ISSIabstract
Sixth Conference of the International Society for Scientometrics and
Informetrics
Jerusalem Israel 1997
CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS
Absracts
 Conference program
Proceedings information
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CROSS-NATIONAL COMPARISON OF
FRONTIER AREAS OF RESEARCH IN PHYSICS
USING BIBLIOMETRIC INDICATORS
Sujit Bhattacharya
"Scientometrics and Informetrics Group"
National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies
Dr. K.S. Krishnan Marg, New Delhi-110012, INDIA
This paper attempts to reveal the characteristics of high activity areas of
world research in Physics. "Frontier areas"- areas of high activity and areas of
low activity are identified. Research activities in "Frontier areas" for twenty six
countries(major countries) contributing maximum research output in Physics are
analyzed for two time periods (1990 & 1995). The main objective of this study is
to obtain the areas of research priorities, trends, gaps and similarity of research
efforts of major countries in these "frontier" areas. Key countries in these areas in
both the time periods are identified. Multivariate Scaling Algorithm is applied to
the countries and fields in each time period, and also simultaneously to
understand the relationship between countries and fields and the dynamics of
change in research priorities. Results and implications of this study for policy
research is highlighted.
CHARACTERISTICS AND IMPACT OF THE
MATTHEW EFFECT FOR COUNTRIES
Manfred Bonitz, Eberhard Bruckner, Andrea Scharnhorst
M.B.: Halbkreisstrasse 17, 01187 Dresden,
E-mail: bonitz@fz-rossendorf.de;
E.B. and A.S.:
Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB),
Reichpietschufer 50, 10785 Berlin,
E-mail: bruckner@medea.wz-berlin.de and as@medea.wz-berlin.de
In this paper newly established characteristics of the so-called Matthew Effect for Countries
(MEC) are presented: field-dependency, time-stability, order of magnitude.
The MEC is observable not only in the main scientific fields, but in all of the subfields that
were investigated. Over fifteen years the MEC has been relatively stable. The MEC is a
redistribution phenomenon at the macro-level of the sciences. The MEC's redistributive effect
is of small magnitude; it affects only about five percent of the world production of citations.
The MEC, however, crucially impacts many nations when their "national loss of citations"
amounts to nearly half of their expected citations.
The relationship between the MEC and Merton's Matthew Principle is discussed. It is our
hypothesis that the MEC provides an additional perspective for the assessment of the
scientific performance of nations.
COMPARISON OF RESEARCH TEAM
ACTIVITY IN TWO BIOMEDICAL FIELDS
Bordons, M.; Zulueta, M.A.
Centre for Scientific Information and Documentation (CINDOC),
CSIC,
Joaquín Costa 22, 28002 Madrid, Spain.
A study of the structure and scientific activity of the most productive Spanish research teams
in two biomedical subfields, Pharmacology & Pharmacy and Cardiovascular System (SCI)
were analyzed through bibliometric indicators in the period 1990-93. The teams were
characterized according to their size, production, productivity, research level and expected
impact factor of their output, collaboration pattern and interdisciplinarity. Main differences
between both subfields are analyzed and explained by their different clinical/basic character.
The study was undertaken to identify structural or dynamic features of teams associated with
good scientific performance.
ONLINE DETERMINATION OF THE
JOURNAL IMPACT FACTOR AND ITS
INTERNATIONAL PROPERTIES
Finn Hjortgaard Christensen, Peter Ingwersen*, Irene Wormell
Centre for Informetric Studies
Royal School of Librarianship
Birketinget 6, DK 2300 Copenhagen S
Denmark
e-mail:{fhc,pi,iw}@db.dk
*To whom all correspondence should be directed.
The article describes the method for the online determination of the journal impact factor
(JIF). The method is very simple and can be used both for the ISI defined journal impact factor
and for the calculation of other generalised journal impact factors. But the direct online
method fails for non-ISI journals i.e. journals not indexed by ISI to the three citation
databases. For such journals only the "External Cited Impact Factor" associated with citations
from ISI journals (ECIFisi) can be determined online by the common method. As an extra
benefit the online method makes available the determination of the geographical distribution
of citations and citable units in relation to any given JIF, i.e. the international impact for a
particular journal in a given year. The method is illustrated by calculating the generalised JIF,
self-citations and ECIF(isi) as well as the international impact for Journal of Documentation
and Scientometrics.
THE USE OF DECILES OF THE CITATION IMPACT TO EVALUATE DIFFERENT FIELDS OF RESEARCH IN ISRAEL
Gidon Czapski
Department of Physical Chemistry
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Jerusalem 91904, Israel
One often uses the average citation impact factor in order to perform international
comparisons between the levels of scientific performance within given disciplines. In
averaging over all (or all cited) papers one may give undue weight to papers with few citations
while, in fact, the standing of a country within a given field would be better assessed by
looking only at the "successful" papers in that discipline. The present papers suggests that one
should do so by averaging citations only over the ten (or twenty) percent of the most cited
papers in a discipline and use these in order to establish a ranking between countries. The
case of Israel is used as an illustration of this approach.
THE FIRST MOVER AND THE CHALLENGER:
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TWO JOURNALS IN
ORGANIZATION RESEARCH
Rickard Danell*, Lars Engwall** and Olle Persson
* Inforsk, Department of Sociology, Umeå university, S 901 87 Umeå,
Sweden
** Department of Business Administration, Box 513, S 751 20 Uppsala, Sweden
Many new journals are started in response to increasing specialization and limited space in
existing journals. In this study two journals in organization research are studied, Administrative
Science Quarterly as the first mover in the field and Organization Studies as the challenger. It
is shown that the new journal gradually differ from the old in terms of the national origin of its
authors as well as the documents cited. It is concluded that the scientific journal market may
not mirror the copy-cat behaviour found among newspapers or companies in other markets.
FRACTAL AND INFORMETRIC ASPECTS OF
HYPERTEXT SYSTEMS
L. Egghe
LUC, Universitaire Campus, B-3590 Diepenbeek, Belgium*
UIA, Universiteitsplein 1, B-2610 Wilrijk, Belgium
e-mail: legghe@luc.ac.be
The present paper studies fractal features (such as the fractal dimension) of hypertext systems
(such as WWW) and establishes the link with informetric parameters. More concretely, a
formula for the fractal dimension in function of the average number of hyperlinks per page is
presented and examples are calculated. In general the complexity of these systems is high.
This is also expressed by formulae for the total number of hypertext systems that are possible,
given a fixed number of documents.
AN EFFECTIVE LINK BETWEEN SCIENCE
AND TECHNOLOGY
Faucompré P., Quoniam L., Dou H.
Centre de Recherche Rétrospective de Marseille - Université d'Aix-
Marseille 3
FR 13397 Marseille Cedex 20 - e-mail : crrm@crrm.univ-mrs.fr
The link between science and technology represents a major strategic stake, so the relation
between scientific bibliographic references and technical bibliographic references can be of
very important documentary interest. To set up this link, International Patent Classification
catchwords have been used as a switching language. A previous feasibility study had shown
the possibilities of such a full automatic correspondence and its obvious inadequacies. We
present here the most important modifications brought to this correspondence, in particular
the consideration of multilingual indexes which allow to link several indexation fields with one
of the most complete representation of patent classification. The major evolution of our
project affects the correspondence mechanism which now generates a global reindexation of
bibliographic reference with classification codes. We also discuss the concept of
correspondence itself which must be interpreted as a simple presumption of the link. There
are some consequences due to these developments: first, insofar as there is not an univocal
relation, end users do not have to select switching keywords which generate concordances.
They can directly use codes which symbolize the industrial property classification. Next, main
documentary indicators do not seem to be adapted to measure the performance evaluation
of this new field. It has the single role of suggesting trails that can be explored. Lastly, it seems
that only end users should be able to supply a complete validation and we show that a
documentary validation is not sufficient.
