Bibliometrics involves using quantitative analysis to assess the impact and trends of scholarly literature. It uses tools such as citation counts, publication analysis, and metrics like the h-index to measure influence. Bibliometric methods help evaluate the productivity of researchers, institutions, and journals, as well as identify key research areas and trends within disciplines. This approach is commonly used in library science, research evaluation, and policy-making to gain insights into the dissemination and impact of academic work.
Derek J. de Solla Price, a British physicist, historian of science, and information scientist, is often regarded as the father of bibliometrics. His 1963 book “Little Science, Big Science” laid the foundation for the field by exploring the exponential growth of scientific literature and introducing many of the core ideas underlying modern bibliometric analysis.
In 1969, Pritchard defined bibliometrics as the application of mathematics and statistical methods to communication media.
Types of Bibliometrics
There are five types of bibliometric analysis, studies, and research conducted by researchers:
1. Author bibliometrics:
This type of analysis focuses on an individual author’s scholarly output, evaluating metrics such as citation counts, h-index, and publication volume. It helps to assess the quality and visibility of an author’s work in academic and research communities. An example of this type of study is “Authorship patterns in the computer sciences discipline: A bibliometric study.”
2. Publications bibliometric:
This involves quantitatively analyzing academic publications to assess their impact, influence, and quality using metrics like citation counts and journal impact factors. Such analysis aids in ranking journals, tracking research dissemination, and supporting academic evaluation. “Research performance of publications published in Mental Health Discipline: A bibliometric study” is one such publication.
3. Journals bibliometric:
This type of analysis entails quantitatively assessing academic journals, focusing on metrics like impact factor, citation counts, and journal rankings. It evaluates the influence and quality of journals within specific fields based on how frequently their articles are cited. This type of analysis helps researchers, institutions, and libraries determine the most impactful and reputable journals for publishing and referencing scholarly work.
Journals bibliometric provides statistical analysis of journals such as Journals Impact Factor (the average number of citations for articles in a particular journal from the preceding years), Scimago Journal Rank (SIR), Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP), Field Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI), and other indexing tools.
An example is “Bibliometric analysis of Top 10 Emergency Medical Journals.”
4. Group metrics
Group metrics examine the impact and total amount of research produced by groups, departments, or organizations. It looks at metrics such as the total number of publications, citations, and patterns of collaboration to evaluate the group’s productivity and impact. Research groups’ overall contribution to their fields, as well as their strengths and networks of collaboration, are identified with the aid of this analysis. The metrics and citation analyses of any particular profession, such as the bibliometrics analysis of New York University faculty members or the bibliometrics analysis of medical professionals working in the USA, are presented by the groups engaged in bibliometrics analysis.
Additionally, group’s bibliometric analysis has two categories.
A bibliometrics analysis that was specific to certain associations of professionals. Teachers, doctors, engineers, nurses, members of the media, and computer programmers are a few examples.
For instance:
Bibliometric analysis of the research output of John Hopkins University’s dentistry faculty members
b. A bibliometric analysis focused on a particular organization. (Research-based organizations, hospitals, universities, and academic institutions).
For instance:
Faculty Research Performance at Taxes University, USA
5.Alternative metrics
Alternative metrics, also known as altmetrics, are used to measure the impact of scholarly work using non-traditional sources such as social media mentions, blog posts, downloads, and online shares. Unlike traditional citation-based metrics, altmetrics capture immediate and broader engagement with research beyond academic circles. They provide insights into how research resonates with the public, practitioners, and online communities in real-time.
Altmetrics measure the usage of research and scientific results outside the traditional academic environment and have been developed in response to the limitations of bibliometrics. They are designed to complement traditional metrics, not replace them.
Examples of platforms that provide alternative metrics include ResearchGate, Google Scholar, and Scopus. Altmetrics go beyond citation counts and also include measures such as reads, views, and downloads, which is why they are called alternative metrics.
Bibliometric databases
Bibliometric databases are specialized databases that store and manage bibliographic information. They enable the analysis of scholarly publications and their impact and provide access to citation data, publication metrics, and other relevant information for conducting bibliometric analyses. Some key bibliometric databases are:
1. Web of Science: This database offers comprehensive citation data across multiple disciplines and provides various metrics, such as impact factors and citation indices.
2. Scopus: Scopus provides extensive coverage of peer-reviewed literature, citation data, and author and journal metrics.
3. Google Scholar: This is a broad database that includes citation data for a wide range of scholarly articles, although it may not be as comprehensive or curated as other databases.
4. PubMed: PubMed focuses on biomedical and life sciences literature, offering citation and publication metrics specific to these fields.
5. IEEE Xplore: This database specializes in engineering, computer science, and electronics literature, providing citation data and publication metrics relevant to these areas.
Bibliometric analysis is a method used to evaluate the impact, influence, and trends in academic and scientific research. It involves assessing the productivity and impact of individual researchers, institutions, and journals by analyzing metrics like citation counts, publication volume, and collaboration networks. This type of analysis is commonly utilized in research evaluation, science policy development, and decision-making processes. It is also valuable for identifying key research areas, leading contributors, and emerging trends in different fields.
