Contents of Scientometrics Vol:79, No:3 (June 2009)

Eugene Garfield garfield at CODEX.CIS.UPENN.EDU
Wed Jun 24 17:16:55 EDT 2009


Scientometrics, Vol. 79, No. 3 ( JUNE 2009)

Listing of  individual papers + abstracts follows this contents page

CONTENTS

Ming-Yueh Tsay
Citation analysis of Ted Nelson’s works and his influence on hypertext 
concept	451

Carmen López-Illescas, Ed C.M. Noyons, Martijn S. Visser, Félix de Moya-
Anegón, Henk F. Moed
Expansion of scientific journal categories using reference analysis:
How can it be done and does it make a difference?	473

Fábio C. Gouveia, Eleonora Kurtenbach
Mapping the web relations of science centres and museums from Latin America
	491

Ricardo Arencibia-Jorgea Ronald Rousseau
Influence of individual researchers’ visibility on institutional impact:
an example of Prathap’s approach to successive h-indices	507

Giovanni Abramo, Ciriaco Andrea D’angelo, Alessandro Caprasecca
Gender differences in research productivity:
A bibliometric analysis of the Italian academic system	517

René van der Wal, Anke Fischer, Mick Marquiss, Steve Redpath, Sarah Wanless
Is bigger necessarily better for environmental research? 	541

Vladimir Pislyakov
Comparing two “thermometers”: Impact factors of 20 leading economic journals
according to Journal Citation Reports and Scopus	547

Christian Sternitzke
Patents and publications as sources of novel and inventive knowledge	557

Show-Ling Jang, Shihmin Lo, Wen Hao Chang
How do latecomers catch up with forerunners? Analysis of patents and 
patent citations in the field of flat panel display technologies	569

Ping Zhou, Bart Thijs, Wolfgang Glänzel
Is China also becoming a giant in social sciences? 	599

Yong-Gil Lee
What affects a patent’s value? An analysis of variables that affect 
technological,
direct economic, and indirect economic value: An exploratory conceptual 
approach 	627

Éric Archambault, Vincent Larivière
History of the journal impact factor: Contingencies and consequences 	639

Denis Arruda, Fábio Bezerra, Vânia Almeida Neris, Patricia Rocha de Roro, 
Jacques Wainer
Brazilian computer science research: Gender and regional distributions 	655

Rafael Ball
Scholarly communication in transition: The use of question marks in the 
titles of scientific articles in medicine, life sciences and physics 1966–
2005 	671

Lola García-Santiago, Felix De Moya-Anegón
Using co-outlinks to mine heterogeneous networks 	685

-------------------------------

TITLE  :  Citation analysis of Ted Nelson’s works and his influence on 
hypertext concept

AUTHOR :  MING-YUEH TSAY

Graduate Institute of Library, Information and Archival Studies, National 
Chengchi University, 64, Section 2, Chinan Rd., 
Wenshan Section, Taipei, 116, Taiwan

ABSTRACT:
This study investigates Ted Nelson’s works and the influence of his 
hypertext concept through citation analysis, including citation counting, 
characteristics of citing articles on language, document type, citing year, 
discipline, and citation content. The selection of the Nelson’s works was 
based on searching Library Literature & Information Science, Library and 
Information Science Abstracts, Google and Yahoo search engines. The 
citation data were compiled from the database of Web of Science. The 
results of the study reveal that hypertext has directly great impact on 
information retrieval and world wide web; therefore, the concept has had 
profound influence on information, library and computer science 
disciplines. Moreover, the influence of Nelson’s works spreads to other 
disciplines variously, especially on education, literature, business and 
economics, engineering, sociology, psychology, etc. The citation context 
analysis of citing articles on information and library science reveals that 
(1) definition, orientation and general introduction of hypertext; (2) 
relation of Vannevar Bush and Ted Nelson in terms of hypertext; (3) 
Nelson’s Xanadu system and its component of hypertext; (4) the application 
of hypertext in information science and library science are four most 
citing purpose.