ON THE POSSIBILITY AND RELIABILITY OF
PREDICTIONS BASED ON STOCHASTIC CITATION
PROCESSES
W. Glänzel
Research Association for Science Communication and Information
e.V.(RASCI),
Johannes-Kepler-Weg 5, D-15236 Frankfurt (Oder), F.R. Germany
A statistical model for citation processes, a particular version of a non-homogeneous birth
process, is analysed in the context of predictions of future citation rates. Important properties
of the process were already studied by the author in earlier papers. Although the applicability
of the model was demonstrated by several examples, practical aspects of predictions and
questions of statistical reliability were not tackled so far.
The present study is focused on the demonstration of the possibility of true predictions and
on the analysis of the statistical reliability of predictions based on the mean value function
E(X(t)-X(s)|X(s)=i) of citation processes. The citation rates for papers published in 1980 and
1991 were recorded in the period 1980 through 1995, and 1991 through 1995, respectively,
in all science areas. It is shown that parameters of mean value functions estimated for earlier
time periods can be applied to more recent years, too. As a by-product, the model may serve
as a validation tool for the particular choice of citation windows in evaluation studies.
A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON THE CHANGE
OF MULTILATERALITY IN
INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC COLLABORATION
W. Glänzel*† , C. De Lange**
*Research Association for Science Communication and Information
e.V. (RASCI),
Johannes-Kepler-Weg 5, D-15236 Frankfurt (Oder), F.R. Germany
**Catholic University Nijmegen, Education and Research Policy Unit
P.O.Box 9102, NL-6500 HC Nijmegen, The Netherlands
The present study is focused on international collaboration in science, involving more than
two countries. The authors developed a promising model to measure and analyse the extent
of multilateral co-authorship links in a previous study. The model is based on a series
expansion approach which relates a new indicator, the Multilateral Collaboration Index, to
the share of internationally co-authored papers (f). The model was found suitable to classify
both the share of international papers, as well as the extent of multilateral links through the
deviations from their expectations. A comparative analysis is made of changing collaboration
patterns between 1983 and 1993 for 6 selected subfields, as well as all fields combined of the
most active 38 countries. As expected an intensification of international scientific
collaboration was observed, especially for a number of former COMECON countries.
Different types of behaviour for different countries and science subfields emerged. The paper
is concluded by a first attempt to estimate the errors involved in our approach.
MEASURING KNOWLEDGE FLOWS
BETWEEN COUNTRIES: THE USE OF SCIENTIFIC
MEETING DATA
Benoît Godin
INRS
3465, rue Durocher
Montréal
(Québec) Canada
H2X 2C6
The present paper attempts to compare international flows of knowledge as measured
through meetings with flows measured through papers in order to see what meetings can add
to bibliometric studies. It shows that most of known bibliometric results are confirmed by
meetings, although more skewly: concentration of proceedings, dominance and attraction of
the United States, and decline of United Kingdom.
However, important limitations are associated with ISTP, namely the low rate of authors'
addresses, a limitation which limits the value of ISTP for bibliometric studies.
A COMPUTER SYSTEM FOR BIG
SCIENTOMETRICS AT THE AGE OF THE WORLD
WIDE WEB
Luc Grivel, Xavier Polanco and André Kaplan
Programme de recherche en Infométrie
Institut de l'Information Scientifique et Technique (INIST), Centre National de
la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
2, allée du Parc de Brabois, 54 514 Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy (France)
e-mail: grivel@inist.fr
A computer system combining hypertext and database management technologies is shown to
be appropriate with the goals of information analysis. Such a system, HENOCH, designed to
easily store any SGML document in a relational database, and to make these data accessible
via the World Wide Web is exemplified in the particular case where the stored data is the
result of clustering and mapping tools on bibliographic data. The software features of this
system (genericity, reusability, extensibility) are explained and justified by the use of the SGML
tree structure and the encapsulation of creation and manipulation functions of the relational
database management system (RDBMS). The interest of WWW-RDBMS-based user interface
is demonstrated by two complementary types of navigation for information analysis: an
intuitive exploration mode based on the map metaphor and an assisted searching mode
based on the "Who does What, and Where, with Whom" metaphor.
GROWTH OF RESEARCH LITERATURE IN
SCIENTIFIC SPECIALITIES — A MODELLING
PERSPECTIVE
B.M.Gupta, Praveen Sharma and C.R. Karisiddappa
Scientometrics and Informetrics Group
National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies
Dr K S Krishnan Marg, New Delhi 110012
Dr. C.R.Karisiddappa
Department of Library & Information Science
Karnataka University
Dharwad 580003
The paper discusses the application of three well known diffusion models and their modified
versions to the growth of publication data in four selected fields of S&T. It is observed that all
the three models in their modified versions generally improve their performance in terms of
parameter values, fit statistics, and graphical fit to the data. The most appropriate model is
generally seen to be the modified exponential-logistic model.
HOW MUCH IS A COLLABORATION
WORTH?
A CALIBRATED BIBLIOMETRIC MODEL
J. Sylvan Katz and Diana Hicks
ESRC Centre for Science, Technology, Energy and Environment
Policy,
Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex, Falmer,
Brighton, BN1 9RF, UK
Interest in collaboration is increasing in policy circles. There are numerous international and
national programs to encourage collaboration, for example, between university and industry
researchers. However, little is known about the way in which collaboration changes the
impact of a research publication. This paper explores how the impact (average citations per
paper) varies with different types of collaboration. A calibrated bibliometric model is derived
that demonstrates that collaborating with an author from the home institution or another
domestic institution increases the average impact by approximately 0.75 citations while
collaborating with an author from a foreign institution increases the impact by about 1.6
citations.
APPLYING DIFFUSION THEORY IN
INFORMETRIC RESEARCH
Terttu A. M. Kortelainen
University of Oulu, Department of Information Studies and Sociology,
P.O. Box 111, 90571 Oulu, Finland. e-mail: terttu.kortelainen@oulu.fi,
tel. 358 8 553 3355, fax 358 8 553 3451.
The frame of reference of the study consists of theoretical concepts adopted from the
diffusion of innovations theory. The study focuses on the diffusion of a formerly national
scientific journal toward a more international audience, and on factors that have influenced
the diffusion. The study is part of a larger project aiming to construct a model that describes
the diffusion of a scientific journal towards an international audience based on the diffusion
theory and a model of information acquisition.
ASSESSMENT OF SCIENTIFIC PROFILES
AND CAPABILITIES OF PHD. PROGRAMS IN
CHILE: A SCIENTOMETRIC APPROACH
Manuel Krauskopf and María Inés Vera
Universidad Austral de Chile
Valdivia-Chile
mkrausko@valdivia.uca.uach.cl
It is well known that the quality of a doctorate program is related to the level of involvement
of its faculty in research. Thus, we worked with the hypothesis that postulates that if the in-
house scientific output of the core faculty involved in a Ph.D. program can be appraised in
such a manner that the achievements render quantitative and qualitative indicators, it is
possible to depict profiles amenable for comparisons. We describe the methodology, that uses
performance scientometric indicators, and results obtained after studying five Ph.D. programs
in the field of Cell and Molecular Biology/Biochemistry in three different Chilean universities
and show that the approach serves to portray the in-house capacity of each program vis a vis
national and international standards.
PATTERNS OF BEHAVIOR IN
COAUTHORSHIP NETWORKS OF INVISIBLE
COLLEGES
Hildrun Kretschmer
Borgsdorfer Str. 5
D-16540 Hohen Neuendorf, Germany
The characteristic structure underlying interpersonal relations in social networks in general is
identifiable in a great number of such social processes, as the spread of diseases, the
propagation of information, the change of views or the dissemination of technological
innovations. The patterns of behavior reflected in the coauthorship networks of the invisible
colleges of physics, resemble the general structure of relations identified in social networks
beyond the communities of scholars. The patterns of behavior are portrayed both as two-
dimensional and three-dimensional models.
