Showing papers in "Scientometrics in 2012"

Negative results are disappearing from most disciplines and countries

Abstract: Concerns that the growing competition for funding and citations might distort science are frequently discussed, but have not been verified directly. Of the hypothesized problems, perhaps the most worrying is a worsening of positive-outcome bias. A system that disfavours negative results not only distorts the scientific literature directly, but might also discourage high-risk projects and pressure scientists to fabricate and falsify their data. This study analysed over 4,600 papers published in all disciplines between 1990 and 2007, measuring the frequency of papers that, having declared to have "tested" a hypothesis, reported a positive support for it. The overall frequency of positive supports has grown by over 22% between 1990 and 2007, with significant differences between disciplines and countries. The increase was stronger in the social and some biomedical disciplines. The United States had published, over the years, significantly fewer positive results than Asian countries (and particularly Japan) but more than European countries (and in particular the United Kingdom). Methodological artefacts cannot explain away these patterns, which support the hypotheses that research is becoming less pioneering and/or that the objectivity with which results are produced and published is decreasing.

Impact factor: outdated artefact or stepping-stone to journal certification?

Abstract: A review of Garfield's journal impact factor and its specific implementation as the Thomson Reuters impact factor reveals several weaknesses in this commonly-used indicator of journal standing Key limitations include the mismatch between citing and cited documents, the deceptive display of three decimals that belies the real precision, and the absence of confidence intervals These are minor issues that are easily amended and should be corrected, but more substantive improvements are needed There are indications that the scientific community seeks and needs better certification of journal procedures to improve the quality of published science Comprehensive certification of editorial and review procedures could help ensure adequate procedures to detect duplicate and fraudulent submissions

Validating online reference managers for scholarly impact measurement

Abstract: This paper investigates whether CiteULike and Mendeley are useful for measuring scholarly influence, using a sample of 1,613 papers published in Nature and Science in 2007. Traditional citation counts from the Web of Science (WoS) were used as benchmarks to compare with the number of users who bookmarked the articles in one of the two free online reference manager sites. Statistically significant correlations were found between the user counts and the corresponding WoS citation counts, suggesting that this type of influence is related in some way to traditional citation-based scholarly impact but the number of users of these systems seems to be still too small for them to challenge traditional citation indexes.

Is Google Scholar useful for bibliometrics? A webometric analysis

Abstract: Google Scholar, the academic bibliographic database provided free-of-charge by the search engine giant Google, has been suggested as an alternative or complementary resource to the commercial citation databases like Web of Knowledge (ISI/Thomson) or Scopus (Elsevier). In order to check the usefulness of this database for bibliometric analysis, and especially research evaluation, a novel approach is introduced. Instead of names of authors or institutions, a webometric analysis of academic web domains is performed. The bibliographic records for 225 top level web domains (TLD), 19,240 university and 6,380 research centres institutional web domains have been collected from the Google Scholar database. About 63.8% of the records are hosted in generic domains like .com or .org, confirming that most of the Scholar data come from large commercial or non-profit sources. Considering only institutions with at least one record, one-third of the other items (10.6% from the global) are hosted by the 10,442 universities, while 3,901 research centres amount for an additional 7.9% from the total. The individual analysis show that universities from China, Brazil, Spain, Taiwan or Indonesia are far better ranked than expected. In some cases, large international or national databases, or repositories are responsible for the high numbers found. However, in many others, the local contents, including papers in low impact journals, popular scientific literature, and unpublished reports or teaching supporting materials are clearly overrepresented. Google Scholar lacks the quality control needed for its use as a bibliometric tool; the larger coverage it provides consists in some cases of items not comparable with those provided by other similar databases.

Gender differences in scientific productivity: a persisting phenomenon?

Abstract: There is substantial literature on research performance differences between male and female researchers, and its explanation. Using publication records of 852 social scientists, we show that performance differences indeed exist. However, our case study suggests that in the younger generation of researchers these have disappeared. If performance differences exist at all in our case, young female researchers outperform young male researchers. The trend in developed societies, that women increasingly outperform men in all levels of education, is also becoming effective in the science system.

