Franceschet, M. 2011. The skewness of computer science. INFORMATION PROCESSING & MANAGEMENT 47 (1): 117-124

[Eugene Garfield]

Franceschet, M. 2011. The skewness of computer science. INFORMATION 
PROCESSING & MANAGEMENT 47 (1): 117-124..

Author Full Name(s): Franceschet, Massimo
Language: English
Document Type: Article

Author Keywords: Research evaluation; Bibliometric indicators; Citation 
distributions; Power law distributions
KeyWords Plus: SCIENTIFIC IMPACT; RANDOM NETWORKS; H-INDEX; 
DISTRIBUTIONS; OUTPUT

Abstract: Computer science is a relatively young discipline combining science, 
engineering, and mathematics. The main flavors of computer science research 
involve the theoretical development of conceptual models for the different 
aspects of computing and the more applicative building of software artifacts 
and assessment of their properties. In the computer science publication 
culture, conferences are an important vehicle to quickly move ideas, and 
journals often publish deeper versions of papers already presented at 
conferences. These peculiarities of the discipline make computer science an 
original research field within the sciences, and, therefore, the assessment of 
classical bibliometric laws is particularly important for this field. In this paper, 
we study the skewness of the distribution of citations to papers published in 
computer science publication venues (journals and conferences). We find that 
the skewness in the distribution of mean citedness of different venues 
combines with the asymmetry in citedness of articles in each venue, resulting 
in a highly asymmetric citation distribution with a power law tail. Furthermore, 
the skewness of conference publications is more pronounced than the 
asymmetry of journal papers. Finally, the impact of journal papers, as measured 
with bibliometric indicators, largely dominates that of proceeding papers. (C) 
2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Addresses: Univ Udine, Dept Math & Comp Sci, I-33100 Udine, Italy

Reprint Address: Franceschet, M, Univ Udine, Dept Math & Comp Sci, Via Sci 
206, I-33100 Udine, Italy.

E-mail Address: massimo.franceschet at dimi.uniud.it
ISSN: 0306-4573
DOI: 10.1016/j.ipm.2010.03.003
URL (not open access): http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ipm.2010.03.003