Johan Bollen, Marko A. Rodriguez, and Herbert Van de Sompel "Journal Status" arXiv:cs.GL/0601030 v1 9 Jan 2006

[Stephen J Bensman]

Loet,
I just finished a tutorial by Thomson Scientific on use of the online JCR.
During the course of this tutorial, I found out how ISI assigns journals to
its subject categories.  It is so delicious that I cannot resist telling
you what I learned.

They have for each subject category a little blurb describing what that
category is and what it covers.  It is part of the category information.
An ISI person takes a journal, looks at 2 or 3 issues, and then
SUBJECTIVELY--I REPEAT, SUBJECTIVELY--assigns the journal to a subject
category on the basis of those category descriptions.  It is so
traditional, librarian, and Keynesian that your name immediately popped
into my mind together with a howl of laughter.

In terms on how these things have been done for centuries, it is definitely
legitmized.

SB




Loet Leydesdorff <loet at LEYDESDORFF.NET>@listserv.utk.edu> on 03/08/2006
12:47:01 AM

Please respond to ASIS&T Special Interest Group on Metrics
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To:    SIGMETRICS at listserv.utk.edu
cc:     (bcc: Stephen J Bensman/notsjb/LSU)

Subject:    Re: [SIGMETRICS] Johan Bollen, Marko A. Rodriguez, and Herbert
       Van de Sompel "Journal Status" arXiv:cs.GL/0601030 v1 9 Jan 2006


> PS  I use ISI subject categories and have found them very
> good.  But then I am used to using bad classification systems
> like LC and the DDC.

I am happy for you! However, this was not my question. I was just wondering
about the methodological legitimation of these categories. Can one use
something which one does not understand -- and nobody seems to understand
them -- as a basis for research and evaluation decisions? One knows that
outcomes of, for example, bibliometric assessments are heavily dependent on
this type of delineations.

Perhaps, I am the more old-fashioned one of the two of us. :-)

Best,  Loet