAP data by year ......................................... 13 Figure 4. Number and percent of publications using each type of dataset .............................................................. 14 Figure 5. Number of datasets used by year of publication ...................................................................................... 15 Figure 6. Frequency of use for each type of dataset, grouped by state, region, and national level ......................... 16 Figure 7. Durability of project datasets.................................................................................................................... 18 Figure 8. Number and percent of articles published in journals at each quartile rank ............................................. 35 Figure 9. Number of citations associated with publications using each dataset ...................................................... 63 Tables Table 1. Journal title and number of articles from each journal .............................................................................. 9 Table 2. Number of articles appearing in each journal, impact factor, discipline, and journal impact rank ........... 28 Table 3. Citation count for publications using GAP data ...................................................................................... 37 Table 4. Datasets, number of publications using each dataset, and number of citations ..................................... 57 iii Review and Bibliometric Analysis of Published Literature Citing Data Produced by the Gap Analysis Program (GAP) By Joan M. Ratz and Shannon J. Conk Executive Summary The Gap Analysis Program (GAP) of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) produces geospatial datasets providing information on land cover, predicted species distributions, stewardship (ownership and conservation status), and an analysis dataset which synthesizes the other three datasets. The intent in providing these datasets is to support the conservation of biodiversity. The datasets are made available at no cost. The initial datasets were created at the state level. More recent datasets have been assembled at regional and national levels. GAP entered an agreement with the Policy Analysis and Science Assistance branch of the USGS to conduct an evaluation to describe the effect that using GAP data has on those who utilize the datasets (GAP users). The evaluation project included multiple components: a discussion regarding use of GAP data conducted with participants at a GAP conference, a literature review of publications that cited use of GAP data, and a survey of GAP users. The findings of the published literature search were used to identify topics to include on the survey. This report summarizes the literature search, the characteristics of the resulting set of publications, the emergent themes from statements made regarding GAP data, and a bibliometric analysis of the publications. We cannot claim that this list includes all publications that have