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Investigating if highly cited items in social sciences follow similar patterns as in natural sciences, focusing on authors, citations, and age.
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Do highly cited items in the social sciences have the same patterns as highly cited papers in the natural sciences? 18thNordic Workshop on Bibliometrics and Research Policy, Stockholm, Sweden
Background • A few extremely highly cited papers contribute to the most citations, and affect statistical properties of the whole distribution the most • Characteristics of highly cited papers in the natural sciences • they are authored by many researchers • they are resulted largely by international collaboration • they are mainly published in high-impact journals • they are mainly cited by foreign scientists • the share of self-citations is low • they age less rapidly than other articles (Aksnes, 2003; Aversa, 1985; Oppenheim & Renn, 1978)
Research Questions • Are highly cited items in the social sciences authored more researchers than the average items? • Are highly cited items in the social sciences more cited by foreign researchers? • Do highly cited items in the social sciences have lower share of self-citations than the average items? • Do highly cited items in the social sciences age more slowly than the average items? • What are the differences of highly cited items among different document types? • What are the sources, fields,languages, countries, and institutions of the citations of highly cited items in the social sciences ?
Methodology How long it takes to be cited? • Field: political science • Publications of: • 2 top-ranking institutions • Department of Political Science at Mannheim University • Institute of Political Science at University of Münster • 33 professors • 1,015 publications; 50 highly cited items • 2003-2007 • sliding citation window: 4 years
Data collection • Publication lists from • researchers’ official websites (CV) • institutional repositories • German Social Science Literature Information System (SOLIS) by GESIS • Collected publication lists were sent to professors for verification 60% response rate • Citations of all publications • obtained in March till December 2012 • from the Web of Science in-house database of the Competence Centre for Bibliometricsfor the German Science System (KompetenzzentrumBibliometrie) • author self-citations are included (20%)
Definitions • highly cited items • the top 5% cited items of each document type • diachronousauthor self-citation • at least one of the authors of a cited document is the same person as one of the authors of the citing document
Total citation counts 2 3 7 • 5% highly cited items contribute nearly 40% citations in general • ISI journal articles is only 16%; Book chapter 71%
Average citation rate • Edited Books have the highest average citation rate per item, which is 23.7
Are highly cited items authored more researchers than the average items? • authored slightly more researchers in general • except for Journal Articles and Books
Are highly cited items more cited by foreign researchers? • not cited by more foreign researchers
Do highly cited items have lower share of self-citations than the average items? • lower self-citation rate than other items • except for Edited Book (with the highest number of authors) and Book Chapter
Do highly cited items age more slowly than the average items? • aging slightly more slowly than other items
What are the sources, fields, languages, countries, and institutions of the citations of highly cited items?
Differences between document types • The higher average citation rate, the lower share of citations contributed by highly cited items. • ISI Journal Article: 4.29 (cpp) 16% (% HCI cit) • Book Chapter: 0.28 (cpp) 71% (% HCI cit) • The lower number of authors than all papers, the lower share of self-citations highly cited items have. • Book: 1.00 (app) 4% (% self-cit) • Edited Book: 3.33 (app) 27% (% self-cit)
Conclusion • Highly cited items in German political science contribute nearly 40% citations in general • The higher average citation rate, the lower share of citations contributed by highly cited items. • Average citation rate of highly cited items is 6.04 (the rate of all items is 0.74) • Average citation rate of Edited Books is extremely contributed by highly cited items (the biggest difference between HCI and all paper)
Conclusion Highly cited items in German political science: • are authored slightly more researchers in general • are not cited by more foreign researchers • not cited internationally • have lower self-citation rate than other items • The lower number of authors than all papers, the lower share of self-citations highly cited items have • age slightly more slowly than other items • are cited mostly by European/German journals and German authors/institutes, within a narrow discipline
Thank you very much. chi@forschungsinfo.de