Ranking Web of Universities: 2010 July edition

[Isidro F. Aguillo]

Dear Jean Claude:

We have evidence from some universities from two different countries. We 
mentioned one specific (very important) university in our previous 
ranking and their response was very aggressive for later accepting that 
at least 3750 papers in the repository does not belong to their own 
scholars. Our figures are larger and checking it is very easy (in 
private I can point you some candidates).

Best regards,

Jean-Claude Guédon escribió:
> Adminstrative info for SIGMETRICS (for example unsubscribe): 
> http://web.utk.edu/~gwhitney/sigmetrics.html I find all this very 
> amusing. As soon as you establish measurements of quality in one way 
> or another, you are bound to see people adapt to it to their 
> advantage. For example, because editors want to increase the impact 
> factors of their journals, they increase the number of review articles 
> and they ask their authors to cite articles from the journal itself. 
> We must never forget the ancient links between our species and chimps 
> - a point that Macchiavelli had clearly understood without knowing the 
> fact.
>
> This said, there is an accusation here: librarians are said to store 
> papers originating from outside their institution to improve its 
> rankings in webometrics... While credible, is this allegation proved 
> or even provable ? I would love to see real proofs of this beyond 
> anecdotal rumours (sometimes aka urban myth). Which universities? 
> Since when? Etc...
>
> The long and the short of this is that there does not exist a simple 
> way to measure quality. Those who believe there is either delude 
> themselves, or manipulate others' beliefs.
>
> Jean-Claude Guédon
>
>
> Le jeudi 25 février 2010 à 10:55 +0100, Isidro F. Aguillo a écrit :
>> Adminstrative info for SIGMETRICS (for example unsubscribe):
>> http://web.utk.edu/~gwhitney/sigmetrics.html <http://web.utk.edu/%7Egwhitney/sigmetrics.html>
>>
>> Dear Dr. Kuhn:
>>
>> Thank you for your kind message. As supporters of Open Access 
>> initiatives, we are in favor of these situations you described. However 
>> our paragraphs refer to a completely different situation: librarians 
>> that are adding THOUSANDS of papers of authors unrelated with their 
>> organization and without any copyright agreement with them. Even worst, 
>> the reason for doing that is for increasing their web ranking.
>>
>> Best regards,
>>
>> Heinrich C. Kuhn escribió:
>> > Adminstrative info for SIGMETRICS (for example unsubscribe):
>> > http://web.utk.edu/~gwhitney/sigmetrics.html <http://web.utk.edu/%7Egwhitney/sigmetrics.html>
>> >
>> > First of all: Thanks!
>> >
>> > Second: at http://www.webometrics.info/
>> > it is written:
>> > "
>> > We have discovered several universities that are hosting large 
>> > numbers of academic papers authored by scientist that do not 
>> > belong to those institutions. This is not only unfair, but it 
>> > clearly violates copyright of the involved papers.
>> > "
>> > Please be aware that this is not necessarily so: Such papers
>> > may be hosted where they are hosted because
>> > -   The author of that paper wished then paper to be 
>> >     hosted at the hosting institution and the hosting
>> >     institution acted on his wish.
>> > -   The license (CC or other) of the paper permits such
>> >     hosting and the archive in question is an archive
>> >     for a certain subject.
>> > -   The author once was a member of the hosting institution.
>> >
>> >    Best regards
>> >
>> > Heinrich C. Kuhn
>> >
>> > +----------------------------------------------
>> > |    Dr. Heinrich C. Kuhn
>> > |    Seminar fuer Geistesgeschichte und
>> > |    Philosophie der Renaissance
>> > |    Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet Muenchen
>> > |    D-80539 Muenchen / Ludwigstr. 31
>> > |    T.: +49-89-2180 2018, F.: +49-89-2180 2907
>> > |    http://www.phil-hum-ren.uni-muenchen.de/
>> > +----------------------------------------------
>> >
>> >   
>>
>>
>>     
>
>
> -- 
> Jean-Claude Guédon
> Professeur titulaire
> Littérature comparée
> Université de Montréal
>         
>


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Isidro F. Aguillo, HonPhD
Cybermetrics Lab
CCHS - CSIC
Albasanz, 26-28, 3C1. 28037 Madrid. Spain

Ph. 91-602 2890. Fax: 91-602 2971

isidro.aguillo @ cchs.csic.es
www. webometrics.info
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