Address for correspondence:
MING-YUEH TSAY
E-mail: mytsay at nccu.edu.tw

Scientometrics, Vol. 79, No. 3 (2009) 451–472
DOI: 10.1007/s11192-008-1641-7
-------------------------------

TITLE :  Expansion of scientific journal categories using reference 
analysis:
How can it be done and does it make a difference?

AUTHOR :  CARMEN LÓPEZ-ILLESCAS,a ED C.M. NOYONS,b MARTIJN S. VISSER,b 
FÉLIX DE MOYA-ANEGÓN,c 
HENK F. MOEDb

a Scimago Group, Department of Library and Information Science, University 
of Granada, Granada, Spain
b Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS), Leiden University, 
Leiden, The Netherlands
c Scimago Group, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Madrid, Spain

ABSTRACT: 
This paper explores a methodology for delimitating scientific subfields by 
combining the use of (specialist) journal categories from Thomson 
Scientific’s Web of Science (WoS) and reference analysis. In a first step 
it selects all articles in journals included in a particular WoS journal 
category covering a subfield. These journals are labelled as a subfield’s 
specialist journals. In a second step, this set of papers is expanded with 
papers published in other, additional journals and citing a subfield’s 
specialist journals with a frequency exceeding a certain citation 
threshold. Data are presented for two medical subfields: Oncology and 
Cardiac & Cardiovascular System. A validation based on findings from 
earlier studies, from an analysis of MESH descriptors from MEDLINE, and on 
expert opinion provides evidence that the proposed methodology has a high 
precision, and that expansion substantially enhanced the recall, not merely 
in terms of the number of retrieved papers, but also in terms of the number 
of research topics covered. The paper also examines how a bibliometric 
ranking of countries and universities based on the citation impact of their 
papers published in a subfield’s specialist journals compares to that of a 
ranking based on the impact of their articles in additional journals. 
Rather weak correlations especially obtained at the level of universities 
underline the conclusion from earlier studies that an assessment of 
research groups or universities in a scientific subfield that takes into 
account solely papers published in a subfield’s specialist journals is 
unsatisfactory.

Address for correspondence:
HENK F. MOED
E-mail: moed at cwts.leidenuniv.nl

Scientometrics, Vol. 79, No. 3 (2009) 473–490
DOI: 10.1007/s11192-007-1975-6
-------------------------------

TITLE :  Mapping the web relations of science centres and museums from 
Latin America

AUTHOR :  FÁBIO C. GOUVEIA,a,c ELEONORA KURTENBACHb,c

a Museu da Vida, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Av. Brasil, 4365, Sede do Museu da 
Vida, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
b Instituto de Biofísica Carlos Chagas Filho, Universidade Federal do Rio 
de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
c Programa de Educação, Gestão e Difusão em Biociências. Instituto de 
Bioquímica Médica, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, 
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

ABSTRACT:
In Latin America, interactive science centres and museums are key 
institutions for science communication. In order to map their relationship 
over the Internet, a Web co-link analysis was applied to 18 websites of 
science centres and museums affiliated to the Network for the 
Popularization of Science and Technology in Latin America and the 
Caribbean – RedPOP. Clustering analysis, multidimensional scaling (MDS) and 
an analysis of all pages with links to at least two websites were 
performed. Results showed that language barriers played a prominent role in 
clustering, with external recognition by the target public representing a 
secondary issue.