Changing publication patterns in the Social Sciences and Humanities, 2000–2009

Abstract: An analysis of the changing publication patterns in the Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) in the period 2000–2009 is presented on the basis of the VABB-SHW, a full coverage database of peer reviewed publication output in SSH developed for the region of Flanders, Belgium. Data collection took place as part of the Flemish performance-based funding system for university research. The development of the database is described and an overview of its contents presented. In terms of coverage of publications by the Web of Science we observe considerable differences across disciplines in the SSH. The overall growth rate in number of publications is over 62.1%, but varies across disciplines between 7.5 and 172.9%. Publication output grew faster in the Social Sciences than in the Humanities. A steady increase in the number and the proportion of publications in English is observed, going hand in hand with a decline in publishing in Dutch and other languages. However, no overall shift away from book publishing is observed. In the Humanities, the share of book publications even seems to be increasing. The study shows that additional full coverage regional databases are needed to be able to characterise publication output in the SSH.

Using `core documents' for detecting and labelling new emerging topics

Abstract: The notion of `core documents', first introduced in the context of co-citation analysis and later re-introduced for bibliographic coupling and extended to hybrid approaches, refers to the representation of the core of a document set according to given criteria. In the present study, core documents are used for the identification of new emerging topics. The proposed method proceeds from independent clustering of disciplines in different time windows. Cross-citations between core documents and clusters in different periods are used to detect new, exceptionally growing clusters or clusters with changing topics. Three paradigmatic types of new, emerging topics are distinguished. Methodology is illustrated using the example of four ISI subject categories selected from the life sciences, applied sciences and the social sciences.

Detecting signals of new technological opportunities using semantic patent analysis and outlier detection

Abstract: In the competitive business environment, early identification of technological opportunities is crucial for technology strategy formulation and research and development planning. There exist previous studies that identify technological directions or areas from a broad view for technological opportunities, while few studies have researched a way to detect distinctive patents that can act as new technological opportunities at the individual patent level. This paper proposes a method of detecting new technological opportunities by using subject---action---object (SAO)-based semantic patent analysis and outlier detection. SAO structures are syntactically ordered sentences that can be automatically extracted by natural language processing of patent text; they explicitly show the structural relationships among technological components in a patent, and thus encode key findings of inventions and the expertise of inventors. Therefore, the proposed method allows quantification of structural dissimilarities among patents. We use outlier detection to identify unusual or distinctive patents in a given technology area; some of these outlier patents may represent new technological opportunities. The proposed method is illustrated using patents related to organic photovoltaic cells. We expect that this method can be incorporated into the research and development process for early identification of technological opportunities.

Trend and efficiency analysis of co-authorship network

Abstract: Although co-authorship in scientific research has a long history the analysis of co-authorship network to explore scientific collaboration among authors is a relatively new research area. Studies of current literature about co-authorship networks mostly give emphasis to understand patterns of scientific collaborations, to capture collaborative statistics, and to propose valid and reliable measures for identifying prominent author(s). However, there is no such study in the literature which conducts a longitudinal analysis of co-authorship networks. Using a dataset that spans over 20 years, this paper attempts to explore efficiency and trend of co-authorship networks. Two scientists are considered connected if they have co-authored a paper, and these types of connections between two scientists eventually constitute co-authorship networks. Co-authorship networks evolve among researchers over time in specific research domains as well as in interdisciplinary research areas. Scientists from diverse research areas and different geographical locations may participate in one specific co-authorship network whereas an individual scientist may belong to different co-authorship networks. In this paper, we study a longitudinal co-authorship network of a specific scientific research area. By applying approaches to analyze longitudinal network data, in addition to known methods and measures of current co-authorship literature, we explore a co-authorship network of a relatively young and emerging research discipline to understand its trend of evolution pattern and proximity of efficiency.

A new instrument for technology monitoring: novelty in patents measured by semantic patent analysis

Abstract: Given that in terms of technology novel inventions are crucial factors for companies; this article contributes to the identification of inventions of high novelty in patent data. As companies are confronted with an information overflow, and having patents reviewed by experts is a time-consuming task, we introduce a new approach to the identification of inventions of high novelty: a specific form of semantic patent analysis. Subsequent to the introduction of the concept of novelty in patents, the classical method of semantic patent analysis will be adapted to support novelty measurement. By means of a case study from the automotive industry, we corroborate that semantic patent analysis is able to outperform available methods for the identification of inventions of high novelty. Accordingly, semantic patent information possesses the potential to enhance technology monitoring while reducing both costs and uncertainty in the identification of inventions of high novelty.

