The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the methodology at the intersection of relational and evaluative bibliometrics. Experimental investigations are presented that address the question of how we can most successfully produce estimates of the subject similarity between documents. The results from these investigations are then explored in the context of citation-based research evaluations in an effort to enhance existing citation normalization methods that are used to enable comparisons of subject-disparate documents with respect to their relative impact or perceived utility. This thesis also suggests and explores an approach for revealing the uncertainty and stability (or lack thereof) coupled with different kinds of citation indicators.This suggestion is motivated by the specific nature of the bibliographic data and the data collection process utilized in citation-based evaluation studies. The results of these investigations suggest that similarity-detection methods that take a global view of the problem of identifying similar documents are more successful in solving the problem than conventional methods that are more local in scope. These results are important for all applications that require subject similarity estimates between documents. Here these insights are specifically adopted in an effort to create a novel citation normalization approach that – compared to current best practice – is more in tune with the idea of controlling for subject matter when thematically different documents are assessed with respect to impact or perceived utility. The normalization approach is flexible with respect to the size of the normalization baseline and enables a fuzzy partition of the scientific literature. It is shown that this approach is more successful than currently applied normalization approaches in reducing the variability in the observed citation distribution that stems from the variability in the articles’ addressed subject matter. In addition, the suggested approach can enhance the interpretability of normalized citation counts. Finally, the proposed method for assessing the stability of citation indicators stresses that small alterations that could be artifacts from the data collection and preparation steps can have a significant influence on the picture that is painted by the citationindicator. Therefore, providing stability intervals around derived indicators prevents unfounded conclusions that otherwise could have unwanted policy implications. Together, the new normalization approach and the method for assessing the stability of citation indicators have the potential to enable fairer bibliometric evaluative exercises and more cautious interpretations of citation indicators.

The purpose of this research is to improve retrieval performance in systems that use assigned subject descriptors, such as library subject headings. We are looking for wider semantic boundaries surrounding summary headings assigned to documents by providing a means of identifying clustered headings that fall within the indexerâ s collective common perceptions of relevance. We are here experimenting with two techniques that can help increase both precision and recall. In earlier research citationâ chasing was employed to yield a fuller retrieval set than might have been found using subject headings alone. In the present study we are employing multiâ dimensional scaling to determine the best fit among works to which subject descriptors have been coâ assigned. A term co-occurrence matrix compiled from 19 LCSH subject headings assigned to works in the field of â language originâ is used to generate an MDS map of the semantic space. Two clusters emerge: language and languages, and evolution biology, sometimes termed evolingo. Results allow us to visualize how differing perceptions of indexers affect the semantic space surrounding assigned terms. In both cases - citation-chasing and term co-occurrence - and especially when combining the two techniques acting as thresholds for each other, it is possible to overcome the inverse relation between precision and recall.

The primary purpose of this study was to determine if there is a relationship between the bibliographic citation practices of the members of a discipline and the emphasis placed on citation accuracy and purposes in the graduate instruction of the discipline.

When you are assigned a research paper, you will spend many hours searching the library and the Internet for materials relevant to your topic. It is important to develop a system to organize and save the information you wish to use for your paper. After completing this interactive tutorial you will be able to create a research log to organize and save the information from a web site. This flash tutorial requires a screen resolution of 1024 x 768 or higher.

The paper Fundamental methodologies and tools for the employment of webometric analyses defines the most important rules to keep in mind before performing webometric analyses. The paper deals with the two basic elements, that constitutes the foundation for webometric analyses: the documents being analysed, and the tools that are applied for the data collection. The concepts of a citation theory and a link theory are discussed through a study of the current litterature. Different methodologies for uncovering motivations for making references in scientific articles are reviewed and discussed. A methodology for uncovering motivations for making links on webpages is proposed and applied on six researchers' websites at the Royal School of Library and Information Science in Denmark, and on all the institutes at the same institution and at selected institutes at The Technical University of Denmark. The paper further contains a review on the linktopology of the Internet and the current status for the tools available for data collection. Finally, alternative possible tools for applying webometric analyses are proposed. The alternative tools are the Researchindex invented by Lawrence and Giles (Lawrence, Bollacker & Giles, 1999b; Giles, Bollacker & Lawrence, 1998), Kleinberg's HITS algorithm employed in the Clever search engine (The Clever Project, n.d.; Kleinberg, 1998), Proposals for possible extensions to the HTTP protocol to facilitate the collection and navigation of backlink information in the world wide web made by Chakrabarti, Gibson and McCurley (Chakrabarti, Gibson & McCurley, 1999c) and finally Link Agent, a program we have developed for this paper. The program makes it possible to uncover the reciprocal linking webpages, that exist in relation to the outgoing links from a chosen webpage. Keywords: Informetrics, Webometrics, Citation theory, Link theory, Motivations for links, Motivations for references, Search engines, Webometric tools

null / Use of citations and web links embedded in online teaching materials was studied for an undergraduate course. The undergraduate students enrolled in Geographic Information Science for Geography and Regional Development used web links more often than citations, but clearly did not see them as key to enhancing learning. Current conventions for citing and linking tend to make citations and links invisible. There is some evidence that citations and web links categorized and highlighted in terms of their importance and function to be served may help student learning in interdisciplinary domains. This is a preprint of the article published in the Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 56 (4) February: 382-392.

Authors: E. Bassecoulard, D. deB. Beaver, H.-J. Czerwon, M. Davis, K. Fuchs-Kittowski, L. Fuglsang, S. Gerasimova, W. Glänzel, J. Gläser, Y. Guo, F. Havemann, H. Kretschmer, R. Kundra, L. Lange, G. Laudel,,L. Liang, Z. Liu, U. Matzat, à . Must, Y. Okubo, R. Rousseau, S.L. Sangam, D. Tomov, R. Wagner-Döbler, Y. Wang, V. Wenzel, C.S. Wilson, Y. Wu, M. Zitt

In this study we examine citation data for books that have been cited in the journal articles that were published by authors at a large university during 1981-2001.

Conference proceedings represent a large part of the literature in computer science. Two Conference Proceedings Citation Index databases were merged with Web of Science in 2008, but very few studies have been conducted to evaluate the effect of that merger of databases on citation indicators in computer science in comparison to other databases. This study explores whether or not the addition of the Conference Proceedings Citation Indexes to Web of Science has changed the citation analysis results when compared to Scopus. It compares the citation data of 25 randomly selected computer science faculty in Canadian universities in Web of Science (with Conference Proceedings Citation Indexes) and Scopus. The results show that Scopus retrieved considerably more publications including conference proceedings and journal articles. Scopus also generated higher citation counts and h-index than Web of Science in this field, though relative citation rankings from the two databases were similar. It is suggested that either database could be used if a relative ranking is sought. If the purpose is to find a more complete or higher value of citation counting or h-index, Scopus is preferable. It should be noted that no matter which source is used, citation analysis as a tool for research performance assessment must be constructed and applied with caution because of its technological and methodological limitations

Thesis (M.I.St.)--University of Toronto, 2009. / Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 48-02, page: .