GENDER AND SCIENTIFIC PRODUCTION
Elena León and Léa Velho
CAMPINAS STATE UNIVERSITY
INSTITUTE OF GEOSCIENCES
DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY POLICY
Department of Science and Technology Policy, UNICAMP, Brasil
The participation of women in world science has been growing steadily in the last twenty
years. However, although the number of women in science has increased, their contribution
to scientific publication is said to be disproportionality low. This paper looks at the occurrence
of this tendency at the University of Campinas, Brazil. It revealed that the frequency of
publication by women is comparable to that of men. Nevertheless, women is more libely to
publish in co-authorship and not to be first author.
NEW BIBLIOMETRIC TECHNIQUES FOR THE
EVALUATION OF MEDICAL SCHOOLS
Grant Lewison
Unit for Policy Research in Science and Medicine (PRISM)
The Wellcome Trust
210 Euston Road, London NW1 2BE, England
Bibliometrics have been used in novel ways to assist with the evaluation of two medical
schools, one in England and one in Sweden. The first evaluation was intended to allow the
relative strengths in 26 subfields of five component campuses to be estimated. Selective filters
for each subfield were defined, many of them with the help of the school's research staff, so
that relevant papers could be retrieved from a database on the basis of their title keywords
and specialist journals. The campus outputs were then analysed by the research level of the
journals (clinical/basic) and their impact, each in four categories. In the second evaluation,
nine different indicators of research output were produced so that the school could be
compared with four others in Scandinavia. The indicators included measures of output, co-authorship, journal esteem and citations by papers and by patents.
THE EFFECT OF FUNDING ON THE
OUTPUTS OF BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH
Grant Lewison and Graham Dawson
Unit for Policy Research In Science and Medicine (PRISM),
The Wellcome Trust,
210 Euston Road, London NW1 2BE, England
The Research Outputs Database (ROD) has been used to investigate the effects of different
input variables, including the numbers of funding bodies, on the impact of research papers in
a biomedical subfield (gastroenterology). This was determined by the medium-term impact of
the journals in which they were published. It was shown that, when account was taken of
the effects of the other input factors, the mean impact for a group of papers increased with
the number of authors, the type of research (basic more than clinical), and with the number
and identity of the funding bodies. However it decreased slightly if there were more
addresses; whether the paper was multinational had no significant effect. Previous work
showing that multi-institution or multi-country papers are more highly cited reached this
conclusion because it did not take into account the confounding effect of multiple funding
sources, and possibly other factors.
PUBLICATION DELAYS IN THE SCIENCE
FIELD AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO THE AGEING
OF SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE
M. Luwel (*) and H.F. Moed (+)
* Ministry of the Flemish Community, Science and Innovation
Administration, Boudewijnlaan 30, 1000 Brussels, Belgium. E-mail:
marc.luwel@vlaanderen.be
+ Centre for Science and Technology Studies, Leiden University, P.O. Box
9555, 2300 RB Leiden, The Netherlands. E-mail: moed@cwts.leidenuniv.nl
This article presents an exploratory analysis of publication delays in the science field.
Publication delay is defined as the time period between submission and publication of an
article for a scientific journal. We obtained a first indication that these delays are longer with
regard to journals in the fields of mathematics and technical sciences than they are in other
fields of science. We suggest the use of data on publication delays in the analysis of the effects
of electronic publishing on reference/citation patterns. A preliminary analysis on a small
sample suggests that - under rather strict assumptions - the cited half life of references may be
reduced with a factor of about 2 if publication delays decrease radically.
BIBLIOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF AIDS
LITERATURE IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE
CARIBBEAN
Cesar A. Macias-Chapula, PhD.*; Irma P. Rodea-Castro, MSc.**;
Nora Narvaez-Berthelemot, PhD.***
* Information Science Consultant, Algeciras 43-A, Colonia
Insurgentes Mixcoac, Delegacion Benito Juarez. C.P. 03920, Mexico, D.F.
** Centro Universitario de Investigaciones Bibliotecologicas/UNAM, Torre II
de Humanidades, pisos 12 y 13, Ciudad Universitaria, Circuito Interior, C.P. 04510,
Mexico, D.F.
*** Centro de Informacion Cientifica y Humanistica/UNAM, Ciudad
Universitaria, Circuito Interior, C.P. 04510 Mexico, D.F.
This work reports on the preliminary results of a bibliometric analysis of AIDS literature, as
produced in or about Latin America and the Caribbean for the period 1980-1996. Two
international and two regional secondary sources were used in order to obtain comparative
analyses regarding for example, comprehensiveness of AIDS literature coverage and
local/main frame visibility. Less than 1000 records were retrieved from each of the databases
searched. Leading countries in AIDSLINE were Haiti, Brasil, Mexico and Puerto Rico. The
distribution by year of publication showed a decrease in Haiti records, from 54 in 1983, to 4
in 1995. The rest of the countries either increased or maintained an average production
throughout the years. Regional secondary information sources were less current and
comprehensive in the field. Further lines of research are described by the authors.
THE CONTRIBUTION OF RUSSIAN WOMEN
TO SCIENCE (ACCORDING TO THE ANALYSIS OF
ISF GRANTS IN 1995)
V. Markusova
All Russian Institute for Scientific and Technical Information,
Ulitsa Usievicha 20, 125219 Moscow, Russia
Fax: 7-(095)-943-0060
E-mail: viniti@sovam.com
This paper is part of a study which has as its main goal the investigation of the state of Russian
women in science. The study investigates their by studying the grant distribution from two
main funding bodies , International Science Foundation (ISF) and Russian Foundation of Basic
Research (RFFI). There were analyzed about 3500 grants. Among them 409 grants or 11.2 %
belong to women.
It was analyzed WPI distribution according to the field of science, place of work and
geographic regions. The result of the study confirms that there exists a sharp divergence
between the number of women engaged in science and having degrees (more than 50 % )
with those who received grants. Sharp concentration on number of places, where women-
who have been principal investigators work (WRI), is observed.
CO-PRODUCING SCIENCE: A MICRO-
PERSPECTIVE ON RESEARCH COLLABORATION
Göran Melin
Inforsk, Department of Sociology
Umeå University
S-901 87 Umeå, Sweden
This study focuses on the micro level of research collaboration, and investigates
the reasons for and effects of collaboration for the individual scientist, through a
survey and a number of interviews. The interaction within the research team is
highlighted, showing the feelings and conditions which encompass the
teamwork. The researchers are overall positive to collaborations, they think that
they learn from their partners and extend their professional networks. Finally, the
science policy implications of this study are discussed, including a critique
concerning the situation today where research politicians sometimes force
collaboration on the scientists, expecting integrating and economically
beneficial effects.
TRENDS IN RESEARCH INPUT AND OUTPUT
AT FLEMISH UNIVERSITIES DURING THE 80'S AND
EARLY 90'S: A RETROSPECTIVE BIBLIOMETRIC
STUDY.
H.F. Moed (*), M. Luwel (**), R.E. de Bruin (*) , J.A. Houben (#), H.
Van Den Berghe (#), E. Spruyt (+)
(*) Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS), Leiden
University, the Netherlands
(**) Ministry of the Flemish Community, Brussels, Belgium
(#) Catholic University Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
(+) University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
This contribution addresses the following issues: How did external funding of Flemish
academic research develop during the 1980's and early 1990's? What are the effects of the
increase of external funding on the size and the composition of the research capacity in
Flemish universities, and on research performance as reflected in bibliometric indicators? We
present preliminary results a quantitative analysis of 340 research departments in the natural
and life sciences at three Flemish universities. We found that the externally funded research
capacity increased strongly and is more and more concentrated in a limited number of
departments. Departments with a high international standing have profited more from
external funds than groups with a low impact. In the class of departments showing the
strongest increase in the externally funded research capacity, the ratio of the number of
junior and senior scientists in these departments increased radically, while the productivity
decreased. Our findings point towards the problem that if these trends continue to develop, a
situation may emerge in which the basis for externally funded research activities has become
too small.
