A compendium of issues for citation analysis

Abstract

This paper examines a number of the criticisms that citation analysis has been subjected to over the years. It is argued that many of these criticisms have been based on only limited examinations of data in particular contexts and it remains unclear how broadly applicable these problems are to research conducted at different levels of analysis, in specific fields, and among various national data sets. Relevant evidence is provided from analysis of Australian and international data. Citation analysis is likely to be most reliable when data is aggregated and at the highly-cited end of the distribution. It is possible to make valid inferences about individual cases, although considerable caution should be used. Bibliometric measures should be viewed as a useful supplement to other research evaluation measures rather than as a replacement.

Expert credibility in climate change

“…Furthermore, these methods tend to correlate highly with other estimates of research quality, expertise, and prominence (21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26). These standard publication and citation metrics are often used in many academic fields to inform decisions regarding hiring and tenure.…”

“…However, citation analysis research suggests that the potential of these patterns to influence results is likely to decline as sample size of researchers, possible cliques, and papers analyzed for citations considered increases (22,(25)(26)(27)(28). By selecting an expansive sample of 1,372 researchers and focusing our analysis only on the researchers' four most-cited papers, we have designed our study to minimize the potential influence of these patterns.…”

The Citation Analyses of Scientific Publications in the Field of Educational Sciences and Teacher Education in Turkey

“…Literatürde kendine atıflarla ilgili farklı yaklaşımlar bulunmaktadır. Bazı araştırmacılara (Phelan, 1999) göre bireysel Hakemli Makaleler Engin Karadağ, Mikail Yalçın, Koza çiftçi, Şahin danıŞMan, nihan SölpüK, Şule toSuntaŞ, Yusuf aY araştırmaların doğası gereği normal ve kabul edilebilir bir prosedür olarak görülmekte; kimilerine (Aksnes, 2005;Lawani, 1982;Moed, De Bruin ve Van Leeuwen, 1995) göre ise yazarlar ve dergiler kendi bilimsel otoritelerini yaratmak, dergilerini veya çalışmalarını görünür kılmak için bu yolu seçmektedirler.…”

“…Örneğin Lindholm-Romantschuk ve Warner (1996) tarafından yapılan araştırmada sosyal bilimler alanında kullanılan kaynakların yarı yaşamının 10-15 yıl arasında olduğu saptanmıştır. Ayrıca sosyal bilimlere yönelik Türkiye yapılan çalışmalarda da benzer bulgular elde edilmiştir (Denkel, Kâğıtçıbaşı, Pak ve Pamuk, 1996, 1999Tonta ve İlhan, 1997;Yurtsever, Gülgöz, Yedekçioğlu ve Tonta, 2001). …”

The changing research funding regime in Australia and academic productivity

“…Citations are also affected by co-authorship; for example the study of Goldfinch et al [14] discusses what the authors call "the periphery effect" and argues that more international collaboration increases citation rates. However, as Phelan [23] argues citation rates and other bibliometric measures should be viewed as a supplement to other research evaluation measures and should be treated with caution. It is also important to see them against the background of the full spectrum of academic research activities.…”