Intradisciplinary differences in database coverage and the consequences for bibliometric research

Bibliographic databases (including databases based on open access) are routinely used for bibliometric research. The value of a specific database depends to a large extent on the coverage of the discipline(s) under study. A number of studies have determined the coverage of databases in specific disciplines focusing on inter-disciplinary differences. However, little is known about the potential existence of intra-disciplinary differences in database coverage. Focusing on intra-disciplinary differences, the paper documents large database coverage differences within two disciplines (economics and psychology). The point extends to include both the uneven coverage of specialties and research traditions. The implications for bibliometric research are discussed, and precautions which need to be taken are outlined.

[1]  Pranas Zunde,et al.  Structural models of complex information sources , 1971, Inf. Storage Retr..

[2]  Giovanni Motta,et al.  Journal impact factors , 1995, Nature.

[3]  Blaise Cronin,et al.  Disciplinary Discourses: Social Interactions in Academic Writing , 2002, J. Documentation.

[4]  Julian Warner,et al.  The Role of monographs in scholarly Communication: an Empirical Study of Philosophy, Sociology and Economics , 1996, J. Documentation.

[5]  Geoffrey M. Hodgson,et al.  The Editors and Authors of Economics Journals: A Case of Institutional Oligopoly? , 1999 .

[6]  Svein Kyvik,et al.  Changing trends in publishing behaviour among university faculty, 1980-2000 , 2003, Scientometrics.

[7]  Charlene Kellsey,et al.  Citation Analysis for Collection Development: A Comparative Study of Eight Humanities Fields1 , 2005, The Library Quarterly.

[8]  Péter Jacsó,et al.  Content Evaluation of Databases. , 1997 .

[9]  L. Laudan,et al.  Progress and its problems: Toward a theory of scientific growth , 1978 .

[10]  Christopher B. Barrett,et al.  Subdiscipline-Specific Journal Rankings: Whither Applied Economics? , 1998 .

[11]  Concepción S. Wilson,et al.  The scatter of documents over databases in different subject domains: How many databases are needed? , 2001, J. Assoc. Inf. Sci. Technol..

[12]  Lei Wang,et al.  Three options for citation tracking: Google Scholar, Scopus and Web of Science , 2006, Biomedical digital libraries.

[13]  J. Nicolaisen.  Traditional author co-citation analysis : A discussion of the sampling problem , 2006 .

[14]  Jane M. Russell,et al.  World distribution of social science journals:A view from the periphery , 2001, Scientometrics.

[15]  Berenika M. Webster,et al.  Polish Sociology Citation Index as an example of usage of national citation indexes in scientometric analysis of social sciences , 1998, J. Inf. Sci..

[16]  Rolf A. Zwaan,et al.  Quality Judgments of Journals as Indicators of Research Performance in the Humanities and the Social and Behavioral Sciences. , 1991 .

[17]  M. Kocher,et al.  The Institutional Concentration of Authors in Top Journals of Economics during the Last Two Decades , 2001 .

[18]  David N. Laband.  Contribution, attribution and the allocation of intellectual property rights: economics versus agricultural economics , 2002 .

[19]  Hans-Dieter Daniel,et al.  Data sources for performing citation analysis: an overview , 2008, J. Documentation.

[20]  Zvjezdana Bencetiklai,et al.  Croatian scientific publications in top journals according to the Science Citation Index for the 1980-2000 period , 2004 .

[21]  William H. Walters,et al.  Bibliographic index coverage of a multidisciplinary field , 2003, J. Assoc. Inf. Sci. Technol..

[22]  Concepción S. Wilson,et al.  Informetric studies using databases: Opportunities and challenges , 2003, Scientometrics.

[23]  María Bordons,et al.  Comparison of research team activity in two biomedical fields , 1997, Scientometrics.

[24]  Charles Oppenheim,et al.  Delivery, Management and Access Model for E_prints and Open Access Journals , 2004 .

[25]  Alireza Noruzi.  Google Scholar: The New Generation of Citation Indexes , 2005 .

[26]  Isabel Gómez,et al.  Advantages and limitations in the use of impact factor measures for the assessment of research performance , 2002, Scientometrics.

[27]  David P. Hamilton.  Research papers: who's uncited now? , 1991, Science.

[28]  Plergiorgio Strata,et al.  Citation analysis , 1995, Nature.

[29]  Mike Thelwall,et al.  Google Scholar citations and Google Web/URL citations: A multi-discipline exploratory analysis , 2007, J. Assoc. Inf. Sci. Technol..

[30]  Henk F. Moed,et al.  Citation Analysis in Research Evaluation , 1899 .

[31]  Blaise Cronin,et al.  Comparative citation rankings of authors in monographic and journal literature: a study of sociology , 1997, J. Documentation.

[32]  U. Schmidt,et al.  Are top journals biased against eating disorders topics? , 2003, The American journal of psychiatry.

[33]  Stevan Harnad,et al.  Ten-Year Cross-Disciplinary Comparison of the Growth of Open Access and How it Increases Research Citation Impact , 2005, IEEE Data Eng. Bull..

[34]  Rob Kling,et al.  Not just a matter of time: Field differences and the shaping of electronic media in supporting scientific communication , 1999, J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci..