Tomaz Bartol

Assessment of research fields in Scopus and Web of Science in the view of national research evaluation in Slovenia

Web of Science (wos) and scopus have often been compared with regard to user interface, countries, institutions, author sets, etc., but rarely employing a more systematic assessment of major research fields and national production. The aim of this study was to appraise the differences among major research fields in scopus and wos based on a standardized classification of fields and assessed for the case of an entire country (Slovenia). We analyzed all documents and citations received by authors who were actively engaged in research in Slovenia between 1996 and 2011 (50,000 unique documents by 10,000 researchers). Documents were tracked and linked to scopus and wos using complex algorithms in the Slovenian cobiss bibliographic system and sicris research system where the subject areas or research fields of all documents are harmonized by the Frascati/oecd classification, thus offsetting some major differences between wos and scopus in database-specific subject schemes as well as limitations of deriving data directly from databases. scopus leads over wos in indexed documents as well as citations in all research fields. This is especially evident in social sciences, humanities, and engineering & technology. The least citations per document were received in humanities and most citations in medical and natural sciences, which exhibit similar counts. Engineering & technology reveals only half the citations per document compared to the previous two fields. Agriculture is found in the middle. The established differences between databases and research fields provide the Slovenian research funding agency with additional criteria for a more balanced evaluation of research.

Data structuring and classification in newly‐emerging scientific fields

Purpose – The article seeks to address a methodological procedure based on keyword analysis and the structuring of data into information systems in the field of functional foods, a newly‐emerging scientific field within the broader scope of food sciences and technology.Design/methodology/approach – An experiment was undertaken by selection of a research field or research subject, selection of search profile, selection and processing of relevant databases, keyword analysis, and the arrangement of data (keywords) according to tree‐structures. Keyword analysis was employed to identify narrower research fields within the broader scientific field. The structuring of data into systems was used to classify the terms within the particular narrow field. Keywords with higher and lower frequency were identified. A classification tree was set up, based on keywords (thesaurus‐based descriptors) extracted from the FSTA (Food Science and Technology Abstracts) database available online. The tree was supplemented and upgr...

Citation analysis and mapping of nanoscience and nanotechnology: identifying the scope and interdisciplinarity of research

Diversification and fragmentation of scientific exploration brings an increasing need for integration, for example through interdisciplinary research. The field of nanoscience and nanotechnology appears to exhibit strong interdisciplinary characteristics. Our objective was to explore the structure of the field and ascertain how different research areas within this field reflect interdisciplinarity through citation patterns. The complex relations between the citing and cited articles were examined through schematic visualization. Examination of WOS categories assigned to journals shows the scatter of nano studies across a wide range of research topics. We identified four distinctive groups of categories each showing some detectable shared characteristics. Three alternative measures of similarity were employed to delineate these groups. These distinct groups enabled us to assess interdisciplinarity within the groups and relationships between the groups. Some measurable levels of interdisciplinarity exist in all groups. However, one of the groups indicated that certain categories of both citing as well as cited articles aggregate mostly in the framework of physics, chemistry, and materials. This may suggest that the nanosciences show characteristics of a distinct discipline. The similarity in citing articles is most evident inside the respective groups, though, some subgroups within larger groups are also related to each other through the similarity of cited articles.

Assessment of classification and indexing of an agricultural journal based on metadata in AGRIS and CAB Abstracts databases

Agricultural thesauri and classification schemes are being increasingly upgraded as ontologies, prompting end-user awareness of the concept of structured taxonomies and metadata. Related agricultural databases, such as Agris and CAB Abstracts, exhibit differences in subject headings, indexing and classification what we illustrate on the example of an animal and plant production journal Acta Agriculturae Slovenica. Variations are attributable to differences among descriptors, categories, indexing rules, and information professionals. Similar search queries or syntax retrieves different documents. Certain level of replication in different databases, however, enhances retrieval recall and, in turn, boosts international visibility of scientific papers or documents.

The capital cities of the ten new European Union countries in selected bibliographic databases

SummaryThe aim is to investigate the cities based on the author-affiliation data from Web of Science, Biosis Previews, CAB Abstracts, Chemical Abstracts, Compendex/Inspec, Francis, Medline, Pascal, and Sociological Abstracts databases. Specifics of particular cities and publishing patterns and trends with reference to particular disciplines are studied. Characteristics of city-data collection with regard to retrieval accuracy are investigated. Databases are compared regarding document coverage and input consistency. A city as an emerging supranational unit is proposed as a scientometric object and indicator in its own right as a complement to the traditional notion of a country or a nation-state.

