The decline in the concentration of citations, 1900–2007
01 Apr 2009-Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology (John Wiley & Sons, Ltd)-Vol. 60, Iss: 4, pp 858-862
TL;DR: Analysis of changes in the concentration of citations received by papers published between 1900 and 2005 shows that, contrary to what was reported by Evans, the dispersion of citations is actually increasing.
Abstract: This article challenges recent research (Evans, 2008) reporting that the concentration of cited scientific literature increases with the online availability of articles and journals. Using Thomson Reuters' Web of Science, the present article analyses changes in the concentration of citations received (2- and 5-year citation windows) by papers published between 1900 and 2005. Three measures of concentration are used: the percentage of papers that received at least one citation (cited papers); the percentage of papers needed to account for 20%, 50%, and 80% of the citations; and the Herfindahl-Hirschman index (HHI). These measures are used for four broad disciplines: natural sciences and engineering, medical fields, social sciences, and the humanities. All these measures converge and show that, contrary to what was reported by Evans, the dispersion of citations is actually increasing. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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TL;DR: The OA advantage is greater for the more citable articles, not because of a quality bias from authors self-selecting what to make OA, but because ofA quality advantage, from users self- selecting what to use and cite, freed by OA from the constraints of selective accessibility to subscribers only.
Abstract: Articles whose authors make them Open Access (OA) by self-archiving them online are cited significantly more than articles accessible only to subscribers. Some have suggested that this "OA Advantage" may not be causal but just a self-selection bias, because authors preferentially make higher-quality articles OA. To test this we compared self-selective self-archiving with mandatory self-archiving for a sample of 27,197 articles published 2002-2006 in 1,984 journals. The OA Advantage proved just as high for both. Logistic regression showed that the advantage is independent of other correlates of citations (article age; journal impact factor; number of co-authors, references or pages; field; article type; country or institution) and greatest for the most highly cited articles. The OA Advantage is real, independent and causal, but skewed. Its size is indeed correlated with quality, just as citations themselves are (the top 20% of articles receive about 80% of all citations). The advantage is greater for the more citeable articles, not because of a quality bias from authors self-selecting what to make OA, but because of a quality advantage, from users self-selecting what to use and cite, freed by OA from the constraints of selective accessibility to subscribers only. [See accompanying RTF file for responses to feedback. Four PDF files provide Supplementary Analysis.]
501 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors compare the strength of the relationship between journals' impact factor (IF) and the actual citations received by their respective papers from 1902 to 2009, and show that the relation between IFs and paper citations has been weakening.
Abstract: Historically, papers have been physically bound to the journal in which they were published; but in the digital age papers are available individually, no longer tied to their respective journals. Hence, papers now can be read and cited based on their own merits, independently of the journal's physical availability, reputation, or impact factor (IF). We compare the strength of the relationship between journals' IFs and the actual citations received by their respective papers from 1902 to 2009. Throughout most of the 20th century, papers' citation rates were increasingly linked to their respective journals' IFs. However, since 1990, the advent of the digital age, the relation between IFs and paper citations has been weakening. This began first in physics, a field that was quick to make the transition into the electronic domain. Furthermore, since 1990 the overall proportion of highly cited papers coming from highly cited journals has been decreasing and, of these highly cited papers, the proportion not coming from highly cited journals has been increasing. Should this pattern continue, it might bring an end to the use of the IF as a way to evaluate the quality of journals, papers, and researchers. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
245 citations
TL;DR: Examination of articles in biogeography found that most of the influence is not cited, specific types of articles that are influential are cited while other types of that also are influential have not been cited, and work that is “uncited” and “seldom cited” is used extensively.
Abstract: To determine influences on the production of a scientific article, the content of the article must be studied. We examined articles in biogeography and found that most of the influence is not cited, specific types of articles that are influential are cited while other types of that also are influential are not cited, and work that is “uncited” and “seldom cited” is used extensively. As a result, evaluative citation analysis should take uncited work into account. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
178 citations
TL;DR: It is found that cognitive concepts in LIS evolve continuously, with no stasis since 1992, and is found to be driven by the emergence of new information technologies, and the retirement of old ones.
Abstract: This study comprises a suite of analyses of words in article titles in order to reveal the cognitive structure of Library and Information Science (LIS). The use of title words to elucidate the cognitive structure of LIS has been relatively neglected. The present study addresses this gap by performing (a) co-word analysis and hierarchical clustering, (b) multidimensional scaling, and (c) determination of trends in usage of terms. The study is based on 10,344 articles published between 1988 and 2007 in 16 LIS journals. Methodologically, novel aspects of this study are: (a) its large scale, (b) removal of non-specific title words based on the “word concentration” measure (c) identification of the most frequent terms that include both single words and phrases, and (d) presentation of the relative frequencies of terms using “heatmaps”. Conceptually, our analysis reveals that LIS consists of three main branches: the traditionally recognized library-related and information-related branches, plus an equally distinct bibliometrics/scientometrics branch. The three branches focus on: libraries, information, and science, respectively. In addition, our study identifies substructures within each branch. We also tentatively identify “information seeking behavior” as a branch that is establishing itself separate from the three main branches. Furthermore, we find that cognitive concepts in LIS evolve continuously, with no stasis since 1992. The most rapid development occurred between 1998 and 2001, influenced by the increased focus on the Internet. The change in the cognitive landscape is found to be driven by the emergence of new information technologies, and the retirement of old ones. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
172 citations
TL;DR: It is shown that, despite a striking growth in the number of journals, papers, and contributing authors, a decrease was observed in the field's market-share of all social science and humanities research.