Address for correspondence:
FÁBIO CASTRO GOUVEIA
E-mail: fgouveia at coc.fiocruz.br

Scientometrics, Vol. 79, No. 3 (2009) 491–505
DOI: 10.1007/s11192-007-1949-8
-------------------------------

TITLE :  Influence of individual researchers’ visibility on institutional 
impact:
an example of Prathap’s approach to successive h-indices

AUTHOR :  RICARDO ARENCIBIA-JORGEa RONALD ROUSSEAUb,c

a Network of Scientometric Studies for Higher Education, National 
Scientific Research Center,
Avenida 25 y Calle 158, Cubanacán, Playa, PO Box 6414, Havana City, Cuba
b KHBO (Association K.U.Leuven), Industrial Sciences and Technology, 
Zeedijk 101, B-8400 Oostende, Belgium
c K.U.Leuven, Steunpunt O&O Indicatoren, Dekenstraat 2, B-3000, Belgium

ABSTRACT:
This study applies Prathap’s approach to successive h-indices in order to 
measure the influence of researcher staff on institutional impact. The 
twelve most productive Cuban institutions related to the study of the human 
brain are studied. The Hirsch index was used to measure the impact of the 
institutional scientific output, using the g-index and R-index as 
complementary indicators. Prathap’s approach to successive h-indices, based 
on the author–institution hierarchy, is used to determine the institutional 
impact through the performance of the researcher staff. The combination of 
different Hirsch-type indices for institutional evaluation is illustrated.

Address for correspondence:
RICARDO ARENCIBIA-JORGE
E-mail: ricardo.arencibia at cnic.edu.cu

Scientometrics, Vol. 79, No. 3 (2009) 507–516
DOI: 10.1007/s11192-007-2025-0
-------------------------------

TITLE :  Gender differences in research productivity:
A bibliometric analysis of the Italian academic system

AUTHOR :   GIOVANNI ABRAMO,a,b CIRIACO ANDREA D’ANGELO,a ALESSANDRO 
CAPRASECCAa

a Laboratory for Studies of Research and Technology Transfer, School of 
Engineering, Department of Management, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, 
Facoltà di Ingegneria, Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Impresa, Via del 
Politecnico 1, 00133 Roma, Italia
b Italian Research Council 

ABSTRACT:
The literature dedicated to the analysis of the difference in research 
productivity between the sexes tends to agree in indicating better 
performance for men. Through bibliometric examination of the entire 
population of research personnel working in the scientific-technological 
disciplines of Italian university system, this study confirms the presence 
of significant differences in productivity between men and women. The 
differences are, however, smaller than reported in a large part of the 
literature, confirming an ongoing tendency towards decline, and are also 
seen as more noticeable for quantitative performance indicators than other 
indicators. The gap between the sexes shows significant sectorial 
differences. In spite of the generally better performance of men, there are 
scientific sectors in which the performance of women does not prove to be 
inferior.

Address for correspondence:
GIOVANNI ABRAMO
E-mail: abramo at disp.uniroma2.it

Scientometrics, Vol. 79, No. 3 (2009) 517–539
DOI: 10.1007/s11192-007-2046-8
-------------------------------

TITLE :  Is bigger necessarily better for environmental research?

AUTHOR :  RENÉ VAN DER WAL,a,b ANKE FISCHER,c MICK MARQUISS,a,e STEVE 
REDPATH,a,b SARAH WANLESSa,d

a Centre for Ecology and Hydrology – Banchory Research Station, Hill of 
Brathens, Banchory, AB31 4BY, Scotland
b Aberdeen Centre for Environmental Sustainability (ACES), University of 
Aberdeen & Macaulay Institute, School of Biological Sciences, Auris, 23 St. 
Machar Drive, AB24 3UU Aberdeen, Scotland
c The Macaulay Institute, Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen AB15 8QH, Scotland
d Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Bush Estate, Penicuik, Midlothian, EH26 
0QB, Scotland
e Department of Zoology, University of Aberdeen, Tillydrone Avenue, 
Aberdeen AB24 2TZ, Scotland

ABSTRACT:  
In restructuring environmental research organisations, smaller sites 
generally disappear and larger sites are created. These decisions are based 
on the economic principle, ‘economy of scale’, whereby the average cost of 
each unit produced falls as output increases. We show that this principle 
does not apply to the scientific performance of environmental research 
institutes, as productivity per scientist decreased with increasing size of 
a research site. The results are best explained by the 
principle ‘diseconomies of scale’, whereby powerful social factors limit 
the productivity of larger groupings. These findings should be considered 
when restructuring environmental science organisations to maximise their 
quality

