Academic CentreEvery contemporary researcher of Western academia is aware of bibliometrics – a discipline that studies publication patterns by using quantitative analysis and statistics. Bibliometrics can be either descriptive, such as looking at how many articles an organization has published, or evaluative, such as using citation analysis to look at how those articles influenced subsequent research by others. Counting publications can be useful for doing some comparisons, but citation analysis allows to look at the impact those articles have had on others by determining how often they are cited. Citation analysis can also help to estimate the impact of journals, organizations, and countries in different fields of research.
Database for production of bibliometric outputs
M. el Aisati has participated in inception of Scopus, Elsevier's abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature (scientific journals, books and conference proceedings), launched in 2004. Scopus currently is the world’s broadest abstract and citation database, encompassing extensive array of scientific sources beyond those published by Elsevier.
Scopus measures the prestige or influence of a scientific journal, considering not only the raw number of citations received by a journal, but also the importance or influence of the source of those citations, thus providing a combination of the quantity and quality of the citations received.
Scopus data underpins a portfolio of research solutions and tools. Scopus custom data along with other data feeds reports, assessment exercises, university rankings and commercial projects. QS and THE university rankings use Scopus as the exclusive source for bibliometric data.
Navigating the vast amounts of data
The lecture emphasised the potential held by bibliometric methods in processing extensive amounts of data – advanced technologies and analytics are applied to filter, extract and learn from vast data sets, social networks and collaboration platforms to arrive at the required content, and ultimately lead to improved outcomes in variety of fields: provide insight into global research productivity, help researchers find funding, collaborate with colleagues, assist clinical decisions of physicians and nurses, shorten the path of researchers to actionable R&D data, build adaptive learning technologies for students.
Bibliometrics for informed decisions
The informed decisionmaking, whether what university to choose, or what policy to pursue, is ever closer linked to considerations rooted in bibliometric assessments.
While research metrics with high-quality input give a balanced, multi-dimensional view for decisionmaking, M. El Aisati emphasised two ground rules to observe in using bibliometrics:
Rule No. 1: Always use both qualitative and quantitative input into your decisions.
Rule No. 2: Always use more than one research metric for your quantitative input.
Clearly, informed decisions are better decisions, at the same time, metrics should complement, not replace human judgment.
Global acclaim and local development
The lecture provided a demonstration of bibliometric data use in comparing countries’ published research achievements, cooperation networks and potential. When asked, what course is best to pursue regarding journals that are of national standing, but may never enter the Scopus, M. el Aisati emphasised the importance of these journals as the first step of young scientists to gain the skills required for preparing a publication and have it accepted for print, which then may serve as a springboard to achieving publication in journals of international acclaim.
Returning to the potential of bibliometric tools, investigating beyond the count of citations to actual mentions by scholars can uncover possible future research collaborators or opportunities. These mentions can be found in the Scopus Article Metrics module and forge new cross-border research projects.
Presentation of lecture “Bibliometrics as a tool for research assessment” by M. el Aisati, Vice President of Elsevier, presented at the UL House of Science on April 5, 2019, is available here