Abstract: This paper presents a condensed history of Library and Information Science (LIS) over the course of more than a century using a variety of bibliometric measures. It examines in detail the variable rate of knowledge production in the field, shifts in subject coverage, the dominance of particular publication genres at different times, prevailing modes of production, interactions with other disciplines, and, more generally, observes how the field has evolved. It shows that, despite a striking growth in the number of journals, papers, and contributing authors, a decrease was observed in the field's market-share of all social science and humanities research. Collaborative authorship is now the norm, a pattern seen across the social sciences. The idea of boundary crossing was also examined: in 2010, nearly 60% of authors who published in LIS also published in another discipline. This high degree of permeability in LIS was also demonstrated through reference and citation practices: LIS scholars now cite and receive citations from other fields more than from LIS itself. Two major structural shifts are revealed in the data: in 1960, LIS changed from a professional field focused on librarianship to an academic field focused on information and use; and in 1990, LIS began to receive a growing number of citations from outside the field, notably from Computer Science and Management, and saw a dramatic increase in the number of authors contributing to the literature of the field. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
157 citations
References
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TL;DR: It is shown that such a stochastic law is governed by the Beta Function, containing only one free parameter, and this is approximated by a skew or hyperbolic distribution of the type that is widespread in bibliometrics and diverse social science phenomena.
Abstract: A Cumulative Advantage Distribution is proposed which models statistically the situation in which success breeds success. It differs from the Negative Binomial Distribution in that lack of success, being a non-event, is not punished by increased chance of failure. It is shown that such a stochastic law is governed by the Beta Function, containing only one free parameter, and this is approximated by a skew or hyperbolic distribution of the type that is widespread in bibliometrics and diverse social science phenomena. In particular, this is shown to be an appropriate underlying probabilistic theory for the Bradford Law, the Lotka Law, the Pareto and Zipf Distributions, and for all the empirical results of citation frequency analysis. As side results one may derive also the obsolescence factor for literature use. The Beta Function is peculiarly elegant for these manifold purposes because it yields both the actual and the cumulative distributions in simple form, and contains a limiting case of an inverse square law to which many empirical distributions conform.
1,865 citations
"The decline in the concentration of..." refers background in this paper
...Unlike analyses of references made, where uncited papers are de facto excluded, or other analyses of the distribution of citations received (Price, 1976; Lehman, Lautrup and Jackson, 2003) , uncited papers are included in our analysis of the concentration of the distribution of citations....
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe how the Web is allowing physicists and information providers to measure more accurately the impact of these papers and their authors and argue that publishing a journal article is now only the first step in disseminating one's work.
Abstract: With the vast majority of scientific papers now available online, the author describes how the Web is allowing physicists and information providers to measure
more accurately the impact of these papers and their authors. Provides a historical background of citation analysis, ISI's citation databases, and the impact factor. Discusses the strengths and weaknesses of Web of Science and other more recent citation data sources (e.g., Scopus and Google Scholar), the impact of the Web on citation analysis, and the emergence of new citation-based research assessment measures (e.g., h-index). Argues that the use of multiple Web-based citation tools allows more accurate visualizations of scholarly communication networks. Also argues that publishing a journal article is now only the first step in disseminating one's work.
333 citations
TL;DR: The paper finds that the average number of readings per year per science faculty member continues to increase, while the average time spent per reading is decreasing, and electronic articles now account for the majority of readings.
Abstract: Purpose – By tracking the information‐seeking and reading patterns of science, technology, medical and social science faculty members from 1977 to the present, this paper seeks to examine how faculty members locate, obtain, read, and use scholarly articles and how this has changed with the widespread availability of electronic journals and journal alternativesDesign/methodology/approach – Data were gathered using questionnaire surveys of university faculty and other researchers periodically since 1977 Many questions used the critical incident of the last article reading to allow analysis of the characteristics of readings in addition to characteristics of readersFindings – The paper finds that the average number of readings per year per science faculty member continues to increase, while the average time spent per reading is decreasing Electronic articles now account for the majority of readings, though most readings are still printed on paper for final reading Scientists report reading a higher prop
302 citations
TL;DR: Using a database of 34 million articles, their citations, and online availability, it is shown that as more journal issues came online, the articles referenced tended to be more recent, the journals and articles were cited, and more of those citations were to fewer journals andarticles.
Abstract: Online journals promise to serve more information to more dispersed audiences and are more efficiently searched and recalled. But because they are used differently than print-scientists and scholars tend to search electronically and follow hyperlinks rather than browse or peruse-electronically available journals may portend an ironic change for science. Using a database of 34 million articles, their citations (1945 to 2005), and online availability (1998 to 2005), I show that as more journal issues came online, the articles referenced tended to be more recent, fewer journals and articles were cited, and more of those citations were to fewer journals and articles. The forced browsing of print archives may have stretched scientists and scholars to anchor findings deeply into past and present scholarship. Searching online is more efficient and following hyperlinks quickly puts researchers in touch with prevailing opinion, but this may accelerate consensus and narrow the range of findings and ideas built upon.
268 citations
"The decline in the concentration of..." refers background or methods or result in this paper
...In a recent paper, Evans (2008) challenged commonly held beliefs about online availability of journals and papers by showing that an increase in their online availability and their historical archives (a) decreased the age of cited scientific literature and (b) increased the concentration of citations on a smaller proportion of published papers....
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...In a recent paper, Evans (2008) challenged commonly held beliefs about online availability of journals and papers by showing that an increase in their online availability and their historical archives 1) decreased the age of cited scientific literature and 2) increased the concentration of…...
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...The last section compares our results with those of Evans (2008)....
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...Percentage of papers needed to obtain 20%, 50% and 80% of the citations received using a two-year citation window, by field, 1900–2005 One could argue, however, that we have not used the same measure of concentration as that used by Evans (2008)....
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...This is the sole indicator used by Evans (2008) to measure the concentration of citations....
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