Katherine W. McCain

Mapping Authors in Intellectual Space: A Technical Overview.

An overview of current data gathering and analytical techniques for ACA (Author cocitation analysis) is presented. It focus primarily on a set of procedures that the research group at Drexel has found useful and discuss the range of choices possible at each step of the process. For illustration, and the results of clustering, mapping, and factor analyzing cocited authors from the subdiscipline of macroeconomics, 1972-1977. The bibliography lists more detailed presentations of the methods and fuller examples of their uses

Mapping Economics through the Journal Literature: An Experiment in Journal Cocitation Analysis.

This article reports a limited experiment in journal cocitation mapping, using the newly available online access to gather cocitations to a set of economics journals. the research is exploratory and descriptive -essentially a feasibility study. The goal is to test the extent to which cocitation analysis as this level of litterature aggregation, can yield coherent and interpretable results.

Scholarly publishing in the Internet age: a citation analysis of computer science literature

Abstract The Web is revolutionizing the entire scholarly communication process and changing the way that researchers exchange information. In this paper, we analyze two views of information production and use in computer-related research based on citation analysis of PDF and Postcript formatted publications on the Web using autonomous citation indexing (ACI), and a parallel citation analysis of the journal literature indexed by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) in SCISEARCH. Our goal is to establish a baseline profile of computer science “literature” as it appears in the published journals and as it appears on the publicly available Web. From this starting point, we hope to identify additional research areas dealing with information dissemination and citation practices in computer science and the utility of autonomous citation indexing on the Web as an adjunct to commercial indexing

Citation context analysis and aging patterns of journal articles in molecular genetics

To compare citation history and contextual “importance”, eleven highly cited articles, 4 slowly aging (Type 1) and 7 quickly aging (Type 2), were ranked using an aggregate citation context measure, the Mean Utility Index. Based on citations in late (PY 6 & 7) source articles, “methods” papers consistently ranked higher than papers cited for research results and theoretical implications, and Type 1 methods papers ranked above all Type 2 papers. A Type 1 paper representing an important theoretical concept could not be distinguished from Type 2 papers using citation context alone.

Longitudinal author cocitation mapping: The changing structure of macroeconomics

Author cocitation analysis was used to investigate changes in the intellectual structure of Macroeconomics over two consecutive time periods, 1972–1977 and 1978–1983. Profile analysis, nonmetric multidimensional scaling and clustering techniques were used to create two‐dimensional maps displaying the changing relationships among 41 authors as perceived by scholars citing their work over the two time periods. Clusters of points on the map, representing authors, correspond to theory groups or research areas. Authors in Rational Expectations Theory, Implicit Contracts, and a general group labeled “Post‐Monetarist” show a marked increase in mean cocitation rate. The first is a school of thought emerging as a new focal point of scholarly activity in Macroeconomics. Two types of scholarly “migration” are observed, based on patterns of significant increases and decreases in correlations among authors—“active migration” (the individual refocussing of a scholars efforts) and “passive migration” (the result of reevaluation of an authors previous contributions in the context of the rise of new problem areas).

The Structure of Medical Informatics Journal Literature

Objective: Medical informatics is an emergent interdisciplinary field described as drawing upon and contributing to both the health sciences and information sciences. The authors elucidate the disciplinary nature and internal structure of the field. Design: To better understand the fields disciplinary nature, the authors examine the intercitation relationships of its journal literature. To determine its internal structure, they examined its journal cocitation patterns. Measurements: The authors used data from the Science Citation Index (SCI) and Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) to perform intercitation studies among productive journal titles, and software routines from SPSS to perform multivariate data analyses on cocitation data for proposed core journals. Results: Intercitation network analysis suggests that a core literature exists, one mark of a separate discipline. Multivariate analyses of cocitation data suggest that major focus areas within the field include biomedical engineering, biomedical computing, decision support, and education. The interpretable dimensions of multidimensional scaling maps differed for the SCI and SSCI data sets. Strong links to information science literature were not found. Conclusion: The authors saw indications of a core literature and of several major research fronts. The field appears to be viewed differently by authors writing in journals indexed by SCI from those writing in journals indexed by SSCI, with more emphasis placed on computers and engineering versus decision making by the former and more emphasis on theory versus application (clinical practice) by the latter.

In the 25 years since The Mythical Man-Month what have we learned about project management?

This paper discusses Brooks’ The Mythical Man-Month , a landmark work in the software project management field, and compares the software project management advice given there with practices employed some 25 years later. To find out the state of today’s practice 20 experienced software developers were interviewed regarding their impressions of factors leading to success or failure of software development projects. Their observations are compared with the points raised by Brooks in his seminal work. q 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Patterns of journal use in a departmental library: A citation analysis

Citation analysis of faculty publications, doctoral dissertations, and preliminary doctoral qualifying briefs produced by faculty and students of the Biology Department, Temple University, is used to assess journal use in the Biology Library during the years 1975‐1977. There are 3739 citations to 336 journals in the combined sources ranking. The distribution of citations in each user group ranking and the combined sources ranking takes the form of a Bradford distribution; slope and x‐intercept values are given for each ranking. Sixty highly cited titles are examined in detail. Dissertation citations are dependent on active faculty participation in the doctoral program. Citations in qualifying briefs cover a broader range of topics and interests than either of the other two sources. Citation frequencies of volumes published in the periods 1960‐1969 and 1970‐1977 are examined. The post‐1960 citation frequency for 51 titles is 80% or higher. Several collection maintenance and development decisions have been made, based on the results of this study. Citation analysis is shown to be a useful tool in assessing actual and potential journal use by a heterogeneous clientele in a departmental library.

Mandating Sharing: Journal Policies in the Natural Sciences

Of approximately 850 natural science, medical, and engineering journals, 132 have at least one policy statement in their “instructions to authors” concerning (1) deposition of sequence or structure data in a data bank before publication, (2) deposition or sharing of research materials upon request, and (3) the availability of supplementary publication services. Compliance enforcement mechanisms include refusal to publish without evidence of deposition and editor-author negotiation if research materials were denied. The enhanced “gatekeeper” role of these journals is a response to expressed concerns that research-related information continue to be available to the research community.

Neural networks research in context: A longitudinal journal cocitation analysis of an emerging interdisciplinary field

A cocitation analysis for thirty-six journals and other publications in neural networks research and related disciplines was conducted over three consecutive time periods spanning the years 1990-early 1997. Cluster analysis and MDS maps identified groupings representing foundation research areas (physics/optics, computer engineering, neuroscience, expert systems & cognition, and perception) along with neural networks and mathematical modeling of neural systems. Principal components analysis demonstrated a similar structure, with several journals and books loading on a majority of the factors. An INDSCAL analysis showed an increasing separation between natural sciences/psychology and engineering/neural networks research from the first time period to the third.