Scientometrics for the Humanities and Social Sciences

Scientometrics for the Humanities and Social Sciences
Author: R. Sooryamoorthy
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2020-11-09
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1000258106

Scientometrics for the Humanities and Social Sciences is the first ever book on scientometrics that deals with the historical development of both quantitative and qualitative data analysis in scientometric studies. It focuses on its applicability in new and emerging areas of inquiry. This important book presents the inherent potential for data mining and analysis of qualitative data in scientometrics. The author provides select cases of scientometric studies in the humanities and social sciences, explaining their research objectives, sources of data and methodologies. It illustrates how data can be gathered not only from prominent online databases and repositories, but also from journals that are not stored in these databases. With the support of specific examples, the book shows how data on demographic variables can be collected to supplement scientometric data. The book deals with a research methodology which has an increasing applicability not only to the study of science, but also to the study of the disciplines in the humanities and social sciences.

Research Assessment in the Humanities

Research Assessment in the Humanities
Author: Michael Ochsner
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 249
Release: 2016-04-19
Genre: Education
ISBN: 3319290169

This book analyses and discusses the recent developments for assessing research quality in the humanities and related fields in the social sciences. Research assessments in the humanities are highly controversial and the evaluation of humanities research is delicate. While citation-based research performance indicators are widely used in the natural and life sciences, quantitative measures for research performance meet strong opposition in the humanities. This volume combines the presentation of state-of-the-art projects on research assessments in the humanities by humanities scholars themselves with a description of the evaluation of humanities research in practice presented by research funders. Bibliometric issues concerning humanities research complete the exhaustive analysis of humanities research assessment. The selection of authors is well-balanced between humanities scholars, research funders, and researchers on higher education. Hence, the edited volume succeeds in painting a comprehensive picture of research evaluation in the humanities. This book is valuable to university and science policy makers, university administrators, research evaluators, bibliometricians as well as humanities scholars who seek expert knowledge in research evaluation in the humanities.

Virtual Knowledge

Virtual Knowledge
Author: Paul Wouters
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2012-10-19
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0262304821

An examination of emerging forms of knowledge creation using Web-based technologies, analyzed from an interdisciplinary perspective. Today we are witnessing dramatic changes in the way scientific and scholarly knowledge is created, codified, and communicated. This transformation is connected to the use of digital technologies and the virtualization of knowledge. In this book, scholars from a range of disciplines consider just what, if anything, is new when knowledge is produced in new ways. Does knowledge itself change when the tools of knowledge acquisition, representation, and distribution become digital? Issues of knowledge creation and dissemination go beyond the development and use of new computational tools. The book, which draws on work from the Virtual Knowledge Studio, brings together research on scientific practice, infrastructure, and technology. Focusing on issues of digital scholarship in the humanities and social sciences, the contributors discuss who can be considered legitimate knowledge creators, the value of “invisible” labor, the role of data visualization in policy making, the visualization of uncertainty, the conceptualization of openness in scholarly communication, data floods in the social sciences, and how expectations about future research shape research practices. The contributors combine an appreciation of the transformative power of the virtual with a commitment to the empirical study of practice and use. Contributors Anne Beaulieu, Sarah de Rijcke, Bas van Heur, Smiljana Antonijević, Stefan Dormans, Sally Wyatt, Matthijs Kouw, Charles van den Heuvel, Andrea Scharnhorst, Rebecca Moody, Victor Bekkers, Clement Levallois, Stephanie Steinmetz, Paul Wouters, Clifford Tatum, Nicholas W. Jankowski, Jan Kok

Handbook of Quantitative Science and Technology Research

Handbook of Quantitative Science and Technology Research
Author: Henk F. Moed
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 824
Release: 2004-09-10
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9781402027024

This handbook offers a state-of-the-art overview of quantitative science and technology research. It focuses on the development and application of indicators derived from data on scientific or scholarly publications and patents. It comprises 34 chapters written by leading specialists in the various sub-domains. These chapters deal with theoretical and methodological issues, illustrate applications, and highlight their policy context and relevance. Authors present a survey of the research topics they address, and show their most recent achievements. The 34 chapters are arranged into 5 parts: Disciplinary Approaches; General Methodology; The Science System; The Technology System; and The Science–Technology Interface. The Editor’s Introduction provides a further specification of the handbook’s scope and of the main topics addressed in its chapters. This handbook aims at four distinct groups of readers: – practitioners in the field of science and technology studies; – research students in this field; – scientists, scholars and technicians who are interested in a systematic, thorough analysis of their activities; – policy makers and administrators who wish to be informed about the potentialities and limitations of the various approaches and about their results.