Address for correspondence:
RENÉ VAN DER WAL
E-mail: r.vanderwal at abdn.ac.uk

Scientometrics, Vol. 79, No. 3 (2009) 541–546
DOI: 10.1007/s11192-007-2017-0
-------------------------------


TITLE :   Comparing two “thermometers”: Impact factors of 20 leading 
economic journals according to Journal Citation Reports and Scopus

AUTHOR :  VLADIMIR PISLYAKOV

Higher School of Economics, Myasnitskaya, 20, Moscow, 101000, Russia

ABSTRACT:
Impact factors for 20 journals ranked first by Journal Citation Reports 
(JCR) were compared with the same indicator calculated on the basis of 
citation data obtained from Scopus database. A significant discrepancy was 
observed as Scopus, though results differed from title to title, found in 
general more citations than listed in JCR. This also affected ranking of 
the journals. More thorough examination of two selected titles proved that 
the divergence resulted mainly from difference in coverage of two products, 
although other important factors also play their part.

Address for correspondence:
VLADIMIR PISLYAKOV
E-mail: pislyakov at hse.ru

Scientometrics, Vol. 79, No. 3 (2009) 547–556
DOI: 10.1007/s11192-007-2016-1
-------------------------------

TITLE :  Patents and publications as sources of novel and inventive 
knowledge

AUTHOR :  CHRISTIAN STERNITZKEa,b

a Ilmenau University of Technology, PATON – Landespatentzentrum 
Thüringen,PF 100 565, 98684 Ilmenau, Germany
b University of Bremen, Institute for Project Management and Innovation 
(IPMI), Wilhelm-Herbst-Strasse 12, 28359 Bremen, Germany

ABSTRACT:
This paper briefly reviews the knowledge-generation process and explores to 
what degree technical and scientific knowledge from prior art anticipates 
novelty or the inventive step of an invention. Inventions are novel if they 
have not been described (in the public) before, and they are inventive if 
the technical solution was non-obvious to a skilled person in the field. We 
employ a novel approach of patent citation analysis to investigate this 
phenomenon. Since in this context common approaches of such citation 
analysis are biased (usually, citations are neither exhaustive nor relevant 
in their entirety), we focus on examination reports of European patent 
applications and the references given therein. Our findings reveal that 
particularly technical knowledge comprised in patents serves as a source of 
novelty, while scientific knowledge frequently stems from multiple 
scientific papers and accounts for the inventive step. In addition, it is 
found that in many cases scientific knowledge is of commercial relevance 
and therefore constitutes more than general background information that 
aids the technical knowledge generation process.

Address for correspondence:
CHRISTIAN STERNITZKE
E-mail: cs at sternitzke.com

Scientometrics, Vol. 79, No. 3 (2009) 557–567
DOI: 10.1007/s11192-007-2041-0
-------------------------------

TITLE :  How do latecomers catch up with forerunners? Analysis of patents 
and patent citations in the field of flat panel display technologies

AUTHOR :  SHOW-LING JANG,a SHIHMIN LO,b WEN HAO CHANGc

a Department of Economics, School of Social Sciences National Taiwan 
University No. 21, Hsu-Chow Road, Taipei, Taiwan 10020
b Department of International Business Studies, College of Management, 
National Chi Nan University
c Department of Economics, School of Social Sciences, National Taiwan 
University, No. 21, Hsu-Chow Road, Taipei, Taiwan

ABSTRACT:
This paper sets out to explore the patterns of technological change and 
knowledge spillover in the field of flat panel display (FPD) technology, 
along with the catching-up behavior of latecomers, through the analysis of 
US patents and patent citations between 1976 and 2005. Our results show 
that: (i) the catching-up by FPD technology latecomers began at the 
transition stage (1987–1996) when the dominant design became established in 
areas with high ‘revealed technology advantage’ (RTA); (ii) there is no 
apparent localization of knowledge spillover amongst FPD technology 
latecomers; instead, higher citation frequencies of forerunners’ patents 
were found in latecomers’ FPD patents during the transition (1987–1996) and 
post-dominant design (1997–2005) stages and; and (iii) a few extraordinary 
peaks were found in the citation frequency of forerunners’ patents at long 
citation lags in latecomers’ FPD patents, particularly during the 
transition stage (1987–1996), indicative of the knowledge threshold which 
latecomers need to cross in order to catch up with forerunners.

