Sixth Nordic Workshop on Bibliometrics

Time: October 4-5, 2001

Place: Statistics Sweden at Karlavägen 100, Stockholm

Call for papers and presentations

Workshop organizer: Prof Olle Persson, Inforsk, Umeå university
Local host: Anders Sundström, Statistics Sweden

Bibliometric researchers in the Nordic countries have arranged annual Nordic workshops on bibliometrics since 1996:

- 1996 in Helsinki
- 1997 in Stockholm
- 1998 in Oslo
- 1999 in Copenhagen
- 2000 in Oulu

The general scope of the workshops is to present recent bibliometric research in the Nordic countries and to create better linkages between the bibliometric research groups and their PhD students.

There are no fees for participating in the Nordic workshops on bibliometrics.

The workshop will start at about 12 on Thursday the 4th of October and end at about 16 on the 5th. On Thursday evening there will be a dinner at a restaurant (Has to be on an island as usual).

You will have to arrange travel and hotel all by yourself. It may be difficult to find a hotel room in Stockholm, so please book as soon as possible.

All participants are requested to make a presentation of a research paper or a research idea.

Please, let me know if you are coming and also submit a max 200 word abstract on what you would like to present as soon as possible and no later than 15th of September.

I will continually update the list of presentations on this site!

Also note, see below, that we have attracted two international stars to our workshop: Robert Tijssen and Wolfgang Glänzel!

With best regards

Olle Persson
Inforsk
Department of Sociology
Umeå university
SE-901 87 Umea
E-mail- Olle Persson

13.30-14.15 Invited paper:
"Bibliometric analyses of science-technology interactions: applications and new prospects for S&T policy studies"
Robert Tijssen, Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) Leiden University Netherlands
E-mail: tijssen@cwts.leidenuniv.nl
Abstract
At this point no comprehensive theoretical or quantitative models exist to inspire or guide integrated empirical studies of science-technology linkages. Currently, the research field is still in a stage of exploration and stocktaking. It remains a challenge to identify, categorize and measure key properties and developments of the interplay between scientific research ("science") and science-related technological development ("technology"). The multi-dimensional interactions between the science and technological domain requires at the very least a broad "systems" approach in which the various aspects of the interrelationships are analysed relative to their organisational and cognitive environment. The main obstacles are the complexity and reciprocal nature of various interconnections between science and technology, and the mathematical modeling of this web of linkages. Despite of these theoretical and methodological drawbacks, the research efforts in the international academic community over the last 30 years has resulted in a steadily growing series of loosely-coupled studies providing some "stylised facts" about key characteristics of science-technology interfaces and introducing fruitful methodologies which can be used as a starting point for such a systems approach. The bibliometric analyses of the large computerised databases containing research papers and patents have proved a particularly useful contribution to studies of the linkages between public research, industrial research and technological development. This "bibliometric" approach, and derivative indicators and statistics, has become an increasingly important toolbox in the 1990s, especially for S&T policy studies as witnessed by the incorporation of such numerical data in official S&T Indicator Reports such as those issued the National Science Foundation in the United States and DG Research of the European Commission. This paper reviews bibliometric case studies in this field, focussing on S&T policy studies conducted in the Netherlands, with a view towards convergence into an systems approach. Potential avenues for future research will be outlined and some new EC-financed policy-oriented research projects that are about to start will also be briefly introduced.

14.30-17.00 Presentations

"Bibliometric applications and journal management at institutional level"
Bo Jarneving, Swedish School of Library and Information Studies (SSLIS), Borås, Sweden
E-mail: BOJ@adm.hb.se
Abstract
This report describes the use and application of bibliometric methods in the context of journal collection development at college library level. More precisely, ways to optimize the journal collection as to relevance of journals pertaining to the subject fields of a faculty of engineering were sought. The focus was on the application and combination of bibliometric methods and techniques and on the choice and combination of source data. It was found that several methods probably would demand resources not likely to be coped with by a small college library. On the basis of these findings some methods of greater simplicity were suggested and applied. The outcome showed that the relevance of the technical and scientific journal collection could be enhanced by the use of bibliometric methods based on local user data. The use of both local and global data for expanding the analysis to encompass global use and visibility was also suggested and applied.