The Challenge of Scientometrics

The Challenge of Scientometrics
Author: Loet Leydesdorff
Publisher: Universal-Publishers
Total Pages: 360
Release: 2001
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 9781581126815

Scientometrics--the quantitative study of scientific communication--challenges science and technology studies by demonstrating that organized knowledge production and control is amenable to measurement. First, the various dimensions of the empirical study of the sciences are clarified in a methodological analysis of theoretical traditions, including the sociology of scientific knowledge and neo-conventionalism in the philosophy of science. Second, the author argues why the mathematical theory of communication enables us to address crucial problems in science and technology studies, both on the qualitative side (e.g., the significance of a reconstruction) and on the quantitative side (e.g., the prediction of indicators). A comprehensive set of probabilistic entropy measures for studying complex developments in networks is elaborated. In the third part of the study, applications to S&T policy questions (e.g., the emergence of a European R&D system), to problems of (Bayesian) knowledge representations, and to the study of the sciences in terms of 'self-organizing' paradigms of scientific communication are provided. A discussion of directions for further research concludes the study.

Open Access

Open Access
Author: Peter Suber
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 255
Release: 2012-07-20
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0262517639

A concise introduction to the basics of open access, describing what it is (and isn't) and showing that it is easy, fast, inexpensive, legal, and beneficial. The Internet lets us share perfect copies of our work with a worldwide audience at virtually no cost. We take advantage of this revolutionary opportunity when we make our work “open access”: digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions. Open access is made possible by the Internet and copyright-holder consent, and many authors, musicians, filmmakers, and other creators who depend on royalties are understandably unwilling to give their consent. But for 350 years, scholars have written peer-reviewed journal articles for impact, not for money, and are free to consent to open access without losing revenue. In this concise introduction, Peter Suber tells us what open access is and isn't, how it benefits authors and readers of research, how we pay for it, how it avoids copyright problems, how it has moved from the periphery to the mainstream, and what its future may hold. Distilling a decade of Suber's influential writing and thinking about open access, this is the indispensable book on the subject for researchers, librarians, administrators, funders, publishers, and policy makers.

The Evaluation of Research in Social Sciences and Humanities

The Evaluation of Research in Social Sciences and Humanities
Author: Andrea Bonaccorsi
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 417
Release: 2018-01-04
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 3319685546

This book examines very important issues in research evaluation in the Social Sciences and Humanities. It is based on recent experiences carried out in Italy (2011-2015) in the fields of research assessment, peer review, journal classification, and construction of indicators, and presents a systematic review of theoretical issues influencing the evaluation of Social Sciences and Humanities. Several chapters analyse original data made available through research assessment exercises. Other chapters are the result of dedicated and independent research carried out in 2014-2015 aimed at addressing some of the debated and open issues, for example in the evaluation of books, the use of Library Catalog Analysis or Google Scholar, the definition of research quality criteria on internationalization, as well as opening the way to innovative indicators. The book is therefore a timely and important contribution to the international debate.

Handbook on Research Assessment in the Social Sciences

Handbook on Research Assessment in the Social Sciences
Author: Engels, Tim C.E.
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 544
Release: 2022-04-19
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1800372558

This Handbook provides a comprehensive overview of current developments, issues and good practices regarding assessment in social science research. It pays particular attention to the challenges in evaluation policies in the social sciences, as well as to the specificities of publishing in the area.

Measuring Research

Measuring Research
Author: Cassidy R. Sugimoto
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 169
Release: 2018
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 0190640111

Policy makers, academic administrators, scholars, and members of the public are clamoring for indicators of the value and reach of research. The question of how to quantify the impact and importance of research and scholarly output, from the publication of books and journal articles to the indexing of citations and tweets, is a critical one in predicting innovation, and in deciding what sorts of research is supported and whom is hired to carry it out. There is a wide set of data and tools available for measuring research, but they are often used in crude ways, and each have their own limitations and internal logics. Measuring Research: What Everyone Needs to Know(R) will provide, for the first time, an accessible account of the methods used to gather and analyze data on research output and impact. Following a brief history of scholarly communication and its measurement -- from traditional peer review to crowdsourced review on the social web -- the book will look at the classification of knowledge and academic disciplines, the differences between citations and references, the role of peer review, national research evaluation exercises, the tools used to measure research, the many different types of measurement indicators, and how to measure interdisciplinarity. The book also addresses emerging issues within scholarly communication, including whether or not measurement promotes a "publish or perish" culture, fraud in research, or "citation cartels." It will also look at the stakeholders behind these analytical tools, the adverse effects of these quantifications, and the future of research measurement.