Isabel Mateo Gómez

Advantages and limitations in the use of impact factor measures for the assessment of research performance

Impact factor is a quasi-qualitative indicator, which provides a measurement of the prestige and international visibility of journals. Although the use of impact factor-based indicators for science policy purposes has increased over the last two decades, several limitations have been pointed out and should be borne in mind. The use of impact factor should be treated carefully when applied to the analysis of peripheral countries, whose national journals are hardly covered by ISI databases. Our experience in the use of impact factor based indicators for the analysis of the Spanish scientific production is shown. The usefulness of the impact factor measures in macro, meso and micro analyses is displayed. In addition, the main advantages, such as the great accessibility of impact factor and its ready-to-use nature are pointed out. Several limitations such as the need to avoid inter-field comparisons or the convenience of using a fixed journal set for international comparisons are also stressed. It is worth noting that the use of impact factor in the research evaluation process has influenced strongly the publication strategy of scientists.

LOCAL, DOMESTIC "AND INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC COLLABORATION IN BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH

Collaboration practices and partners vary greatly per scientific area and discipline and influence the scientific performance. Bibliometric indicators are used to analyse international, domestic and local collaboration in publications of Spanish authors in three Biomedical subfields: Neurosciences, Gastroenterology and Cardiovascular System as covered by theSCI database. Team size, visibility and basic-applied level of research were analysed according to collaboration scope. International collaboration was linked to higher visibility documents. Cluster analysis of the most productive authors and centres provides a description, of collaboration habits and actors in the three subfields. A positive correlation was found between productivity and international and domestic collaboration at the author level.

An approach to interdisciplinarity through bibliometric indicators

Interdisciplinarity has become of increasing interest in science in the past few years. Thispaper is a case study in the area of Chemistry, in which a series of different bibliometric indicatorsfor measuring interdisciplinarity are presented. The following indicators are analysed: a) ISI multiclassificationof journals in categories, b) patterns of citations and references outside category andc) multi-assignation of documents in Chemical Abstracts sections. Convergence between thedifferent indicators is studied. Depending on the size of the unit analysed (area, category orjournal) the most appropriate indicators are determined.

Analysis of the structure of international scientific cooperation networks through bibliometric indicators

International scientific cooperation of Latin American countries amongst themselves, with the USA and with the European Union in the period 1991–1995 was studied. The analysis deepens in the differences per subject area and the influence of the regional axis involved. Collaboration patterns differ according to the scientific size of the latin American countries, the thematic areas and whether a bilateral collaboration or a participation in a multilateral network takes place. Some special characteristics of multi-regional cooperation networks are presented.

Analysis of Cross-Disciplinary Research Through Bibliometric Tools

A review of interdisciplinarity in science is presented from the point of view of quantitative studies of science. The main objectives pursued and methodologies used in publications on cross-disciplinary research are pointed out, as well as the most relevant results obtained. The study of cross-disciplinary collaboration between authors, co-classification analysis, interdisciplinary nature of publication journals and cross-disciplinary references and/or citations are the most useful approaches to the topic. Results about a global analysis of scientific areas and disciplines based on ISI multi-assignation indicators are presented.

Assessing gender balance among journal authors and editorial board members

The study of journal authorship and editorial board membership from a gender perspective is addressed in this paper following international recommendations about the need to obtain science and technology indicators by gender. Authorship informs us about active scientists who contribute to the production and dissemination of new knowledge through journal articles, while editorial board membership tells us about leading scientists who have obtained scientific recognition within the scientific community. This study analyses by gender the composition of the editorial boards of 131 high-quality Spanish journals in all fields of science, the presence of men and women as authors in a selection of 36 journals, and the evolution of these aspects from 1998 to 2009. Female presence is lower than male presence in authorship, editorial board membership and editorship. The presence of female authors is slightly lower than the presence of women in the Spanish Higher Education sector and doubles female presence in editorial boards, which mirrors female presence in the highest academic rank. The gender gap tends to diminish over the years in most areas, especially in authorship and very slightly in editorial board membership. Large editorial boards and having a female editor-in-chief are positively correlated with women presence in editorial boards. The situation of women in Spanish science is further assessed in an international context analysing a selection of international reference journals. The usefulness of journal-based indicators to monitor the situation of men and women in science and to assess the success of policies oriented to enhance gender equality in science is finally discussed.

Structure and research performance of Spanish universities

The aim of this paper is to describe Spanish universities by means of structural, input and output indicators, to explore the relationship between those indicators and to analyse university behaviour in different dimensions. Seniority of the universities and environmental conditions are taken into account, together with input and output indicators, as well as others related to the networks and links established. Our results will contribute to the knowledge of the university research system in Spain, producing data that could be useful for research management at the institutional, regional and national level.

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 the problem of subject classification diversity

The delimitation of a research field in bibliometric studies presents the problem of the diversity of subject classifications used in the sources of input and output data. Classification of documents according to thematic codes or keywords is the most accurate method, mainly used in specialised bibliographic or patent databases. Classification of journals in disciplines presents lower specificity, and some shortcomings as the change over time of both journals and disciplines and the increasing interdisciplinarity of research. Differences in the criteria in which input and output data classifications are based obliges to aggregate data in order to match them. Standardization of subject classifications emerges as an important point in bibliometric studies in order to allow international comparisons, although flexibility is needed to meet the needs of local studies.

Quantitative and qualitative approaches to the study of mobility and scientific performance: a case study of a Spanish university

In this study we analyse the relationship between mobility and scientific performance in a Spanish university. We used different sources: an institutional database (Universitas XXI) to obtain information about the scientific activity and personal data of researchers, and bibliographic databases (WoS, ICYT and ISOC) to complete the study of scientific output. A select number of researchers was interviewed to gather additional information about the importance of mobility in the academic career and to obtain other subjective results from research stays. Through this quantitative and qualitative approach, we concluded that there is a strong relationship between mobility, productivity, visibility and international collaboration. We propose this methodology mix for the study of other academic institutions. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.