Who Is Going to Read all This?

Daniel

2009

J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci.

In a recently published PNAS paper, Radicchi, Fortunato, and Castellano (2008) propose the relative indicator c f as an unbiased indicator for citation performance across disciplines (fields, subject areas). To calculate c f , the citation rate for a single paper is divided by the average number of citations for all papers in the discipline in which the single paper has been categorized. c f values are said to lead to a universality of discipline-specific citation distributions. Using a comprehensive dataset of an evaluation study on Angewandte Chemie International Edition (AC-IE), we tested the advantage of using this indicator in practical application at the micro level, as compared with (1) simple citation rates, and (2) z -scores, which have been used in psychological testing for many years for normalization of test scores. To calculate zscores, the mean number of citations of the papers within a discipline is subtracted from the citation rate of a single paper, and the difference is then divided by the citations' standard deviation for a discipline. Our results indicate that z -scores are better suited than c f values to produce universality of discipline-specific citation distributions.

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Universality of citation distributions–A validation of Radicchi et al.'s relative indicator c_f = c/c₀ at the micro level using data from chemistry

Daniel

2009

J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci.

“…No external review was done for three manuscripts in the data set of this study, and the editor rejected the manuscripts (without external review). [19]…”

Section: Database For the Present Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

How Long is the Peer Review Process for Journal Manuscripts? A Case Study on Angewandte Chemie International Edition

Daniel

2010

Chimia

“…According to Gölitz (), other factors affecting citation counts are “the number of researchers currently working on that topic; articles on unfashionable or highly specialized topics, which can certainly be or become very important, are naturally less cited than articles on current, main‐stream research” (p. 5539).…”

Section: Citations and The Akpmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Anna Karenina principle: A way of thinking about success in science

Marx

2012

J Am Soc Inf Sci Tec

The first sentence of Leo Tolstoy's (1875-1877/2001) novel Anna Karenina is: "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Here, Tolstoy means that for a family to be happy, several key aspects must be given (e.g., good health of all family members, acceptable financial security, and mutual affection). If there is a deficiency in any one or more of these key aspects, the family will be unhappy. In this article, we introduce the Anna Karenina principle as a way of thinking about success in science in three central areas in (modern) science: (a) peer review of research grant proposals and manuscripts (money and journal space as scarce resources), (b) citation of publications (reception as a scarce resource), and (c) new scientific discoveries (recognition as a scarce resource). If resources are scarce at the highly competitive research front (journal space, funds, reception, and recognition), there can be success only when several key prerequisites for the allocation of the resources are fulfilled. If any one of these prerequisites is not fulfilled, the grant proposal, manuscript submission, the published paper, or the discovery will not be successful.