András Schubert

International co-authorship patterns in physics and its subfields, 1981–1985

Is their a move to a new network strucutre of the world scientific research system in physics? Which are the positions of the differrent countries in such a network? Are the links stronger among central, powerful countries, fortifying even more their own research or are the links connecting strong with weak favouring a more homogeneous evolution of the system as a whole? Which are the predominant key factors creating the network structure: sociopolitical, geographic, or budgetery? These are some questions this study will try to approach from a scientometric point of view

Coping with copying

If somebody spends several decades in the world of scientific publishing as author, referee and editor, it is difficult to evade certain ethical issues. Researchers are fallible humans, after all, not free of vices like vanity, envy or jealousy. The range is wide from slightly tendentious selection among data to rudely falsified results, from distrait overlooking relevant results of concurrent groups, through cryptomnesia, ‘‘an unconscious plagiarism in which creative ideas expressed as new are actually unrecalled memories of another’s idea’’ (Garfield 1985, p. 407) to straight plagiarism. The definition of plagiarism enjoys a variety of ranges. In the Oxford dictionary, plagiarism is ‘‘the practice of taking someone else’s work or ideas and passing them off as one’s own’’. It clearly implies a voluntary act of cheating and dishonesty. For the Webster dictionary, plagiarism is ‘‘the act of using another person’s words or ideas without giving credit to that person’’. The difference between the two definitions is subtle but real: In Webster’s sentence, the interpretation may include an act of negligence or simply an accidental omission. Although not equally unethical, both circumstances are serious offences and constitute copyright infringements.

Analytical viewpoint. All quiet on the Eastern front? Analysis of the publication, reference and citation patterns of Zhurnal Analiticheskoy Khimii, 1990–91 versus 1980–81

Reflections of the dramatic political, social, and economic changes of the eighties in the former USSR were sought for in the publication, reference, and citation patterns of one of the leading scientific journals of the country, Zhurnal Analiticheskoy Khimii. It was found that, although no spectacular changes in the main scientometric indicators and the underlying publication, reference, and citation patterns could be observed, the journal had definitely lost impact due to an inevitable ‘dilution’ of publications. This effect seems to be the consequence of the ‘opening’ of the scientific community to foreign journals and the apparent lack of a sufficient strategy for Zh. Anal. Khim. to match its competitors successfully.