Sándor Zsindely

Nanoscience and nanotecnology on the balance

A number of advantages of nanostructured materials over bulk materials and their potential applications in many scientific and technological fields have been revealed in recent years. To find out the main growth and trends of this exciting new scienence and technology fields the growth rate of the nano-prefixed terms in the title of journal papers has been measured. It has been shown that the investigations dealing with graphite nanotubes represent kinetically the most active field of research in the nanosciences.

Editorial gatekeeping patterns in international science journals. A new science indicator

Significant correlations were found between the number of science journal editors from different countries, on the one hand, and the number of scientists, the number of science journals and the number of science papers produced by these countries on the other. We argue for using the extent of participation in the editorial board of international science journals as a new science indicator. The deviations from the regression lines between the new indicator and other publication indicators allow one to assess the “open” or “closed” character of the scientific life of a given country.

Scientometric analysis of attendance at International Scientific Meetings

International scientific meetings represent important channels for communicating research results. Based on data from more than 500 proceedings of scientific meetings, organization and participation patterns of several countries (or geopolitical regions) were analyzed. Some new indicators were derived and proved to be useful in characterizing the scientific activity of the countries. Particularly, the “open” and “closed” nature of national scientific communities, as well as “attraction” and “repulsion” between certain pairs of countries could be revealed by this method.

Gatekeeping patterns in nano-titled journals

Activities on nanoscale research have seen a skyrocketting growth beginning during the nineties. This can be documented by the birth of no less than 16 science journals dedicated entirely to this field of science. The topics of these journals reflect the true interdisciplinary character of nanoscale research. In this paper the decision-makers on what and when appears in those journals, the gatekeepers, i.e., the editorial members of those journals and their national identity are analyzed and some conclusions are drawn on the decisional power of the countries these gatekeepers are located in.It came out that although the United States is still the leading power in the nanoscale research field, the EU is strongly catching up and due to intensive efforts in this directions by some Far East countries as China and Japan but also of India, Asia is nearing and in some cases even overtaking the big powers.

Citation patterns of editorial gatekeepers in international chemistry journals

A significant correlation was found between the mean number of citations to the editors of international chemistry journals and the impact factor of the journals in question. A much weaker correlation was found if citations to the editor(s)-in-chief only were considered; this suggests that the professional profile of the journal is determined by the editorial board rather than the person of the editor(s)-in-chief. The number of citations to the editors of international chemistry journals may be used for characterizing a countrys chemical research activity.

Scientometric indicators for evaluating medical research output of mid-size countries

The medical research output of eleven mid-size countries were compared with the aid of scientometric indicators. Papers published by clinical medicine journals and those of professors working at clinical faculties were used for comparison. The professors proved to be more productive authors than “average scientists” of the same country, but no particular eminence of the professors could be revealed. A correlation was found between the quality of clinical medicine papers (as reflected by their relative citation rate) and the infant mortality of the countries in question.

All well if starts well? Citation infancy of recently launched chemistry journals

The impact factor and the journal self-citation rate of 22 newly launched chemistry journals has been investigated. The dependence of these indicators on the journals age was found to be rather characteristic to the initial period of a journals “life cycle”.

Editors-in-Chief of Medical Journals Are They Experts, Authorities, Both, or Neither

The professional status and influence of the editors-in-chief of 769 medical journals were studied using the methods of citation analysis. Two indexes were formed (a) the Index of Editor Expertise (IEE): the ratio of the editor-in-chiefs mean citation rate per cited paper to that of his or her journal and (b) the Index of Editor Authority (IEA): the ratio of the editor-in-chiefs percentage of in-journal citations to that of his or her journal. According to these indexes, the editors-in-chief are not necessarily experts but authorities—at least in their own specialties.

Image of analytical chemistry as reflected in the analytical abstracts database: journal coverage, concentration, and dispersion of the analytical literature

Analytical Abstracts, a publication of the Royal Society of Chemistry, has been studied to determine how well it reflects the field of analytical chemistry. Its coverage is generally good, although one shortcoming was noted. Analytical Abstracts provides less than complete coverage of «titled» journals in analytical chemistry i.e., those journals whose title includes «analytical chemistry» of the name of a subfield

The Demography of Journals

Demonstrates analogies between human population and journal communities; the concepts and methods of demography can be used in the description of the “sociology” of journals – which present a complicated, colourful picture. For illustration, samples of scientific journals published in the last century as well as current periodicals were selected. Demonstrates that political events influenced not only the “life” of periodicals dealing with or directly linked to politics and public affairs but, in certain cases, the publication of scientific journals, too. Also looks at the impact of the scientific community on the “demographic events” (splitting, reunification, etc.) of existing scientific journals.