Address for correspondence:
SHOW-LING JANG
E-mail: showling.jang at gmail.com

Scientometrics, Vol. 79, No. 3 (2009) 569–597
DOI: 10.1007/s11192-007-2032-1
-------------------------------

TITLE :  Is China also becoming a giant in social sciences?

AUTHOR :  PING ZHOU,a,b BART THIJS,a WOLFGANG GLÄNZELa,c

a Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Steunpunt O&O Indicatoren, Dept. MSI, 
Leuven, Belgium
b Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China, Beijing, China
c Institute for Research Policy Studies, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 
Budapest, Hungary

ABSTRACT:
At present China is challenging the leading sciento–economic powers and 
evolving to one of the world’s largest potentials in science and 
technology. Jointly with other emerging economies, China has already 
changed the balance of power among the formerly leading nations as measured 
by scientific production. In the present paper, the evolution of China’s 
publication activity and citation impact in the social sciences is studied 
for the period 1997–2006. Besides the comparative analysis of trends in 
publication and citation patterns and of national publication profiles, an 
attempt is made to interpret the results in both the regional and global 
context.

Address for correspondence:
PING ZHOU
E-mail: ping.zhou at econ.kuleuven.be

Scientometrics, Vol. 79, No. 3 (2009) 599–626
DOI: 10.1007/s11192-007-2068-x
-------------------------------

TITLE :  What affects a patent’s value? An analysis of variables that 
affect technological, direct economic, and indirect economic value:
An exploratory conceptual approach

AUTHOR :  YONG-GIL LEEa,b

a Policy Planning Division, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, P.O. 
Box 131, Cheongryang, Seoul 130-650, South Korea
b Department of Technology Management and Policy, Korea University of 
Science and Technology, Seoul, South Korea

ABSTRACT:
The paper investigates three aspects of patent value – technological value, 
direct economic value, and indirect economic value. The paper suggests that 
we measure the technological value of a patent by looking at its number of 
citations, direct economic value by looking at its licensing and income 
from royalties, and indirect economic value by looking at its life (i.e., 
duration). For the research, the author’s two previous studies are deeply 
explored. It is found that these three aspects of patent value are 
positively correlated with one another. In addition, their domains overlap 
and interrelate. Research collaboration is the one variable found to have a 
significant effect on all three aspects. The field effect of electronics 
positively affects technological and indirect economic value, whereas 
research team size negatively affects technological and indirect economic 
value.

Address for correspondence:
YONG-GIL LEE
E-mail: yonggil at kist.re.kr

Scientometrics, Vol. 79, No. 3 (2009) 627–637
DOI: 10.1007/s11192-007-2020-5
-------------------------------

TITLE :  History of the journal impact factor: Contingencies and 
consequences

AUTHOR :  ÉRIC ARCHAMBAULT,a,b VINCENT LARIVIÈREb,c 

a Science-Metrix, Montréal, 1335 A avenue du Mont-Royal E, Montréal, Québec 
H2J 1Y6, Canada
b Observatoire des sciences et des technologies (OST), Centre 
interuniversitaire de recherche sur la science et la technologie (CIRST), 
Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada
c School of Information Studies, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada

ABSTRACT:
This paper examines the genesis of journal impact measures and how their 
evolution culminated in the journal impact factor (JIF) produced by the 
Institute for Scientific Information. The paper shows how the various 
building blocks of the dominant JIF (published in the Journal Citation 
Report - JCR) came into being. The paper argues that these building blocks 
were all constructed fairly arbitrarily or for different purposes than 
those that govern the contemporary use of the JIF. The results are a faulty 
method, widely open to manipulation by journal editors and misuse by 
uncritical parties. The discussion examines some solution offered to the 
bibliometrics and scientific communities considering the wide use of this 
indicator at present.