COMMUNICATION AND PROFESSIONAL
RECOGNITION IN SCIENCE: A TYPOLOGICAL
ANALYSIS
P.S. Nagpaul
National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies
New Delhi, India
This study examines the communication profile of Indian academics along two dimensions,
viz., informal communication with colleagues inside and outside the campus and
participation in conferences and other professional activities inside and outside the country.
The data were collected from a sample survey of about 1100 academics in twenty universities
in India. A five - category typology is constructed, using a hybrid clustering technique. The
relationship between typology and professional recognition is explored through multiple
correspondence analysis.
LINKAGE BETWEEN PATENTS AND PAPERS:
AN INTERIM EPO/US COMPARISON
Francis Narin and Dominic Olivastro
CHI Research, Inc.,10 White Horse Pike, Haddon Heights, NJ 08035
A unification of more than one million non-patent references (NPR's) on the front pages of
U.S. and EPO patents has been carried out, with a subsequent match to the Science Citation
Index (SCI), in order to investigate the citation linkage between patented technology and the
scientific research literature. The U.S. system shows an extremely rapid increase in linkage,
with citations from U.S. patents to U.S. authored papers increasing more than three-fold over
the last decade. The EPO system does not show any increase;the occurrence of non-patent
references appears to be relatively constant in the EPO system over the last decade. In both
systems the cited papers are in relatively basic journals, especially in biomedicine. In the U.S.
system approximately 75 percent of the cited papers originate in public science institutions,
showing large dependence of patented industrial technology on public science. We expect
to find similar result in the EPO system.
ADVANCED MAPPING OF SCIENCE AND
TECHNOLOGY
E.C.M. Noyons and A.F.J. van Raan
Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS)
Leiden University
Wassenaarseweg 52
P.O. Box 9555
2300 RB Leiden, The Netherlands
e-mail: noyons@cwts.leidenuniv.nl
In the paper we will present the adjustments we implemented on the mapping procedure.
We consider them as important improvements to make the maps more user-friendly. The
improvements concern the implementation of graphical user interfaces, and the addition of
'map-external' information. This interface enables the users of the maps to focus onto their
specific areas of interest and to determine the position of actors in the field. In addition the
'map-external' information contributes to an objective validation of the maps.
The presentation will include a demonstration of the electronic maps and added tools.
ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORK
TECHNOLOGY FOR THE CLASSIFICATION AND
CARTOGRAPHY OF SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL
INFORMATION
Xavier POLANCO, Claire FRANCOIS and Jean-Philippe KEIM
Programme de Recherche Infométrie
Institut de l'Information Scientifique et Technique (INIST)
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
2 allée du Parc de Brabois
54514 Vandoeuvre les Nancy cedex - France
e-mail : francois@inist.fr
This paper describes the implementation of multivariate data analysis: NEURODOC applies
the axial k-means method for automatic, non-hierarchical cluster analysis and a Principal
Component Analysis (PCA) for representing the clusters on a map. We next introduce
Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) to extend NEURODOC into a neural platform for the
cluster analysis and cartography of bibliographic data . The ANNs tested are: the Adaptive
Resonance Theory (ART 1), a Multilayer Perceptron (MLP), and an associative network with
unsupervised learning (KOHONEN). This platform is intended for quantitative analysis of
information.
BIBLIOMETRIC LAW USED FOR
INFORMATION RETRIEVAL
Quoniam Luc, Balme Frederic, Rostaing Herve, Giraud Eric, Dou
Jean Marie
CRRM, Centre scientifique St Jerôme 13397 Marseille CEDEX 20
E-mail : crrm@crrm.univ-mrs.fr
http://crrm.univ-mrs.fr
Zipf's law was used to qualify all the key-words of documents in a data set. This qualification
was used to build a graphical representation of the resulting indicator in each document. The
graphical resolution leads to a document dispatch in a three dimensional space. This graphical
representation was used as an information retrieval tool without using any keyword. The
presentation of a case study is internet available. The graph is drawn in Virtual Reality Markup
Language (VRML) allowing a dynamic picture which is linked to a Database Management
System (FreeWais). The experimentation was drawn to get a first impression of documents
data set by querying without any keyword.
AN ANALYSIS OF BRADFORD MULTIPLIERS
AND A MODEL TO EXPLAIN THE LAW OF
SCATTERING
I.K. Ravichandra Rao
Documentation Research and Training Centre
Indian Statistical Institute
8th Mile, Mysore Road
Bangalore 560 059
In his book on "Documentation", Bradford derived the law of scattering, based on algebric
explanation with the supposition that n1 = n2 = n. n1 and n2 are computed based on
average no. of articles per journals in the first three zones. An analysis of a small sample of 12
data sets, using t-test suggests that it is unlikely that n1=n2. Further an attempt has been
made to identify a suitable model to explain the law of scattering; among the various models
tried, log-normal fits much better than many models including the log-linear model.
CHANGES IN PUBLISHING BEHAVIOR IN
RESPONSE TO RESEARCH POLICY GUIDELINES:
THE CASE OF THE SPANISH RESEARCH COUNCIL
IN THE FIELD OF AGRONOMY
Jesús Rey*, María-José Martín*, Luis Plaza*, Juan-José Ibáñez**,
Isabel Méndez***
Centro de Información y Documentación Científica (CINDOC) *
Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Joaquín Costa 22, 28002 Madrid, Spain
Centro de Ciencias Medioambientales (CCMA) **
Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Serrano 115, 28006 Madrid, Spain
Comunidad de Madrid***
Marqués de la Valdavia 47, 28100 Alcobendas, Madrid, Spain
The aim of this study is to identify changes in publishing behavior of Spanish scientists
belonging to the Area of Agronomy of the Spanish Research Council (CSIC), in response to
scientific policy actions carried out in Spain. For this purpose, we analyze Spanish scientific
output published in Spanish journals (covered by the ICYT database) as well as in international
journals (covered by the Science Citation Index), during the period 1980-1995. Congress and
conference publications, books and monographs, are also considered. The following changes
in publication habits have been noticed: migration of works towards SCI journals and
increased use of books and monographs as channel of publication of research works. A
decrease in the of participation of Spanish researchers in scientific meetings has also been
noticed, especially since 1989.
SCIENTOMETRIC INDICATORS AND PEER
EVALUATIONS: CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS IN
THE NETHERLANDS
Ed. J. Rinia*, Hendrik G. van Vuren*, Thed N. van Leeuwen** and
Anthony F.J. van Raan**
*Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM)
P.O. Box 3021, 3502 GA Utrecht, The Netherlands
**Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS),
University of Leiden
Wassenaarseweg 52, P.O. Box 9555, 2300 RB Leiden, The Netherlands
First results are presented of a study on the correlation between bibliometric indicators and
peer evaluations of physics in The Netherlands. The study is an element of a larger project in
which the results of a bibliometric evaluation of 220 physics research programmes and the
outcomes of peer judgements made by expert committees are compared. As a first element
we focus in this paper on the results of an evaluation of 56 research programmes in
condensed matter physics in The Netherlands. The study shows varying correlations between
different bibliometric indicators and the outcomes of a recent peer evaluation procedure.
Correlations prove to be higher for groups which are involved in basic science than for groups
which are more application oriented.
THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST AND
SECOND INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCES ON
BIBLIOMETRICS, SCIENTOMETRICS AND
INFORMETRICS: A DATA ANALYSIS
Ronald Rousseau
UIA, Universiteitsplein 1, B-2610 Wilrijk; KHBO, Zeedijk 101, B-8400
Oostende;
LUC, Universitaire Campus, B-3590, Diepenbeek, Belgium
A data analysis of the proceedings of the first and second international conferences on
bibliometrics, scientometrics and informetrics, the so-called Elsevier Proceedings, is presented.
