TY - JOUR
T1 - Important factors when interpreting bibliometric rankings of world universities
T2 - An example from oncology
AU - Calero-Medina, Clara
AU - López-Illescas, Carmen
AU - Visser, Martijn S.
AU - Moed, Henk F.
N1 - Funding Information:
The data for the study presented in this paper are partly based on the ASSIST project (Analysis and Studies and Statistics & Indicators on Science and Technology), funded by the European Commission Sixth Framework Programme of Research, Technology and Development. This paper is a slightly modified version of a paper by the same authors entitled ‘Important factors to be considered in the interpretation of bibliometric rankings of world universities’ published in the Proceedings of the Third Meeting of the International Ranking Expert Group (IREG-3), October 28–31 2007, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China. The research carried out by Carmen López-Illescas is funded by a grant of the Ministry of Science and Education of Spain for the training of university teachers.
PY - 2008/3
Y1 - 2008/3
N2 - This paper presents bibliometric characteristics of the 386 most frequently publishing world universities and of a (partly overlapping) set of 529 European universities. Rather than presenting a ranking itself, it presents a statistical analysis of ranking data, focusing on more general patterns. It compares US universities with European institutions; countries with a strong concentration of academic research activities among universities with nations showing a more even distribution; a ranking of universities based on indicators calculated for all research fields combined with one compiled for a single field (oncology); general with specialised universities; and rankings based on a single indicator with maps combining social network analysis and a series of indicators. It highlights important factors that should be taken into account in the interpretation of rankings of research universities based on bibliometric indicators. Moreover, it illustrates policy-relevant research questions that may be addressed in secondary analyses of ranking data. In this way, this paper aims at contributing to a public information system on research universities.
AB - This paper presents bibliometric characteristics of the 386 most frequently publishing world universities and of a (partly overlapping) set of 529 European universities. Rather than presenting a ranking itself, it presents a statistical analysis of ranking data, focusing on more general patterns. It compares US universities with European institutions; countries with a strong concentration of academic research activities among universities with nations showing a more even distribution; a ranking of universities based on indicators calculated for all research fields combined with one compiled for a single field (oncology); general with specialised universities; and rankings based on a single indicator with maps combining social network analysis and a series of indicators. It highlights important factors that should be taken into account in the interpretation of rankings of research universities based on bibliometric indicators. Moreover, it illustrates policy-relevant research questions that may be addressed in secondary analyses of ranking data. In this way, this paper aims at contributing to a public information system on research universities.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=43149097837&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3152/095820208X280907
DO - 10.3152/095820208X280907
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:43149097837
SN - 0958-2029
VL - 17
SP - 71
EP - 81
JO - Research Evaluation
JF - Research Evaluation
IS - 1
ER -