Scientific Productivity, Web Visibility and Citation Patterns in Sixteen Nordic Sociology Departments

Abstract

Science is being published increasingly on the web. In this article, we explore how Nordic sociology is represented on Google Scholar (GS), what its output and impact is, and what factors explain it. Our data consist of faculty in 16 Nordic sociology departments in March 2005. The distribution of their publications and citations is skewed. Thirteen per cent of scholars do not appear on GS, whereas only 15 per cent have more than 5 publications. Of scholars with at least 1 publication ( n = 240), 75 per cent have at most 10 citations. Both the number of web hits (web visibility) and citations are influenced by the gender of the faculty member, type and age of publication. Web visibility, citations and position are mutually reinforcing. Departmental effect is greater in web visibility than citations. International publications have started to dominate the social sciences, international monographs being particularly frequently cited. The remaining salience of books shows that sociology is still a distinct form of knowledge. The exclusive use of refereed articles and direct comparisons with the natural sciences ignore important aspects of the social sciences. In all, while GS produces findings similar to those in citation databases such as the SSCI, some systematic differences exist. No individual method for measuring scientific output is objective.

The Use of Bibliometrics to Measure Research Performance in Education Sciences

“…Female researchers are less likely to have publications and citations in Web of Science, and those who are represented in the database have a lower publication and citation count than their male colleagues. The poorer performance of female professors in bibliometric analyses versus their male colleagues corroborates existing findings (Aaltojärvi et al 2008, Kyvik 1996, Puuska 2010, Rauber and Ursprung 2008 for other countries and other fields. However, gender differences as regards citation count, citation count per publication, and h-index (Web of Science) are attributable at least in part to the effect of isolated statistical outliers and lose (some) statistical significance when these are controlled for.…”

“…Aaltojärvi et al 2008, Bernauer and Gilardi 2010, Rauber and Ursprung 2008, both between researchers and between different research departments. No publications were identified in the Education Information System database for one-third of the education sciences professors in Germany during the 1997-1999 period.…”

“…Other theories posit a negative causal relationship: the incentive to do heavy-duty research may diminish as soon as the person has achieved the goal of acquiring a tenured position. However, the findings of the empirical studies conducted to date indicate an unmistakably positive correlation between professional category and research productivity (see Aaltojärvi et al 2008, Carayol and Matt 2006, Puuska 2010, Smeby and Try 2005, but do not give a clear indication of the direction of causality.…”

“…Gender: Various studies show that the publishing output of female researchers is lower than that of their male counterparts (Aaltojärvi et al 2008, Kyvik 1996, Larivière et al 2011, Puuska 2010, Rauber and Ursprung 2008, Smeby and Try 2005. In contrast, findings indicating positive effects of female gender on research output are rare (De Witte and Rogge 2010).…”

Determinants of Success in University Careers: Findings from the German Academic Labor Market / Erfolgsfaktoren in der Wissenschaft – Ergebnisse aus einer Habilitiertenbefragung an deutschen Universitäten

“…Papers written by women are cited more often (Long 1992). In Scandinavia, Aaltojärvi et al (2008) analyze the influence of individual and institutional characteristics on citation frequency and web visibility (number of clicks on papers at Google Scholar). In contrast to Long's (1992) findings, articles by men are cited more often whereas web visibility is influenced more by institutional characteristics (Aaltojärvi et al 2008).…”