The reference lists of the articles published in these proceedings are discussed, as well as
citations made to these articles. It is shown that the impact of the Elsevier Proceedings is
comparable to that of the Journal of Documentation.
PUBLISHING PATTERS OF MEXICAN
SCIENTISTS: DIFFERENCES BETWEEN NATIONAL
AND INTERNATIONAL PAPERS
Jane M. Russell
Centro Universitario de Investigaciones Bibliotecológicas,
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Apartado Postal 20-336, 04518 México, DF, México
The publication and coauthorship patterns between 1980-1994 of 15 highly productive
Mexican scientists were studied in relation to their 565 research papers involving only
national institutions and 232 published with colleagues from abroad. Three scientists were
selected from each of the following areas: Biomedicine, Chemistry, Physics, Astronomy and
Astrophysics, and Geosciences. Parameters studied were: vehicles used for publication;
document types; number of authors; collaborating countries; and author position. The results
are discussed in relation to Mexico´s peripheral position with regard to the scientific center,
and the increasing internationalization of Mexican science.
BIBLIOGRAPHIC SCATTERING AND TIME:
AN EMPIRICAL STUDY THROUGH TEMPORAL
PARTITIONING OF BIBLIOGRAPHIES
Subir K Sen*+ and Sunil K Chatterjee**
*Department of Library Science, University of Calcutta
Asutosh Building, Calcutta - 700 073, India
**Department of LIS
Jadavpur University, Calcutta - 700 032, India
+ to whom correspondence should be directed
Time dependence of bibliographic scattering is not at all understood. There are not many
studies to establish any relation between growth of a bibliography over time and scattering. In
this paper three diferent types of bibliographies have been taken . Each bibliography has been
partitioned in different temporal periods (according as the particular bibliography should
allow). The complete bibliography and the partitions have then been used to draw
corresponding Bradford bibliographs whose natures have been studied. No conclusive
relation between growth and scattering could be drawn. The paper shows that much needs
to be done in this area and partition studies may be a useful technique.
Identifying thematic content of
multidisciplinary journals: A case study of the
Indian Journal of Physics, "Pramana"
Lalita Sharma
National Institute of Science Technology and Development Studies
New Delhi, India
Multidisciplinary journals represent an important segment of world science literature. In order
to identify their thematic content, journal - journal citation data is used. Factor analysis in
conjunction with Multidimensional scaling is used to uncover the structure of an Indian
multidisciplinary physics journal "Pramana" and track the changes that have taken place in its
thematic coverage over the two time spans 1984 and 1994.
A GENERAL FRAMEWORK FOR CREATING
LARGE-SCALE MAPS OF SCIENCE IN TWO OR
THREE DIMENSIONS: THE SCIVIZ SYSTEM
Henry Small
Institute for Scientific Information
Data visualization techniques have opened up new possibilities for science mapping. To
exploit this opportunity new methods are needed to position tens of thousands of documents
in a single coordinate space. A general framework is described for achieving this goal
involving hierarchical clustering, ordination of clusters, and the merging of ordinations into a
common coordinate space. The SciViz system is presented as one particular implementation
of this framework.
INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION OF
POLISH RESEARCHERS WITH PARTNERS FROM
ABROAD: A SCIENTOMETRIC STUDY
Barbara Stefaniak
Institute for Scientific, Technical and Economic Information, Warsaw,
Poland
Publications resulting from international cooperation and included in seven SCI annual files
1987-1989 and 1992-1995 were analyzed. It was observed that after the political changes of
the turn of 1980s considerable increase in the number of publications was accompanied by
the geographic development of co-authorship. Information coming from SCI 1992-1995,
elaborated, completed and encoded were entered into an own database designed for
analytical purposes. During these four years above 9600 papers were published in over 1600
prestige journals, of which almost 2200 publications resulted from multilateral cooperation.
Altogether the foreign co-authors came from 102 countries, but over 80% of international
papers were published in cooperation with the partners from 11 countries. The domestic
participants came from over 200 research and educational organizations. It was found that
the biggest share of papers within this multidisciplinary file represented physics (~40%),
chemistry (~21%), and biomedical research (~11%).
THE INVASION OF THE OXIDES:
TRANSFORMATION OF SUPERCONDUCTIVITY
RESEARCH AS A RESULT OF AN INFORMATION
EPIDEMIC
Albert N. Tabah and Christine Dufour
École de bibliothéconomie et des sciences de l'information,
Université de Montréal, Montréal, Canada
The purpose of the present paper is to characterize the literatures of information epidemics,
to analyze how the intellectual structure of a research specialty is transformed as a result of a
major discovery, and to describe how scientists respond to rapidly changing conditions in
their specialty. High-temperature superconductivity is one of the information epidemics
identified in a recent analysis of the physics literature during the 1970s and 1980s and
transformed by a surprising paper in 1986. The work consisted of a multidimensional scale
analysis of articles indexed in Physics Abstracts and subsequently identified in the Science Citation Index. A citation and cocitation analysis was performed with a new analysis tool,
Bibliométrika , built on a relational database. Three years, 1985, 1987 and 1989, were
studied to illustrate the state of superconductivity research preceding and following the
beginning of the information epidemic.
MEASURING IMPACT BY A FULL OPTION
METHOD AND THE NOTION OF BIBLIOMETRIC
SPECTRA
Guido Van Hooydonk and Greta Milis-Proost
Department of Library Sciences
University of Ghent
Rozier 9
B-9000 Ghent.
Belgium
Email: guido.vanhooydonk@rug.ac.be, greta.proostmilis@rug.ac.be
A full option method for determining impact takes into account citations to all cited
publications, instead of limiting the analysis to ISI-publications only, as usually done in the
standard method. The method was tested for the 258 early Ghent professors, teaching in 6
different faculties. The impact of monographs is, in general, much larger than the impact of
articles (whether of ISI-type or not). This result remains valid for all six faculties separately.
Limiting the bibliometric visibility to ISI-publications reduces the number of citations to only
16 %. Bibliometric spectra are presented, in which citations, cited publications and their
impact are shown in function of the year of publication. The number of cited publications is
always important to expose the influence of activity (production) upon bibliometric scores.
For the faculty of Arts, the citations to early professors are compared with those obtained for
the present-day generation: the bibliometric spectrum for the former group is rather
discontinuous (showing a large erosion in the number of citations by year), whereas that of
the latter is continuous. The Ghent citation data are also compared with those given
internationally in the same period.
GENERAL PERFORMANCE INDEXES
CALCULATED FOR RESEARCH INSTITUTES OF THE
HUNGARIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES BASED
ON SCIENTOMETRIC INDICATORS
P. Vinkler
Central Research Institute for Chemistry
Hungarian Academy of Sciences
Pusztaszeri út 59-67, 1025 Budapest (Hungary)
Activities of research institutes of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences were assessed multi-
dimensionally. Taking into account goals and tasks of the institutes, weighted scientometric
indicators were suggested. The weights of the individual indexes were distributed among the
institutes by the values of their indicators. The sum of the individual weighted scores
representing special aspects of the total activity yields a General Performance Index (GPI)
which, together with a thorough peer review, may be used for distributing grants.
SCIENTOMETRIC EVIDENCE FOR THE
EXISTENCE OF LONG ECONOMIC GROWTH
CYCLES IN EUROPE 1500–1900
Roland Wagner-Döbler
Institut für Philosophie, Technische Universität München
Lothstr. 17, D-80335 München
In times of economic stagnation, the debate about "long waves" of economic growth
typically refreshes. This was also the case in the period of the world-wide economic
stagnation since 1970. But the results concerning the existence of long-term cycles of
economic activity are still controversial. In this contribution, the "ups and downs in the pulse
of science and technology" (D. Price) are related to economic growth cycles. It turns out that
Schumpeter's contention of an inverse relationship between the level of scientific and
technological activity on the one side and economic growth on the other side is correct for
1500 to 1900. Thereby also an indirect proof is furnished for the existence of long economic
growth cycles in the last centuries.