"A bibliometric analysis of IOLIM Conferences 1977-99 An attempt to formalise the Conference Impact Factor (CIF)"
Irene Wormell, Swedish School of Library and Information Studies (SSLIS), Borås, Sweden
E-mail: irene.wormell@hb.se
Abstract
Since 1977 IOLIM (International Online Information Meeting in London) has been the most important conference for users and producers of electronic information. The organiser of the conference is Learned Information Europe Ltd. a UK based commercial organisation. In order to measure the impact of these conferences on the LIS literature in general, a concept of Conference Impact Factor (CIF) is aimed to be explored for the first time. Following the pattern of Journal Impact Factor (JIF), the study presents a methodology for exploring the characteristics of a core international conference and measuring its impact. The study used the online citations databases in DIALOG as well as the CR-ROM version of LISA. Through statistical and bibliometric analysis the paper provides quantitative information about 1) Geographic distribution of Members of Organising Committees, Referee Panels, Authors, Delegates, and Citations. 2) Knowledge export of the Conference is measured by the subject categories of citing journals. 3) A list of the top most cited papers of the Proceedings is presented, as well as the name of the citing authors and journals. Via time series the study highlights trends and developments reflected by the IOLIM. Statistical data about the social and organisational backgroud of the conferences were collected and analysed by Senior Researcher, Dr. Helge Clausen, Statsbiblioteket in Århus, Denmark. The project was founded by the Ministery of Cultural Affairs in Denmark and carried out by the (former) Center for Informetric Studies in Copenhagen.

Published: Clausen, H. and Wormell, I. "A bibliometric analysis of IOLIM conferences 1977-1999". Journal of Information Science 27(3) (2001) 157-169.
Irene Wormell och Helge Clausen, "Online-konferenser i London i ett 25-års perspektiv." En bibliometrisk analys för åren 1977-1999. Tidskrift för Dokumentation 56(2) (2001) 7-15.

"The Journal Coverage of the Danish Health Science in SCI"
Peter Ingwersen, Royal School of Library and Information Science, Copenhagen, Denmark
E-mail: pi@db.de
Abstract
Den danske førsteforfatterandel for danske sundhedsvidenskabelige artikler,letters og review articles er 78% i SCI. Overføres dette forhold til Medline eller EMBASE, tabes derfor op til 20% ved optællinger af danske publikationer i disse fagspecifikke databaser inden for sundhedsvidenskab. Dækningsgraden i SCI er høj for de sundhedsvidenskabelige tidsskifter: når eventuelle overlap mellem og inden for institutionerne er fjernet, er den 69%. Det er primært den sundhedsvidenskabelige universitetsforskning, inkl. universitetshospitalernes forskning, som indgår i analysen. Der er uhyre lille variation mellem universiteterne i den høje dækningsgrad pr. universitet. Der er dog forskelle mellem de enkelte universiteter i deres anvendelse af SCI-indekserede tidsskrifter til tværgående afdelingssamarbejde.

"Time Dependent Co-Citation Analysis - The Case of LIS"
Olle Persson, Inforsk, Umeå university
E-mail: olle.persson@soc.umu.se
Abstract
All co-citation analysis implies a definition of a citing-cited year window - a set of documents from a given year range that cite documents of a given year range. In most cases the cited year range are not varied systematically, while the citing year range may vary from one to several years. A common experience is that the CO-citation results show small variations over the years, typically displaying classical documents and fairly old authors. However, if the cited window is limited, to for example cited documents not older than five years of the citing documents, the chance of discovering other and more active authors at the research front is greater. We can also hope to get a better dynamic picture of the field at hand. This approach is tested on 7001 articles from the 1986-1996 journal set used by White&McCain to study the intellectual base of Library and Information Science, and also on papers from Scientometrics 1978-2000.

"'Norwegian science' - does such a thing exist?"
Gunnar Sivertsen, NIFU, Oslo, Norway
E-mail: gunnar.sivertsen@nifu.no
Abstract
Several studies have assumed that 'Norwegian science' actually exists, e.g. Glänzel (2000) and Luukkonen et al. (1993). This assumption is crucial, not only for international bibliometric studies involving performance indicators for the Scandinavian countries or the measurement of international scientific collaboration, but also, on a national level, for bibliometrics, R&D statistics and research policy studies in general at Norwegian 'meta-institutions', e.g. the Norwegian Institute for Studies in Research and Higher Education, which the present study has been performed at. People involved in such 'meta-studies' of science would not be able to obtain salary if 'Norwegian science' does not exist. Although there is no evidence that the Atlantic salmon (salmo salar) applies for citizenship in vivo, it is still constructed as 'Norwegian' when cultivated in the Norwegian aquacultural industry and sold overseas, mainly on the European, Japanese and North-American markets. One might see the work of scientists in Norway as constructed as 'Norwegian science' in a similar way, but the present study eagerly argues that this is not the case. Evidence that 'Norwegian science' actually exists will be taken from a most recent historical context (Norway departed from a union with Sweden as late as 1905 and from a union with Denmark in 1814) by the use of quick webometric and bibliometric methods and short historical flashbacks in a colorful Powerpoint-presentation which by its visualizing rhetorical power leaves no doubt that there is a positive answer to the question in focus.
References
Glänzel, W. Science in Scandinavia: A bibliometric approach. Scientometrics, 48 (2000), 2, 121-150.
Luukkonen T, Tijssen RJW, Persson O, Sivertsen G. The measurement of international scientific collaboration, Scientometrics, 28 (1993),1, 15-36.