Address for correspondence:
ÉRIC ARCHAMBAULT
E-mail: eric.archambault at science-metrix.com

Scientometrics, Vol. 79, No. 3 (2009) 639–653
DOI: 10.1007/s11192-007-2036-x
-------------------------------


TITLE :  Brazilian computer science research: Gender and regional 
distributions

AUTHOR : DENIS ARRUDA,a FÁBIO BEZERRA,a VÂNIA ALMEIDA NERIS,a PATRICIA 
ROCHA 
DE TORO,b JACQUES WAINERa

a Institute of Computing, IC – UNICAMP, Av. Albert Einstein, 1251, 13084-
971 – P.O. Box 6176, Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil
b College of Electrical and Computer Engineering, FEEC – Unicamp, Campinas, 
São Paulo, Brazil

ABSTRACT:
This paper analysis the distribution of some characteristics of computer 
scientists in Brazil according to regions and gender. Computer scientist is 
defined as the faculty of a graduate level computer science department. 
Under this definition, there were 886 computer scientists in Brazil in 
November 2006.

Address for correspondence:
JACQUES WAINER
E-mail: wainer at ic.unicamp.br

Scientometrics, Vol. 79, No. 3 (2009) 655–669
DOI: 10.1007/s11192-007-1944-0
-------------------------------

TITLE :  Scholarly communication in transition: The use of question marks 
in the titles of scientific articles in medicine, life sciences and physics 
1966–2005

AUTHOR:  RAFAEL BALL

University Library of Regensburg, 93042 Regensburg, Germany

ABSTRACT:
The titles of scientific articles have a special significance. We examined 
nearly 20 million scientific articles and recorded the development of 
articles with a question mark at the end of their titles over the last 40 
years. Our study was confined to the disciplines of physics, life sciences 
and medicine, where we found a significant increase from 50% to more than 
200% in the number of articles with question-mark titles. We looked at the 
principle functions and structure of the titles of scientific papers, and 
we assume that marketing aspects are one of the decisive factors behind the 
growing usage of question-mark titles in scientific articles.

Address for correspondence:
RAFAEL BALL
E-mail: rafael.ball at bibliothek.uni-regensburg.de

Scientometrics, Vol. 79, No. 3 (2009) 671–683
DOI: 10.1007/s11192-007-1984-5
-------------------------------

TITLE :  Using co-outlinks to mine heterogeneous networks

AUTHOR :  LOLA GARCÍA-SANTIAGO, FELIX DE MOYA-ANEGÓN

CSIC, Unidad Asociada Grupo SCImago, Madrid, Spain
University of Granada, Department of Library and Information Science, 
Colegio Máximo de Cartuja s/n., 18071 Granada, Spain

ABSTRACT:
Clustering is applied to web co-outlink analysis to represent the 
heterogeneous nature of the World Wide Web in terms of the “triple helix” 
model (university–industry–government). An initial categorization is based 
on families of websites, which is then matched with Spanish institutions 
from diverse sectors represented on the Web, to uncover cognitive 
structures and related subgroups with common interests and confirm the 
junction of sectors of the “triple helix” model. We may conclude that the 
clustering method applied to web co-outlink analysis works when fully 
institutionalized organizations are studied, to make their interconnections 
manifest.

Address for correspondence:
LOLA GARCÍA-SANTIAGO
E-mail: mdolo at ugr.es

Scientometrics, Vol. 79, No. 3 (2009) 685–706
DOI: 10.1007/s11192-007-1855-0



More information about the SIGMETRICS mailing list