DEFINING SUBJECT COLLECTIONS FOR
INFORMETRIC ANALYSES: THE EFFECT OF
VARYING THE SUBJECT ABOUTNESS LEVEL
Concepción S. Wilson
School of Information, Library and Archive Studies, University of New
South Wales,
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. [C.Wilson@unsw.edu.au]
Subject literature collections are typically formed by judgements which are inexplicit and
imprecise. This seems to compromise the worth of precise measurements made of their
properties. In this paper an examination is made of how several commonly-measured
properties of subject literatures vary as an important factor in the compilation of subject
collections is varied. The factor is the amount which a document must 'say' about a subject
for it to be included in such a collection. This document property has been expressed in
formal terms and given a simple measure for the one subject examined, the research topic of
Bradford's Law of Scattering. It is found that lowering the level of subject aboutness required
for admission to a collection produces a large increase in the size of the collection obtained,
and an appreciable change in some size-related properties. For these properties, the initial
concern is warranted. However, other parameters are found to be invariant to such changes.
THE SIGNS OF SCIENCE
Paul Wouters
Department of Science and Technology Dynamics
Nieuwe Achtergracht 166
1018 WV Amsterdam
Email: pwouters@xs4all.nl
Since the Science Citation Index emerged within the system of scientific communication in
1964, an intense controversy about its character has been raging: in what sense can citation
analysis be trusted? This debate can be characterized as the confrontation of different
perspectives on science. In this paper the citation representation of science is discussed: the
way the citation creates a new reality of as well as in the world of science; the main features
of this reality; and some implications for science and science policy.
THE 'LANGUAGE PREFERENCE' IN
SOCIOLOGY: MEASURES OF 'LANGUAGE SELF-
CITATION,' 'RELATIVE OWN-LANGUAGE
PREFERENCE INDICATOR,' AND 'MUTUAL USE OF
LANGUAGES'
Moshe Yitzhaki
Department of Information and Library Studies
Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, ISRAEL
Although between one-third to one-half of world social sciences research literature is
published in languages other than English, studies show very scant use of it by American and
English scholars. Almost all studies, however, were conducted from the Anglo-Saxon
perspective, limiting the scope of the study to English-published sources or English-speaking
scientists and research workers. The present study aimed at assessing the scope of the
language preference in a social sciences field, not only among American and British scholars,
but among German and French ones as well, using the technique of citation analysis. Samples
including mostly 50-60 original research articles were drawn from the 1985-1994 volumes of
nine leading sociology journals published in the US, UK, Germany and France and the
references appended to each were scrutinized in order to determine the frequency
distribution of the languages cited in each periodical. Findings clearly showed a strong
preference of writers to cite material in their own language. However, the extent of this bias
differed from journal to journal. The American and British writers rank first, with close to 99%
of their references being in English. German scholars rank next, preferring German sources in
75% of the cases, and French scholars quote French sources in only 66% of their references.
In order to calculate the new refined measure of 'relative own-language preference' (ROLP)
indicator, the proportions of 'language self-citation' were related to the estimated proportions
of these languages in the existing body of sociology research. This measure reveals that
German sociologists have the strongest bias towards their mother-tongue, their ratio of
references in German exceeding almost 12 to 28 times the expected figure according to the
German language share in sociology research. Next come French sociologists (8 to 14 times)
while American and British ones display the lowest own-language bias, only slightly higher
than expected. Further analysis of the foreign languages preference of each group,
according to a 'mutual-use' matrix, shows a relative low use of German and French sources
by British-American sociologists.
INTERNATIONALIZATION OF SCIENTIFIC
JOURNALS: A MEASUREMENT BASED ON
PUBLICATION AND CITATION SCOPE
Michel Zitt*,** Elise Bassecoulard*
*LERECO, INRA, BP 71627, F-44316 Nantes Cedex 03 (France).
**Observatoire des Sciences et des Techniques (OST), 93 rue de
Vaugirard, F-75006 Paris (France).
Although impact factor and related measurements are the best-known features of scientific
journals, other characteristics are of particular interest. The way a journal reflects the
internationalized nature of science may be determined by many methods, one of which is
based on the distribution of authoring and citing countries. Comparison of this distribution
with the average profile of a discipline or specialty opens the way to systematic measurement
of the internationalization of journals. As the average profile of science drifts with the level of
visibility, stratification by impact level is discussed. In this study, experimental
internationalization indexes were calculated on the SCI for two large disciplines, Earth&Space
and Applied Biology. Convergence of measurements (types of indexes, type of normalization,
publication vs citation scope) is adressed. Internationalization indexes may have a variety of
applications, including characterization of the scientific publishing market and sampling of the
SCI for science indicators.
POSTER SESSIONS
Visualizing the relationship between organizational
environment and R&D effectiveness
A. Chawla
National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies
New Delhi, India
Classification of knowledge is an important area of research in the domains of philosophy and
sociology of science. Bibliometric techniques of cocitation and coword analysis are being
used to delineate new specialities. Obviously, such classification has important implications
for science policy, e.g. funding of research in new emerging areas. Similarly, classification of
research units/institutions has important implications for management of science. Such
classification is usually done according to the categories of institutional and disciplinary
settings. These classifications are no doubt important but rigid. Instead, in this paper an
attempt is made to construct a typology of research units according to a set of organisational
features and relate the resulting classification to a set of performance measures. The
organisational features include: (i) Resources and facilities for research; (ii) Communication
and transfer of new ideas; (iii) Planning and organisation of research; (iv) Social - psychological
environment for research. The performance measures include: (i) General R&D effectiveness,
which essentially connotes the quality dimension of research performance; (ii) Recognition of
the work of the research unit by the scientific community; (iii) User - orientated effectiveness;
and (iv) Administrative effectiveness (budget and schedule compliance).
This study is based on the subset of empirical data on 220 research units collected in India for
the third round of the UNESCO International Comparative Study on the Organization and
Performance of Research Units (ICSOPRU). Twenty three measures of organizational
environment, operationalized by multiple indicators, were chosen as discriminant criteria for
the construction of the typology, using a classification computer program SYSTIT (Systeme de
Typologie Iterative). The relationship between typology groupings and performance measures
was analyzed through multiple correspondence analysis.
The study brings out that resources and facilities for research are a necessary but not a
sufficient condition for performance. The sufficiency condition implies a positive work
environment, effective communication within and outside the research group and a
conceptually exciting research program.
A bibliometric approach to the use of mathematics in economic
journals
J. Devillard
Université Paul Sabatier (Toulouse III) et LERASS (Laboratoire d'études
et de recherches appliquées en sciences sociales), 115 route de
Narbonne
31077 Toulouse cédex, France.
P. Jeanniin
Université Paul Sabatier (Toulouse III) et LERASS (Laboratoire d'études
et de recherches appliquées en sciences sociales)
1 rue Lautréamont, BP 164, 65016 Tarbes cédex, France.
If there is a recurrent debate among economists, it is indeed that of the importance, in their
discipline, of mathematical formalization. For some economists the use of mathematics has
grown too much (see William J. Baumol, 1991); for others, it remains insufficient, while for
some others this use is perfectly mastered.
Although this debate is not new (see the article published in 1986 by Yves Breton); it remains
a current one (Gérard Debreu, 1986 & 1991; David Greenaway, 1990; Philip Mirowski, 1991;
Jean-Marie Huriot, 1994).
The first section of this paper is devoted to a survey of what has been written on the subject,
allowing us to draw a typology of the most common practises in the field.
The second section goes over a study by Herbert G. Grubel & Lawrence A. Boland (1986).