19.00-21.00 Dinner at Ulla Winbladhs Restaurang at Djurgården - an island (preliminary)

09.30-12.30 Presentations
12.30-13.30 Lunch
13.30-16.00 Presentations

"An introduction to principle differences between citations and sitation links. A methodological and mathematical approach"
Wolfgang Glänzel, Bibliometrics Service, Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest (Hungary) and Research Association for Science Communication and Information e. V. (RASCI), Berlin (Germany)
E-mail: Wolfgang Glanzel <glanzw@helka.iif.hu>
Abstract
In a recent paper, Glänzel and Schoepflin have interpreted the concept of citation as 'one important form of use of scientific information within the framework of documented science communication'. In general, there are many reasons for citing publications. Lists of such reasons ranging from positive over neutral to even negative motivations were given, for instance, by Garfield and Weinstock. In their paper, Glänzel and Schoepflin also pointed to different forms of information 'sources' and 'targets' in the sciences, social sciences and technology oriented research. Besides the different motivation and the different sources/targets, also the 'degree' of relevance (and even the redundancy) of information plays a characteristic role in scientific citation processes. Consequently, the rules in the practice of citing literature differ in the individual areas of the sciences, the social sciences and humanities. Although the concept of sitations can also be based on the relevance of information, it is not necessarily linked with a use of information. Moreover, motivations for sitations, as well as information 'sources' and 'targets' differ from their bibliometric 'counterparts'. The most striking deviation from bibliometric phenomena, however, is the possibility of an almost continuous change of contents. Unlike in the case of traditional scientific literature where citation processes are cumulative processes, sitation frequency can increase or decrease at any time. Consequently, (non-homogeneous) birth processes have been used to model bibliometric citation processes. In webometrics, on the other hand, special birth-and-death processes can be applied to describe changes of sitation frequencies over time. A simple birth-and-death process is analysed the stationary limiting distribution of which differs from those models used in traditional bibliometrics. The above-mentioned principle differences between citations and sitations also imply different notions of ageing and obsolescence of information in bibliometrics and webometrics which are discussed in brief.

"The Decline of Swedish Science: The Case of Neuroscience"
Rickard Danell, Inforsk, Umeå, Sweden
E-mail: rickard.danell@soc.umu.se
Abstract
Observing Swedish science some disturbing trends can be detected. Using the National Science Indicators it seems clear that there is a decline in Swedish science in terms of relative citation impact. An explanation for this decline, that has been frequent in the public debate, concerns the expansion of the Swedish University system and its negative impact on the quality of research. The purpose of the study is to test whether it is possible to observe any relationship between the entrance of new actors (at the organisational level) and decline in terms of citation impact. The largest of the fields that exhibit a decrease in relative citation impact is neuroscience. In order to test the relationship between the visibility of more actors and the decline in citation impact the field of neuroscience has been selected as a case. The study is based on 8413 Swedish articles published in journals classified as neuroscience, and it covers a period from1986 to 1996.

"Tracing knowledge flows in systems of innovation: An overview of quantitative approaches to study the science/technology linkage"
Martin Meyer and Jan Timm Utecht, Helsinki Univ Technol, Espoo, Finland
E-mail: martin.meyer@hut.fi, utrec@tuta.hut.fi
Abstract
Over the past few years, we could observe tendencies in innovation studies and related fields to put considerable emphasis on a systems view. There has been a shift of perspective towards interaction between the elements of innovation systems (Nelson 1993, Lundvall 1992, Granberg 1996, OECD 1997). Qualitative evidence points to an unfolding triple helix of intersecting activities of academic and industrial actors. Notions of the 'academic entrepreneur' and 'entrepreneurial university' reinforce this idea (Etzkowitz and Leydesdorff 2000; Etzkowitz et al. 1998). However, it remains a challenge to measure and quantify these developments at the interface between science and technology. This paper reviews some of these more analytical efforts and outlines potential avenues for future research. Our review indicates that there is not a holistic approach towards exploring the science/technology interface, but a number of studies that address this area from various angles - (a) the overall connection between the bodies of science and technology, as exemplified by the patent citation connection, (b) the industrial science connection, exemplified by publication activity of industrial researchers in business firms, and (c) the technological aspects of scientific activity, as exemplified by university patenting. For each of the above approaches, we shall discuss merits and possible disadvantages.

