Differences in the construction of sci based bibliometric indicators among various producers: A first overview

This contribution discusses basic technical-methodological issues with respect to data collection and the construction of bibliometric indicators, particularly at the macro or meso level. It focusses on the use of the Science Citation Index. Its aim is to highlight important decisions that have to be made in the process of data collection and the construction of bibliometric indicators. It illustrates differences in the methodologies applied by several important producers of bibliometric indicators: the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI); CHI Research, Inc.; the Information Science and Scientometrics Research Unit (ISSRU) at Budapest; and the Centre for Science and Technology Studies at Leiden University (CWTS). The observations made in this paper illustrate the complexity of the process of 'standardisation' of bibliometric indicators. Moreover, they provide possible explanations for divergence of results obtained in different studies. The paper concludes with a few general comments related to the need of 'standardisation' in the field of bibliometrics.