A co-word analysis of digital library field in China

Abstract: The aim of this study is to map the intellectual structure of digital library (DL) field in China during the period of 2002---2011. Co-word analysis was employed to reveal the patterns of DL field in China through measuring the association strength of keywords in relevant journals. Data was collected from Chinese Journal Full-Text Database during the period of 2002---2011. And then, the co-occurrence matrix of keywords was analyzed by the methods of multivariate statistical analysis and social network analysis. The results mainly include five parts: seven clusters of keywords, a two-dimensional map, the density and centrality of clusters, a strategic diagram, and a relation network. The results show that there are some hot research topics and marginal topics in DL field in China, but the research topics are relatively decentralized compared with the international studies.

Comprehensive bibliographic coverage of the social sciences and humanities in a citation index: an empirical analysis of the potential

Abstract: A well-designed and comprehensive citation index for the social sciences and humanities has many potential uses, but has yet to be realised. Significant parts of the scholarly production in these areas are not published in international journals, but in national scholarly journals, in book chapters or in monographs. The potential for covering these literatures more comprehensively can now be investigated empirically using a complete publication output data set from the higher education sector of an entire country (Norway). We find that while the international journals in the social sciences and humanities are rather small and more dispersed in specialties, representing a large but not unlimited number of outlets, the domestic journal publishing, as well as book publishing on both the international and domestic levels, show a concentration of many publications in few publication channels. These findings are promising for a more comprehensive coverage of the social sciences and humanities.

What do the scientists think about the impact factor

Abstract: The impact factor is a highly polemic metric. It was designed to help scientists in searching for bibliographic references for their own works, enabling communication among researchers and helping librarians in deciding which journal they should purchase. Nevertheless, it has soon become the most important measure of scientific performance applied to journals, articles, scientists, universities, etc. Since then, some researchers argue that it is a useless and flawed measure, while others defend its utility. The current study is the first survey on the opinion on the topic of a broad sample of scientists from all over the world. The questionnaire was answered by 1,704 researchers from 86 different countries, all the continents and all the UNESCO major fields of knowledge. The results show that the opinion is slightly above the median which could be understood as "neither positive nor negative". Surprisingly, there is a negative correlation between the number of articles published by the respondents and their opinion on the impact factor.

Has globalization strengthened South Korea's national research system? National and international dynamics of the Triple Helix of scientific co-authorship relationships in South Korea

Abstract: We trace the structural patterns of co-authorship between Korean researchers at three institutional types (university, government, and industry) and their international partners in terms of the mutual information generated in these relations. Data were collected from the Web of Science during the period 1968---2009. The traditional Triple-Helix indicator was modified to measure the evolving network of co-authorship relations. The results show that international co-authorship relations have varied considerably over time and with changes in government policies, but most relations have become stable since the early 2000s. In other words, the national publication system of Korea has gained some synergy from R&D internationalization during the 1990s, but the development seems to stagnate particularly at the national level: whereas both university and industrial collaborations are internationalized, the cross-connection within Korea has steadily eroded.

On the shoulders of students? The contribution of PhD students to the advancement of knowledge

Abstract: Using the participation in peer reviewed publications of all doctoral students in Quebec over the 2000---2007 period, this paper provides the first large scale analysis of their research effort. It shows that PhD students contribute to about a third of the publication output of the province, with doctoral students in the natural and medical sciences being present in a higher proportion of papers published than their colleagues of the social sciences and humanities. Collaboration is an important component of this socialization: disciplines in which student collaboration is higher are also those in which doctoral students are the most involved in peer-reviewed publications. In terms of scientific impact, papers co-signed by doctorate students obtain significantly lower citation rates than other Quebec papers, except in natural sciences and engineering. Finally, this paper shows that involving doctoral students in publications is positively linked with degree completion and ulterior career in research.

A bibliometric study of earthquake research: 1900–2010

Abstract: We evaluated earthquake research performance based on a bibliometric anal- ysis of 84,051 documents published in journals and other outlets contained in the Scientific Citation Index (SCI) and Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) bibliographic databases for the period of 1900-2010. We summarized significant publication indicators in earthquake research, evaluated national and institutional research performance, and presented earth- quake research development from a supplementary perspective. Research output descrip- tors suggested a solid development in earthquake research, in terms of increasing scientific production and research collaboration. We identified leading authors, institutions, and nations in earthquake research, and there was an uneven distribution of publications at authorial, institutional, and national levels. The most commonly used keywords appeared in the articles were evolution, California, deformation, model, inversion, seismicity, tec- tonics, crustal structure, fault, zone, lithosphere, and attenuation.