"Visualizing concept spaces through keyword and citation based maps and clusters"
Fredrik Åström Wirthig, Inforsk, Umeå, Sweden
E-mail: fredrik.astrom@soc.umu.se
Abstract
Co-citation analysis, and especially author co-citation analysis, has for last decades been widely accepted as the foremost method for bibliographic based mapping of research fields, whereas analyses based on keywords has been discussed, but criticized, and not gaining any overall acceptance (Whittaker, 1989; Leydesdorff, 1997). There are however advantages with keywords, such as creating maps understandable by others than those immediately connected to the research field analyzed. Also, when analyzing research fields where citation praxis differs widely from what has come to be the scientific norm, co-citation analysis is unable to identify sub-fields within research fields, and author co-citation analysis can in some cases be virtually impossible. This study aims at testing the relation between keyword and citation based analyses, to see if maps and clusters based on co-occurrence of keywords or citations varies in any significant way. The preliminary study is based on 533 articles from The Journal of the American Society for Information Science, covering the period from 1986 to 1996, where keywords has been added from the ERIC database. Three maps are compared: one based on co-citations, one on co-occurrence of keywords, and one merging citations and keywords; to see if the different visual representations and the clusters form similar structures or not.

"The effect of highly cited papers on national citation indicators"
Dag W. Aksnes & Gunnar Sivertsen, NIFU, Oslo, Norway
E-mail: Dag.W.Aksnes@nifu.no, gunnar.sivertsen@nifu.no
Abstract
Citation distributions are extremely skewed. This paper addresses the following question: To what extent are national citation indicators influenced by the inclusion of highly cited articles? The study represents a case study of the scientific production of Norway. We find that the average citation rates in national subfields are highly determined by one or only a few highly cited papers. Furthermore, there are large annual variations in the influence of highly cited papers on the average citation rate of the subfield. We conclude that an analysis of the underlying data for national indicators may be useful in creating awareness towards the occurrence of particular articles with great influence on what is normally considered an indicator of 'national performance', and that the common interpretation of the indicator on research policy level needs to be informed by this fact.

"Exploiting cognitive overlaps in Information Retrieval: achieving high precision by the use of citation analysis"
Birger Larsen, Royal School of Library and Information Science, Copenhagen, Denmark
E-mail: blar@db.dk
Abstract
A new citation search strategy is proposed for Information Retrieval (IR) purposes based on the principle of polyrepresentation (Ingwersen, 1996). The strategy exploits cognitive overlaps between a range of representations of the same documents in a structured manner. In contrast to earlier citation search strategies this do not require known relevant documents (seed documents) as starting point, but is based on a subject search. The strategy is essentially a 'cycling strategy' starting with documents retrieved by a subject search, wherefrom new documents are identified automatically by following the network of citations in scientific papers backwards and forwards in time. A pilot study is reported where the ability of the strategy to retrieve additional relevant documents is analysed. Results show that a very large amount of documents can be retrieved by the strategy, and that these may be segmented in a number of distinct 'layers'. These layers can be thought of as forming a pyramid: In this pyramid the proportion of relevant documents increase on the way to the top as the total number of documents in each layer decrease. It is suggested that the documents be displayed in order of their presence in higher-level overlaps, so as to maximise the chances that as many relevant documents as possible will be presented first. Records from Web of Science and Science Citation Index were used in the pilot study. A total of 289 documents were assessed for relevance by domain expert in relation to 3 work tasks.