Slovenian Researchers: What Influences Their Information Behaviour?

The paper presents a segment of a survey of information behaviour of Slovenian scientists. Results show that, in most areas, Slovenian researchers exhibit usual characteristics of scientists elsewhere, with the exception of a rather weak use of Web 2.0 tools for research purposes, and weak use of open-access materials. This survey confirms that information and communication technologies (ICT) strongly impact professional activities of scientists, in relation to the choice of resource formats, access to information, means of information exchange, organization of one’s own resources, reading, writing, and the use of library services. Most of the characteristics in behaviour are research-field-specific. Other factors of influence are age, area of employment, and available time; gender difference was important only in one case.

Scientometric assessment of publishing patterns and performance indicators in agriculture in the JCEA member countries.

The study assessed selected characteristics of documents published in national journals and other publications in the countries which participate on the editorial board of an international journal JCEA (Journal of Central European Agriculture). Bibliographic citations from the CAB Abstracts database were employed. Search syntax along with some cataloging characteristics of the database was addressed. In total more than 89.000 agriculture-related documents were identified in the period 2000-2008 with journal articles predominating, followed by proceedings (conference papers). The two document types can overlap. English plays a role of the principal language, accounting for more than half of all records (48.000). Poland is the major contributor of documents, being by far the largest country. Croatian publications show the highest level of international participation in domestic publications, whereas the Slovenian authors shows the highest level of publishing in non-domestic publications. Altogether some 378 different agricultural and related life- and environmental sciences journals have been active in the region in this period. The results can serve as an indicator of regional publishing activities and behavior of authors.

Assessment of Food and Nutrition Related Descriptors in Agricultural and Biomedical Thesauri

Food- and human nutrition-related subject headings or descriptors of the following thesauri-databases are assessed: NAL Thesaurus/Agricola, Agrovoc/Agris, CAB Thesaurus, FSTA Thesaurus, MeSH/Medline. Food concepts can be represented by thousands of different terms but subject scope of a particular term is sometimes vague. There exist important differences among thesauri regarding same or similar concept. A term that represents narrower or broader concept in one thesaurus can in another stand for a related concept or be non-existent. Sometimes there is no clear implication of differences between scientific (Latin) and common (English) names. Too many related terms can confuse end-users. Thesauri were initially employed mostly by information professionals but can now be used directly by users who may be unaware of differences. Thesauri are assuming new roles in classification of information as metadata. Further development towards ontologies must pay constant attention to taxonomic problems of representation of knowledge.

Non‐agricultural databases and thesauri: Retrieval of subject headings and non‐controlled terms in relation to agriculture

Purpose – The paper aims to assess the utility of non‐agriculture‐specific information systems, databases, and respective controlled vocabularies (thesauri) in organising and retrieving agricultural information. The purpose is to identify thesaurus‐linked tree structures, controlled subject headings/terms (heading words, descriptors), and principal database‐dependent characteristics and assess how controlled terms improve retrieval results (recall) in relation to free‐text/uncontrolled terms in abstracts and document titles.Design/methodology/approach – Several different hosts (interfaces, platforms, portals) and databases were used: CSA Illumina (ERIC, LISA), Ebscohost (Academic Search Complete, Medline, Political Science Complete), Ei‐Engineering Village (Compendex, Inspec), OVID (PsycINFO), ProQuest (ABI/Inform Global). The search‐terms agriculture and agricultural and truncated word‐stem agricultur‐ were employed. Permuted (rotated index) search fields were used to retrieve terms from thesauri. Subjec...

Information Literacy and International Capacity Development Initiatives in Life Sciences: AGORA, OARE, HINARI, ARDI (Research4Life - R4L)

AGORA/FAO (2003), OARE/UNEP (2006), HINARI/WHO (2003) and ARDI/WIPO (2009), commonly referred to as Research4Life (R4L), are associated global initiatives in the life sciences (agriculture, food, nutrition, medicine, health, environment) founded with the purpose of bridging the digital divide by providing less developed countries with access to high quality scientific information (e-journals, databases), and offering training for this purpose. They are coordinated by UN-agencies, international organizations and associations, and private partners (publishers). The paper reviews past development, identifies some principal stakeholders with special emphasis on capacity development through information literacy and related competencies, along with the role of libraries. It highlights the principles and the structure of courses and training materials, and presents some activities in selected countries which are eligible for assistance through the initiatives.