A bibliometric portrait of the evolution, scientific roots and influence of the literature on university–industry links

Abstract: The study of university–industry (U–I) relations has been the focus of growing interest in the literature. However, to date, a quantitative overview of the existing literature in this field has yet to be accomplished. This study intends to fill this gap through the use of bibliometric techniques. By using three different yet interrelated databases—a database containing the articles published on U–I links, which encompass 534 articles published between 1986 and 2011; a ‘roots’ database, which encompasses over 20,000 references to the articles published on U–I relations; and a ‘influences’ database which includes more than 15,000 studies that cited the articles published on U–I relations—we obtained the following results: (1) ‘Academic spin offs’, ‘Scientific and technological policies’ and (to a greater extent) ‘Knowledge Transfer Channels’ are topics in decline; (2) ‘Characteristics of universities, firms and scientists’, along with ‘Regional spillovers’, show remarkable growth, and ‘Measures and indicators’ can be considered an emergent topic; (3) clear tendency towards ‘empirical’ works, although ‘appreciative and empirical’ papers constitute the bulk of this literature; (4) the multidisciplinary nature of the intellectual roots of the U–I literature—an interesting blending of neoclassical economics (focused on licensing, knowledge transfer and high-tech entrepreneurship) and heterodox approaches (mainly related to systems of innovation) is observed in terms of intellectual roots; (5) the influence of the U–I literature is largely concentrated on the industrialized world and on the research area of innovation and technology (i.e., some ‘scientific endogamy’ is observed).

Identifying patent infringement using SAO based semantic technological similarities

Abstract: Companies should investigate possible patent infringement and cope with potential risks because patent litigation may have a tremendous financial impact An important factor to identify the possibility of patent infringement is the technological similarity among patents, so this paper considered technological similarity as a criterion for judging the possibility of infringement Technological similarities can be measured by transforming patent documents into abstracted forms which contain specific technological key-findings and structural relationships among technological components in the invention Although keyword-based technological similarity has been widely adopted for patent analysis related research, it is inadequate for identifying patent infringement because a keyword vector cannot reflect specific technological key-findings and structural relationships among technological components As a remedy, this paper exploited a subject---action---object (SAO) based semantic technological similarity An SAO structure explicitly describes the structural relationships among technological components in the patent, and the set of SAO structures is considered to be a detailed picture of the inventor's expertise, which is the specific key-findings in the patent Therefore, an SAO based semantic technological similarity can identify patent infringement Semantic similarity between SAO structures is automatically measured using SAO based semantic similarity measurement method using WordNet, and the technological relationships among patents were mapped onto a 2-dimensional space using multidimensional scaling (MDS) Furthermore, a clustering algorithm is used to automatically suggest possible patent infringement cases, allowing large sets of patents to be handled with minimal effort by human experts The proposed method will be verified by detecting real patent infringement in prostate cancer treatment technology, and we expect this method to relieve human experts' work in identifying patent infringement

Collaboration structures in Slovenian scientific communities

Abstract: We combine two seemingly distinct perspectives regarding the modeling of network dynamics One perspective is found in the work of physicists and mathematicians who formally introduced the small world model and the mechanism of preferential attachment The other perspective is sociological and focuses on the process of cumulative advantage and considers the agency of individual actors in a network We test hypotheses, based on work drawn from these perspectives, regarding the structure and dynamics of scientific collaboration networks The data we use are for four scientific disciplines in the Slovene system of science The results deal with the overall topology of these networks and specific processes that generate them The two perspectives can be joined to mutual benefit Within this combined approach, the presence of small-world structures was confirmed However preferential attachment is far more complex than advocates of a single autonomous mechanism claim

Counting citations in the field of business and management: why use Google Scholar rather than the Web of Science

