Scientometrics
The scientometrics (also Scientometrics, literally meaning "measurement of science" ) was investigated as a quantitative method of science research, the scientific research. For this purpose, the number of scientists and scientific journals is approximately considered and the publication output of authors and institutions, as well as their resonance, measured by the number of citations of publications in major international journals, examined ( bibliometrics ). The aim is to describe the scientific work of a whole group of researchers ( in a field and / or in particular regions and time periods ) both as to understand their inner structure and dynamics. It is to be answered, among other things, the question of how and why a particular field of science develops. The Scientometrics was founded by Derek de Solla essentially Price and Eugene Garfield. The latter founded the Institute for Scientific Information (Philadelphia, PA, USA), which provides the main databases for scientometric / bibliometric analysis.
The term scientometrics (Russian Naukometrija ) comes from Vasily Nalimow, 1969, together with SM Multschenko an eponymous book published.
Tools and methods
Methods of Scientometrics include bibliometrics (observation of publications and citations ), Informetrics ( track certain terms in their walk through as magazines and other media ) and the webometrics (examination of Internet - structures). Using evaluations will attempt to draw conclusions about the quality.
In the Science Citation Index, the sources are similar to search engine Google, counted, citing the examined publication. Number of references determine the Wichtigkeitsmaß ( Impact Factor ) a publication to others. The more times a publication is cited, the higher the impact factor.
See also: citation analysis, citation database, CiteSeer, ISI Web of Knowledge
Typical issues of Scientometrics
Typical issues of Scientometrics are usually related to specific subject areas and / or geographic / political entities (regions / states / institutions ) and are as follows:
- How good is the quality of science in the region concerned?
- How can you measure and compare scientific work at all?
- What factors influence the scientific quantity, quality?
- How is the cooperation in the scientific community is structured and how is it changing?
- What are the economic effects of the scientific evidence? ( Conversion into products, patents)
- How specific areas of knowledge affect each other? ( Interdisciplinary )
- What forms of research funding are desirable? ( Research communities, publication policy, patenting strategies, commercialization )
Results
Many results of scientometrics are formulated in so-called "laws", but these are not to be confused with physical laws, but to describe empirical regularities; whether and to what extent are these laws is the subject of scientific debate. Important results of scientometrics are:
Research and teaching
Scientometrics is taught at several universities in the framework of study programs of library and information science. Also include basics of citation analysis together with instructions for scientific work partly Curriculum in other subjects.
The core journal for scientometrische research is the journal Scientometrics, founded in Hungary in 1978. Most important conference since 1987 is the two -yearly International Conference of the International Society for Scientometrics and Informetrics, which is organized by the International Society for Scientometrics and Informetrics ( ISSI ). At the conference of the Derek de Solla Price John Award is presented.
In 2004, the first time was the International Conference on Webometrics, Informetrics and Scientometrics (WIS ) of the global interdisciplinary research network COLLNET Collaboration in Science and Technology organized. These conferences are held annually since 2000. Since 2007 COLLNET publishes the periodical COLLNET Journal of Scientometrics and Information Management. This magazine is published twice a year at TARU Publications. Shabahat Husain and Hildrun Kretschmer are the editors. The journal Journal of Informetrics appears Also since 2007, Elsevier; whose editor is the Belgian Informetriker Leo Egghe.