"Mapping qualitative interviews"
Peder Karlsson, Inforsk, Umeå, Sweden
E-mail: peder.karlssonl@soc.umu.se
Abstract
This presentation deals with an attempt to use bibliometric ideas and tools as a complement in qualitative analyses. In my own work within the sociology of science, I have utilized qualitative interviewing to enter the 'life worlds' of researchers and to understand the phenomena of socialization from their point of view. These interviews contain the data material of my studies and the analysis, or the coding of the material, has been performed by the aid of "ATLAS.ti", a software for qualitative analyzes. To simplify matters, coding means picking out significant quotations from the interviews and to label these with terms or concepts suitable to the accounts. These codes make up the building blocks of a conceptual or theoretical understanding of the phenomena under study. A problem which I have encountered, though, is the difficulty of avoiding the imposition of my own tentative categorical thinking on the data, i.e., to 'force' the material to fit the emerging categories. One way to come to terms with this problem is to 'shatter' one's own thinking by taking other forms of representation into account. In this case, the co-occurance of codes as well as the co-occurence of codes and interview documents have been analyzed with "Bibexcel", a toolbox for bibliometricians. In this way MDS-maps have been generated which can be seen as visualizations of the coding procedure. The (qualitative) interpretation of the maps, I will argue, can then be used to enrich the subsequent analysis. The purpose of this presentation is to show and to evaluate the results of this analytical attempt.

"Use of interlibrary loan statistics for bibliometric research"
Antje Rapmund, NIFU, Oslo, Norway
E-mail:antje@postkontor.nifu.no
Abstract
Interlibrary loan statistics for Norway's research, academic and special libraries of the last 3 years show a decline of the number of articles delivered to Norwegian libraries. In the same period we can see a reduction of the holdings of periodical titles in Norwegian research, academic and special libraries (Data: RBT-statistics RBT = National Office for Research Documentation, Academic and Special Libraries). Background for these reductions are increased prices (ca. 10% a year) and improved possibilities to get access to articles on the Internet. National statistics of interlibrary loan of article copies can be used in two ways: 1. as an indicator of the popularity of scientific journals in a country and 2. as an indicator of the use of library holdings in a country. If we combine national data about interlibrary loan of article copies with a citation analysis (NSI - National Science Indicators) we can come still further: · Are the most cited journals also the most demanded journals in the libraries? · Do the libraries hold the most cited journals in a given subject (comparison of cited nation-wide and international)? · Do the library holdings reflect the gaps and shortcomings of Norwegian science and research or are they more oriented to the international scientific community? · How do interlibrary loan statistics and citation statistics reflect the reception of new journals? Do they increase simultaneously or do citations appear first?

"Journal collection management in a health science library at the onset of the electronic age"
Stefania Juliusdottir, Åbo Akademi, Turkku, Finland
E-mail:sjuliusd@abo.fi
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to research the use of journal items by primary clientele of the Landspitali Health Sciences Library in Iceland. The results were to be used as basis for decision- making for developing the journal collection. The findings indicate that the LUHH Library has oversubscribed to journals in the past few years and that the same access could have been provided to knowledge and information at much lower cost by using interlibrary loans instead of subscribing to a considerable number of the journals. That way funds would have been available for considerable improvements of various other services benefiting the users more. Detailed statistical information on use is the basis for managing resources: funds, space and manpower efficiently, for the benefit of users. Contracts for subscriptions to electronic material should specify the collection and availability of such information to library managers. The findings may be of relevance for development of journal collections world-wide in the field of health sciences where the number of users is small and the array of specialities is large, such as in small institutions, amongst micro-nations and in the developing countries. Further studies are needed. It has implications for the way users at such institutions carry out their work and for the way electronic journals and electronic journal items should be distributed.

"The strength of weak ties crossing the Web"
Lennart Björneborn, Royal School of Library and Information Science, Copenhagen, Denmark
E-mail:lb@db.dk
Abstract
The presentation outlines ideas from a current PhD project concerned with link structures and so-called small-world phenomena on the Web, in the shape of short distances between 'distant' nodes in the Web graph. This approach may have possible implications for knowledge discovery or 'web mining', e.g., by using so-called co-linkage chains consisting of co-linking and co-linked web nodes (analogous to bibliographic couplings and co-citations) to identify potentially fertile scientific areas for cross-disciplinary exploration. A key concept in the project is so-called transversal links functioning as short cuts or weak ties between heterogeneous web clusters reflecting subject domains and interest communities on the Web. Published bookmark lists of researchers are of special interest in this approach, because their diverse contents may provide transversal links between heterogeneous subject domains. Bookmark lists reflect trails of researchers' diverse interests, preferences and actions on the Web, and thus constitute an obvious area for scientometric and webometric investigation. The presentation outlines a pilot study of shared outlinks (bibliographic couplings) between nine bookmark lists. Necessary steps of data filtering and editing are identified and categorized. Finally, an outline of a future case study concerned with identifying web clusters and transversal links in a context of academic web sites is presented.