They investigated the optimal use of mathematics in economics and presented an empirical
approach through the analysis of the content of all the pages published in a sample of
economic journals, depending on whether they contained diagrams, charts, tables of data
and equations or only text. This bibliometric method, although stimulating limits its scope to
the Anglo-Saxon world. We apply this method to core French journals in the field of
economics such as for example Revue Economique, Revue d'Economie Politique... in relation
to their historical evolution since the end of the Second World War, as the issue obviously
warrants further consideration.
The next section will present the results of our investigation concerning the case of France
where the evolution of the use of mathematics in economics has grown at a slow pace.
Bibliometric specificities are brought out. They are contrasted with the results found in other
studies and will allow to know what kind of mathematics is applied or used in relation to the
various schools of economics.
The final section offers some concluding comments. A critical approach is made together with
possible extensions to the subject under study.
Bibliometrics, mapping community, and historical studies:
qualitative observations
J.-P. V. M. Hérubel
Purdue University
Bibliometrics can be effectively employed in identifying groups of scholars engaged within
disciplinary activities. After discussing briefly the nature of group formation, bibliometric
studies devoted to historical research, the discussion turns to historical bibliometrics. Historical
bibliometrics is essentially an approach to uncovering the salient features inherent in scholarly
communities. By examining the institutional affiliations of authors in journals, data can then
be amplified through substantive knowledge of a discipline for further analysis. This procedure
is especially fruitful for histories of respective disciplines, i.e. history. The French historical
school of Annales was chosen as the target population. Using the CD-ROM version of
Sociofile, data was retrieved for the years 1979-1993. Institutional affiliation was noted and
qualitative analysis revealed the community of historians contributing to the journal
Annales: E.S.C. Interpretative analysis based in historiographical and sociological observation
indicates that there exist a strong connection between bibliographic data and Annales
historians publishing which conforms to the research they conduct. Although primarily
French, their international influence is borne out in this study. Finally this approach is
recommended for historians pursuing the history of historical studies from an institutional
perspective.
The research challenge of the AIDS epidemic in Latin
America and the Caribbean
J. A. Izazola-Licea*, J. L. de Arenas**, J. Valles**
*Mexican Health Foundation, SIDALAC, Mexico City, Mexico
**Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, University of Mexico, Mexico City,
Mexico
Introduction: The Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) epidemic has constituted a
challenge to the civil society because of the damaging impact of the epidemic and the need
to keep abreast on the rapid development of the knowledge generated in order to apply such
knowledge swiftly.
Objective: The objective of this analysis was to describe patterns of publication on AIDS by
authors from Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC).
Methods: To identify the research output of the region we searched the major database,
MEDLINE, using the occurrence of each of the countries of the region in the title, abstract
and subject from 1980 - July 1996. Papers were also matched against Science Citation Index.
Results: Two-hundred and fifteen papers were retrieved, 70 were cited at least once. Brazil
and Mexico accounted for 66% of the published papers. Articles from Brazil, Haiti and
Mexico were the most cited (84% of all citations) while Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago, and Brazil
accounted for the highest citation impact scores. Researchers from Brazil and Mexico
published in their national journals and abroad; they also published two-thirds of the articles
in AIDS-related journals. The ten most cited papers were clinically-oriented (medicine). Basic
sciences were poorly represented as well as reports from the social sciences.
Conclusions: The publication of clinically-oriented studies from LAC countries may result
from the need of information on infectious diseases, characteristically of AIDS patients, which
are relatively less frequent in developed countries. The motives for publishing in prestigious
journals may reflect an effort to reach the international scientific community and gain career
visibility, although we conclude that developed-countries self-interest also plays an important
role.
Keywords: AIDS, HIV, Latin America, Caribbean, Publications, Citations
Impact of transformation process in science after 1990 on
Latvia's scientometric indicators
J. Kristapsons
Scientometrics Research Group, Latvian Academy of Sciences
Akademijas laukums 1, Riga LV 1524, Latvia
Fax: +371 7821153. Tel: +371 722 3567. E-mail: jtk@ac.lza.lv
A study was made in the changes in Latvia's indicators in 1986-1995[1] on the whole country
scale and the level of separate science centres. It was researched how these indicators were
influenced by regaining political independence from the USSR and the transition period and
reforms in science. Particular attention has been paid to the dependence of the indicators on
the field (subfield) of science, the peculiarities of development of the respective science
centre. A study is based on the data from the SCI, as well as statistics of Latvia's publications in
non-SCI sources which we have compiled and other Latvia's science and technology
indicators. We have used our system of data banks, which contain fairly complete
information about Latvia's science and technology.[2].
The total number of mainstream (SCI) publications during the 10 year period in Latvia (also
Estonia and Lithuania) has remained rather stable. In 1991-1995 changes have been found in
the science indicators in comparison with the previous period of 1986-1990: citation of
publications of Latvia has increased, the average impact factor of SCI publications has grown.
It is noteworthy that after 1990-1991 re-orientation of scientists from publication in the
journals of the former USSR to publication in Western journals has taken place. These
changes are, undoubtedly, connected with the processes taking place in Latvia's (in the Baltic
and Eastern Europe in general) science after 1990 (regaining of political independence from
the USSR, change of the economic system etc.). The international science community is
joined more readily by those researchers who already had established contacts with Western
scientists and, in particular, had experience in publishing in Western journals.
Although the existing research collectives of the Universities in a number of cases have
increased the SCI publications output, their contribution to the total number of publications
from Latvia for the present is not large. Up to now, the bulk of the scientific output came
from the Institutes of the Academy of Sciences.
It has been concluded that the number of SCI publications from Latvia in physics is on the
increase, but the publication output in other fields may even experience a downward trend -
due to lack of young scientists as well as in connection with the forthcoming essential
reorganisation in Latvia's science. The introduction of Latvia's grant system[3] has to a certain
extent stimulated the growth of the number of publications.
1. J. Kristapsons, E. Tjunina, Changes in Latvia's science indicators in the transformation
period, Research Evaluation, 1995, 5(2), 151-160.
2. J. Kristapsons, E. Tjunina, Quantitative indicators of Latvian scientific production, 1986-
1992, Science and Science of Science, 1994, No 3, 31-39.
3. J. Kristapsons, E. Tjunina, Changes in the Latvian research system, Science and Public
Policy, 1995, 22(5), 305-312.
Studies in scientific collaboration in medical science in India:
a case study
R. Kundra
National Institute of Science Technology & Developement Studies
Dr. K.S. Krishnan Marg, New Delhi 110012 (India)
I.K. Ravichandra Rao
Documentation Research Training Center
Indian Statistical Institute
8TH Mile, Mysore Road, Bangalore - 5600 59 (India)
Studies have shown that scientific collaboration is as result of three basic components: the
researcher, the organization in which he is affiliated, and the source through which the
researcher communicate and conducts his research work. Collaboration among researchers
implies that they are working together for a common goal. As such researcher's authorship,
productivity, profession and specialization can vary widely. The researcher may also
collaborate within or outside his organizations within the country or even in other countries.
The researcher may not only share his physical resources but also data or ideas. Several
studies confirming the theory using data of various time periods have been carried out using
published data. These studies have attempted to develop comprehensive frameworks with
available data to demonstrate that scientific collaboration represents a response to the
professionalisation of science. These studies have also projected the pattern, incidence,
functions and value in which teamwork or specialization can be explained in different fields
of science. In this study an attempt is made to study the: (i) patterns of collaboration in
medical science in India; (ii) trends in the multiplicity of authors; and (iii) the nature of
collaboration during the period 1915-1995. Acknowledge of these patterns is useful for the
study of the professsinalisation that has taken place in medical science in India during this
period. The study investigated the earliest and most widely circulated journal "Indian Journal
of Medical Research", founded in 1913 and is surviving till today. Data were collected for the
number of papers and authors which were aggregated over five year intervals. The type of
collaboration is defined by the affiliation of each author appearing in a paper. Several trends
emerge from analysis of the data presented. There has been a dramatic increase in the
number of collaboration papers and the number of authors involved in the collaborative
research especially in the post-independence period (1947). The results of the study
corresponds to Price's conclusion that three-authored papers are accelerating faster than two-
authored papers and so on. There is also an increase in the international collaboration,
though the same is not substantial in the post-independence period. The three indicators for
the measurement of collaboration, namely collaboration index (CI), degree of collaboration
(DC), and collaboration co-efficient (CC) show an upward swing in the indices that indicate
the trend toward professionalisation of medicine in India. This is especially more evident in
the post-independence period as better evenues have been created for the promotion of
medical research in the country.