Abstract: Research assessment carries important implications both at the individual and institutional levels. This paper examines the research outputs of scholars in business schools and shows how their performance assessment is significantly affected when using data extracted either from the Thomson ISI Web of Science (WoS) or from Google Scholar (GS). The statistical analyses of this paper are based on a large survey data of scholars of Canadian business schools, used jointly with data extracted from the WoS and GS databases. Firstly, the findings of this study reveal that the average performance of B scholars regarding the number of contributions, citations, and the h-index is much higher when performances are assessed using GS rather than WoS. Moreover, the results also show that the scholars who exhibit the highest performances when assessed in reference to articles published in ISI-listed journals also exhibit the highest performances in Google Scholar. Secondly, the absence of association between the strength of ties forged with companies, as well as between the customization of the knowledge transferred to companies and research performances of B scholars such as measured by indicators extracted from WoS and GS, provides some evidence suggesting that mode 1 and 2 knowledge productions might be compatible. Thirdly, the results also indicate that senior B scholars did not differ in a statistically significant manner from their junior colleagues with regard to the proportion of contributions compiled in WoS and GS. However, the results show that assistant professors have a higher proportion of citations in WoS than associate and full professors have. Fourthly, the results of this study suggest that B scholars in accounting tend to publish a smaller proportion of their work in GS than their colleagues in information management, finance and economics. Fifthly, the results of this study show that there is no significant difference between the contributions record of scholars located in English language and French language B schools when their performances are assessed with Google Scholar. However, scholars in English language B schools exhibit higher citation performances and higher h-indices both in WoS and GS. Overall, B scholars might not be confronted by having to choose between two incompatible knowledge production modes, but with the requirement of the evidence-based management approach. As a consequence, the various assessment exercises undertaken by university administrators, government agencies and associations of business schools should complement the data provided in WoS with those provided in GS.

Measuring Twitter-based political participation and deliberation in the South Korean context by using social network and Triple Helix indicators

Abstract: This study investigates the role of Twitter in political deliberation and participation by analyzing the ways in which South Korean politicians use Twitter. In addition, the study examines the rise of Twitter as user-generated communication system for political participation and deliberation by using the Triple Helix indicators. For this, we considered five prominent politicians, each belonging to one of four political parties, by using data collected in June 2010. The results suggest that non-mainstream, resource-deficient politicians are more likely to take advantage of Twitter's potential as an alternative means of political participation and that a small number of Twitter users lead political discourse in the Twittersphere. We also examined the occurrence and co-occurrence of politicians' names in Twitter posts, and then calculate entropy values for trilateral relationships. The results suggest that the level of political deliberation, expressed in terms of the level of balance in the communication system, is higher when politicians with different political orientations form the trilateral relationships.

Integration of three visualization methods based on co-word analysis

Abstract: Visualization of subject structure based on co-word analysis is used to explore the concept network and developmental tendency in certain field. There are many visualization methods for co-word analysis. However, integration of results by different methods is rarely reported. This article addresses the knowledge gap in this field of study. We compare three visualization methods: Cluster tree, strategy diagram and social network maps, and integrate different results together to one result through co-word analysis of medical informatics. The three visualization methods have their own character: cluster trees show the subject structure, strategic diagrams reveal the importance of topic themes in the structure, and social network maps interpret the internal relationship among themes. Integration of different visualization results to one more readable map complements each other. And it is helpful for researchers to get the concept network and developmental tendency in a certain field.

The Impact Factor in non-English-speaking countries

Abstract: The representativeness of the ISI-Thomson Impact Factor rankings and the existing relationship between countries' national languages and the diffusion of scientific publications is analyzed. We discuss literature on the Impact Factor related to language use, publication strategies for authors and editors from non-English-speaking countries, the effects of the inclusion of a new journal in the ISI-Thomson databases and the scientific policies articulated in some non-English-speaking countries. The adoption of the Impact Factor as the valuation criterion for scientific activities has favoured the consolidation of English language journals in the diffusion of scientific knowledge. The vernacular languages only conserve part of their importance in certain disciplines, such as Clinical Medicine or Social Sciences and Humanities. The Impact Factor, invented over 50 years ago now, could be a limitation for non-English authors and scientific journals, and does not consider some widely used practices among the scientific community concerning the development of Internet as a means for the diffusion of knowledge.

Science funding and research output: a study on 10 countries

Abstract: This study reports research on analyzing the impact of government funding on research output. 500,807 SCI papers published in 2009 in 10 countries are collected and analyzed. The results show that, in China, 70.34% of SCI papers are supported by some research funding, among which 89.57% are supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). Average grants per funding-supported paper in China is 2.95, when in the USA the number is 2.93 and in Japan it is 2.40. The results of funding agency analysis show that, China, Germany and Spain are single funding agency dominated countries, while USA, Japan, Canada and Australia are double funding agencies dominated countries, and the source of funding in UK, France and Italy is diversified.

Citation-based metrics are appropriate tools in journal assessment provided that they are accurate and used in an informed way

Abstract: In a reply to Jerome K. Vanclay's manuscript "Impact Factor: outdated artefact or stepping-stone to journal certification?" we discuss the value of journal metrics for the assessment of scientific-scholarly journals from a general bibliometric perspective, and from the point of view of creators of new journal metrics, journal editors and publishers. We conclude that citation-based indicators of journal performance are appropriate tools in journal assessment provided that they are accurate, and used with care and competence.

