Antonio Pulgarín

The Rasch model. Measuring the impact of scientific journals: analytical chemistry

This article focuses on a fresh way to determine a ranking of science journals according to the “number of citations-to and items-published,” data used by SCI JCR of ISI to determine journal ranking by “impact factor.” This is the first application of latent traits theory to bibliometrics. “Impact” is considered a latent variable defined by a set of items (or indicators), citations, and sources. The theoretical background is Item Response Theory, which suggests that, if we can understand how each item in a set of items operates with an object, then we can estimate a measure for the object. The Rasch model is the commonest formulation of that theory. This technique is here applied to the citations and sources of 43 Analytical Chemistry journals (objects) to provide a Rasch measure for these journals which is compared with the current “impact factor” computation.

Bibliometric analysis of the automatic indexing literature: 1956-2000

We present a bibliometric study of a corpus of 839 bibliographic references about automatic indexing, covering the period 1956-2000. We analyse the distribution of authors and works, the obsolescence and its dispersion, and the distribution of the literature by topic, year, and source type. We conclude that: (i) there has been a constant interest on the part of researchers; (ii) the most studied topics were the techniques and methods employed and the general aspects of automatic indexing; (iii) the productivity of the authors does fit a Lotka distribution (Dmax=0.02 and critical value = 0.054); (iv) the annual aging factor 95%; and (v) the dispersion of the literature is low.

What is wrong with obsolescence

The growth of scientific output in recent years has meant that fewer libraries are able to offer the entire range of journals, with the others being forced to make a selection. The objective of the present work is to describe criteria to regulate the selection of these journals to provide the researcher with the information that is most being used in research. One form of quantifying this information is by way of the citations that papers receive over a period of time following their publication. Obsolescence, expressed in terms of an annual aging factor, does not reflect the real behaviour of most papers. An alternative is the use of “topicality,” considered as a latent variable, with the Rasch model as the measuring instrument. We considered 45 physics journals, and found the results of applying the Rasch model to be more satisfactory than those obtained with the annual aging factor.

Viewing information literacy concepts: a comparison of two branches of knowledge

An integrative approach is taken to mapping the field of research on information literacy in health sciences and social sciences. The objective was to identify the conceptual structure of these areas, and to determine their main research fronts and descriptors, and the relationships between them. A further objective is to determine whether information literacy is a consistent area. The basis of the study is the use of the program VOSViewer to analyse the co-occurrence of the areas’ descriptors, grouping them into clusters and generating a map of their connections. Information retrieval was by retrospective searches of the Web of Science (Thomson Reuters) and Scopus (Elsevier). The results for the health sciences area yielded four clusters. The centralmost descriptor was Education (with a total link strength of 1,470), which was strongly linked to the descriptor “Information retrieval”, and weakly linked to “Information skills”, “Information seeking”, and “Information Science”. In social sciences, there were six clusters. “Information literacy” was now the descriptor with most occurrences (812) as well as having the greatest weight—a total link strength of 2,340—followed by “Education” with 839 occurrences. The resulting maps provide a graphical identification of the main research issues and trends in information literacy in these two areas of expertise which, according to the data of the present study, correspond to lesser (health sciences) and greater (social sciences) scientific production. Information literacy was seen to be conceptually more consistent in health sciences than in social sciences. However, at least for the moment, it is a still growing conceptual space that is in need of solider indices of consistency and specificity.

The diffusion of scientific journals analyzed through citations

A method is described for analyzing the diffusion of scientific journals, using the Rasch model as the measuring instrument. It is applied to the 10-year distribution of citations to journals of the Subject Category “Physics” by year of publication of cited articles with data obtained from the SCI Journal Citation Reports of ISI for the year 1994. Diffusion in a scientific field would be regarded as the dissemination of knowledge, channeled through citations that are distributed over different periods of time and propagated by means of scientific journals: here it is considered to be a latent variable defined by a particular set of items (the citations made in different time periods), and the Rasch model is used as an instrument for measuring that variable.

Equating research production in different scientific fields

Diffusion in a scientific field is regarded as the dissemination of knowledge, channeled through citations that are distributed over different periods of time and propagated by means of scientific journals. Here it is considered to be a latent variable defined by a particular set of items (the citations made in different fields) and the Quantum Measurement technique is used as an instrument for measuring that variable on an objective scale. The different scientific fields thereby equiparated according to their diffusion. The citations generated by articles belonging to these fields were collected from the SCI/SSCI JCR of ISI (Science Citation Index/Social Science Citation Index Journal Citation Reports of Institute for Scientific Information). The final result is an equivalence table of citations between the areas of research.

The scientific production of Ibero-American authors on information literacy (1985---2013)

Para el odontologo, la boca ha representado tan solo un lugar del cuerpo anatomico en el que se alojan determinados organos sobre los cualespone enpractica su saber-hacer biotecnico. A partir de Freud, elpsicoanalisis ensena que la boca es una zona erogena cargada libidinalmente, alrededor de la cual el sujeto moviliza su pulsion y representa su historia; ademas, que la succion no solo cumple con la luncion de nutricion, sino que tambien es una actividad erotica que tiende a la obtencion de placer en esa zona particular del cuerpo, constituida por la mucosa de la boca y de los labios. ABSTRACT: For the dentist the oral cavity has meaned just an anatomical site 01the total human body, in it thereare located the organs on which he or she practices his or her biotechnological knowledge. From Freud on thepsychoanalytic school olthought proposed that the mouth is an erogenouszone full otlibido around it thesubjectdisplayshis or her pulsion and it represents his or her history; elso, thesuction activity notonly lulfill a nutritional lunction but it is an erotic activity that tends toseek pleasure in this particular zone 01the body, cover by mucous on lips and mouth.

Order topologies on l-algebras

We consider different topologies on an l-algebra associated in a natural way with its order, and briefly study the relationship between them. As a consequence we obtain a partial answer to the problem of the characterization of the topological algebra C(X) of real continuous functions on a topological space X, endowed with its compact convergence topology. In fact, we prove that if A is an Archimedean l-algebra and its order topology τo is locally m-convex, bornological and complete, then there is a realcompact kr -space X such that (A, τo) is isomorphic and homeomorphic with C(X).  2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. MSC: 06B30; 54H12; 46H05

The Rasch model. Measuring information from keywords: the diabetes field

A method is described for measuring information from keywords, using the Rasch model as the measuring instrument. The information utilized was obtained from the Medline data base, searching the journal Diabetes for a set of keywords appearing in the diabetes field from 1974 to 1994. An analysis is given of the research in diabetes over the last 21 years based on the keyword information. A measure was obtained for all the keywords considered, and the areas of research identified by the respective keywords were analyzed. At the same time, this analysis provided measures for each year, as well as a description of the “research trends” in diabetes. Insulin had the highest measure of the keywords searched, followed by Diabetes mellitus experimental. The year 1991 accounted for most keywords and 1978 fewest. Diabetes mellitus non‐insulin dependent, Diabetes mellitus experimental, and Diabetes ketoacidosis were the keywords that misfit the model, and 1974, 1977, and 1991 were the misfitting years. The “information underlying keywords” is a latent variable, and the Rasch model is a useful instrument for measuring that variable. This methodology allows how research has been developing over the last 21 years to be described according to the keywords and their related fields.

Banach-stone-like theorems for lattices OF uniformly continuous functions

Abstract New couples of uniform spaces X, Y are found out for which a lattice isomorphism between U(X) and U(Y) implies a uniform homeomorphism between X and Y.