Integration ways into European S&T domain: results of the
sociological study
V. Onoprienko, L. Kavunenko
Centre for Scientific and Technological Potential and Science History
Studies at the National Academy Sciences of Ukraine (abbrev. STEPS
Centre)
252032 Kiev-32, 60, T. Shevchenko bvd., Ukraine
At present more that 20 countries of the Central & Eastern Europe are undergoing the process
of their national S&T systems transformations, which started up being based on the soviet
pattern of S&T system, which was quite distinct from S&T systems patterns followed by the
Western countries. S&T systems transformation process is going on in the conditions of
permanent economic crisis, caused by the transition to marked-based economy, and this is
particularly true with CIS countries. The crisis concerned made its adverse and broadscale
effects on the whole S&T system, especially on its academy and higher education sectors,
which in spite of their uniqueness in terms of the genesis and structure, embodied the
progress of basic science.
This part of S&T system cannot rely upon the support by the new emerged private entities,
but has to be supported by the governmental sources. Hence, the extension of international
scientific cooperation, shift in its forms and priorities, informing the world S&T community
about one's own results, active participation in competitions held by international, foreign
foundations and S&T development programmes are expected to become an important
opportunity for basic science to survive and to adapt in the conditions of grave economic
crisis. If the prospectives of applied science in view of outcoming the crisis are to be
associated with the boosting processes in economy sector and extension the scope of
contracts with firms, enterprises, agencies, with regard to basic science such prospectives are
to be met by way of breaking the limits and removal the constraints of communist era and
achieving results which match top level according to criteria adopted in civilized world. The
latter could be done only through activization of a multitude of ways within the sphere of
international cooperation. It's difficult to overestimate first steps in the path, which have been
already made during the most recent years, e.g. intensification of scientists' migration flows,
publications abroad, visiting of international conferences and symposia. Such steps are made
not only with the purpose of informing the world scientific community on results and
opportunities in "new" countries, they as well promote breaking down the so called
"uneasiness" felt by scientists in the countries concerned when they find themselves in "open
scientific space". Working in foreign laboratories, participation in joint projects enable not
only to do researches, which are often impossible to do by means of out-dated facilities at
home country, but promote the renewal and readjustment of S&T projects contents and
fields, which are becoming to be much more correlative with the projects done by foreign
partners. These promote removal of the curtain which for decades had been separating
national science and could well be considered as one of vices during the "soviet" period of its
development.
Besides this, the problem of integration of S&T systems of Central & Eastern Europe and CIS
countries into the world S&T community pose a lot of important questions.
Citation of publications of Latvian scientists. Comparison of
two periods: 1986-1990 and 1991-1995
E. Tjunina
Scientometrics Research Group, Latvian Academy of Sciences
Akademijas laukums 1, Riga, LV 1524; Fax: +371-7821153;
E-mail: fizteh@ac.lza.lv
In 1990, the restoration of independence in Latvia caused a necessity to evaluate the
potential of our science and technology thoroughly. The organisational structure of research
and development in the former SU was a strongly centralised, hierarchical system. The overall
contribution of the USSR scientific output to world science did not allow to assess the science
potentials of its constituent regions, and among them Latvia.
The present work gives general data on citation of the publications of Latvian authors during
1986-95. Two periods (1986-90 and 1991-95) were compared in order to assess the impact
of transformation process in Latvian science. Study is based on information from the Science
Citation Index (SCI), using the printed issues and databases on CD-ROM produced by the ISI.
We have collected information on citation of more than 11000 publications of about 800
Latvian scientists during 1980-95.
In 1994 the citedness of SCI publications from the Baltic states had increased 1.5 times for
Latvia, 2 times for Estonia and 3 times for Lithuania (compared with 1990). The RCR values
have grown , too; as previously, in all the three Baltic states the calculated values of RCR < 1,
that indicated that the papers are, on average, less cited than expected.
Increase in citation of SCI publications may be explained by the re-orientation of scientists
from the scientific area of the former SU to the science of the whole world. Latvian
researchers have practically ceased publishing their articles in journals of the former SU (with
low Impact Factor IF values), and publish their articles in the Western journals (higher IF
values). The expanded contacts led to the increased number of joint publications produced
together with foreign authors. Before 1990 Latvia's scientists had 16 joint publications a year
with foreign authors (beyond the USSR); in 1995 this figure rose to 107. Such joint articles,
especially of written in English, are being cited more often. If in 1990 7% of articles, published
in 1988-89 together with the Western authors, were cited, then in 1994 37% of articles
published in 1992-93 were cited, the number of joint articles produced together with Russian
scientists decreased from 22% to 8%. Russian scientists cited Latvian SCI publications 2 times
less, and simultaneously the citation increased in articles, published by Western scientists and
in joint articles of Latvian and Western authors (more that 70% now).
Tables were constructed containing data on the 100 most cited scientists of Latvia in 1986-
90, and dynamics of change in their citation after 1990 (1991-95) was assessed. The total
number of citations during both periods has not changed considerably, however, the
proportion of science fields and structure of citation has changed. Citation of publications in
life sciences had decreased 1.5 times, yet, they increased for about the same amount in the
fields of physical sciences; in chemistry they increased a little.
The main result of our study is in the fact that the increase of citation of publications of
Latvian authors has been shown in the periods of 1991-95 in comparison with 1986-90.
J. Kristapsons and E. Tjunina, "Changes in the Latvian research system", Science and public
Policy, 1995, pp. 305-312; J. Kristapsons and E. Tjunina, "Changes in Latvia's science
indicators in the transformation period", Research Evaluation, vol. 5, Nr 2, 1995, pp. 151-60.
Citation histories of most-cited articles from Turkey
A. Uzun
Department of Physics, Middle East Technical University, Ankara (Turkey)
I have studied 37 highest-impact articles from Turkey that were published between 1980 and
1989 and cited up to 1995. These are in a very select group of articles (in the 95th
percentile) that ISI processed during the 1980s. The articles received a total of 2016 citations
from 1980 to 1995 inclusive, averaging about 4.5 citations per article per year. On average,
the citations to 15 biomedical articles reached a maximum four years after publication
whereas the remaining 22 articles (included in the group called ("sciences") attained their
maximum in three years after publication. We found that the citation lifetimes ranged
between 14 years for biomedical articles and 15 years for "science" articles. The citedness of
articles seems weakly correlated (linear corr. coeff. r = 0.48) with the number of bibliographic
references they contain.
The new infoscience magazine: an experience of
productivity in a pioneering paradigm
C. R. Villamin
Supervising Science Research Specialist
Science and Technology Information Institute
Republic of the Philippines
E-mail: crv@itdgate.stii.dost.gov.ph
Proactive marketing of science and technology (S&T) information in the Philippines began in
the 1990s and continues today as the country aims to set in place the infrastructures for
industrialization in year 2000. In line with the national policy of harnessing S&T for economic
development, and with the belief that the process of industrialisation must be knowledge-
based, The New Infoscience Magazine, a semestral publication, features some popularized
version of scientific and technical papers (around 500 new titles annually), which the
Philippine Science Community generates every year. The goal of the magazine is to forge a
kind of S&T culture among the people. The national government subsidizes costs of printing
and distribution. Productivity indicators are presented in monetary and non-monetary terms.