Impact factors, scientometrics and the history of citation-based research

Abstract: Few contemporary inventions have influenced academic publishing as much as journal impact factors. On the other hand, debates and discussion on the potential limitations of, and appropriate uses for, journal performance indicators are almost as long as the history of the measures themselves. Given that scientometrics is often undertaken using bibliometric techniques, the history of the former is inextricably linked to the latter. As with any controversy it is difficult to separate an invention from its history, and for these reasons, the current article provides an overview of some key historical events of relevance to the impact factor. When he first proposed the concept over half a century ago, Garfield did not realise that impact factors would one day become the subject of such widespread controversy. As the current Special Issue of Scientometrics suggests, this debate continues today.

Alternatives to the journal impact factor: I3 and the top-10% (or top-25%?) of the most-highly cited papers

Abstract: Journal impact factors (IFs) can be considered historically as the first attempt to normalize citation distributions by using averages over 2 years. However, it has been recognized that citation distributions vary among fields of science and that one needs to normalize for this. Furthermore, the mean--or any central-tendency statistics--is not a good representation of the citation distribution because these distributions are skewed. Important steps have been taken to solve these two problems during the last few years. First, one can normalize at the article level using the citing audience as the reference set. Second, one can use non-parametric statistics for testing the significance of differences among ratings. A proportion of most-highly cited papers (the top-10% or top-quartile) on the basis of fractional counting of the citations may provide an alternative to the current IF. This indicator is intuitively simple, allows for statistical testing, and accords with the state of the art.

Core-periphery, new clusters, or rising stars?: international scientific collaboration among `advanced' countries in the era of globalization

Abstract: Assuming the OECD member states as `advanced' nations equipped with basic scientific capacities, the present research addresses the network configuration of these countries in international scientific collaboration and the transformation of this network along with globalization. The result suggests that geographical, linguistic, and economic affinities did not have a meaningful impact on the formation of co-authorship network between `advanced' nations, different from previous research results which claimed their importance on international cooperation. Globalization facilitated by the development of information and transportation technologies was found to influence the co-authorship link between countries, but not to accelerate centralization of the network in the past 15 years. Though the core-periphery pattern still persists, new rising stars, which are Korea and Turkey, have emerged in the co-authorship network among `advanced' nations. These two countries, having a rapid increase in the share of degree centrality from 1995 to 2010, had strategic financial support from the government which stimulated the collaboration between universities and industries and emphasized the development of science and engineering fields.

The growth of science and database coverage

Abstract: Recently there has been huge growth in the number of articles displayed on the Web of Science (WoS), but it is unclear whether this is linked to a growth of science or simply additional coverage of already existing journals by the database provider. An analysis of the category of journals in the period of 2000–2008 shows that the number of basic journals covered by Web of Science (WoS) steadily decreased, whereas the number of new, recently established journals increased. A rising number of older journals is also covered. These developments imply a crescive number of articles, but a more significant effect is the enlargement of traditional, basic journals in terms of annual articles. All in all it becomes obvious that the data set is quite instable due to high fluctuation caused by the annual selection criteria, the impact factor. In any case, it is important to look at the structures at the level of specific fields in order to differentiate between “real” and “artificial” growth. Our findings suggest that even-though a growth of about 34 % can be measured in article numbers in the period of 2000–2008, 17 % of this growth stems from the inclusion of old journals that have been published for a longer time but were simply not included in the database so far.

Government organizations' innovative use of the Internet: The case of the Twitter activity of South Korea's Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries

Abstract: Noting the government's role in diffusing information across various sectors of society, this study analyzes the Twitter activity of the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MFAFF), one of Korea's government organizations. From a broad perspective, this study provides a better understanding of innovation activity mediated by social media--particularly the government's Twitter activity, a topic that has not been addressed by previous webometric research on Triple Helix relationships--by employing social network analysis and content analysis. The results indicate some limitations of the MFAFF's activity on Twitter as a mutual communication channel, although Twitter has the potential to facilitate risk management. Further, based on the MFAFF's confined use of its Twitter account, the results suggest that its Twitter account can be an effective information distribution channel, indicating Twitter's value as a communication tool for innovation activity through social media. This study provides an empirical analysis of the government's Twitter activity and contributes to the literature by providing an in-depth understanding of the Triple Helix relationship on the Web.