Applying the CSS method to bibliometric indicators used in (university) rankings

Spatial bibliometrics on the city level

It is very popular in bibliometrics to present results on institutions not only as tabular lists, but also on maps (see, for example, the Leiden Ranking). However, the problem with these visualisations is that institutions are frequently spatially clustered in larger cities whereby institutions are positioned one above the other. In this Brief Communication, we propose as an alternative to visualise bibliometric data on the city rather than the institution level to avoid this problem.

Identifying landmark publications in the long run using field-normalized citation data

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to propose an approach for identifying landmark papers in the long run. These publications reach a very high level of citation impact and are able to remain on this level across many citing years. In recent years, several studies have been published which deal with the citation history of publications and try to identify landmark publications.

Design/methodology/approach

In contrast to other studies published hitherto, this study is based on a broad data set with papers published between 1980 and 1990 for identifying the landmark papers. The authors analyzed the citation histories of about five million papers across 25 years.

Findings

The results of this study reveal that 1,013 papers (less than 0.02 percent) are “outstandingly cited” in the long run. The cluster analyses of the papers show that they received the high impact level very soon after publication and remained on this level over decades. Only a slight impact decline is visible over the years.

Originality/value

For practical reasons, approaches for identifying landmark papers should be as simple as possible. The approach proposed in this study is based on standard methods in bibliometrics.

Sequence analysis of annually normalized citation counts: an empirical analysis based on the characteristic scores and scales (CSS) method

In bibliometrics, only a few publications have focused on the citation histories of publications, where the citations for each citing year are assessed. In this study, therefore, annual categories of field- and time-normalized citation scores (based on the characteristic scores and scales method: 0 = poorly cited, 1 = fairly cited, 2 = remarkably cited, and 3 = outstandingly cited) are used to study the citation histories of papers. As our dataset, we used all articles published in 2000 and their annual citation scores until 2015. We generated annual sequences of citation scores (e.g., \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\left\{ {01233233221} \right\}$$\end{document}01233233221) and compared the sequences of annual citation scores of six broader fields (natural sciences, engineering and technology, medical and health sciences, agricultural sciences, social sciences, and humanities). In agreement with previous studies, our results demonstrate that sequences with poorly cited (0) and fairly cited (1) elements dominate the publication set; sequences with remarkably cited (3) and outstandingly cited (4) periods are rare. The highest percentages of constantly poorly cited papers can be found in the social sciences; the lowest percentages are in the agricultural sciences and humanities. The largest group of papers with remarkably cited (3) and/or outstandingly cited (4) periods shows an increasing impact over the citing years with the following orders of sequences: \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\left\{ {0123} \right\}$$\end{document}0123 (6.01%), which is followed by \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\left\{ {123} \right\}$$\end{document}123 (1.62%). Only 0.11% of the papers (n = 909) are constantly on the outstandingly cited level.