Specification uncertainty: what the disruption index tells us about the (hidden) multiverse of bibliometric indicators

Christian Leibel () and Lutz Bornmann ()
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Christian Leibel: Administrative Headquarters of the Max Planck Society
Lutz Bornmann: Administrative Headquarters of the Max Planck Society

Scientometrics, 2024, vol. 129, issue 12, No 23, 7979 pages

Abstract: Abstract Following Funk and Owen-Smith (Manag Sci 63:791–817, 2017), Wu et al. (Nature 566:378–382, 2019) proposed the disruption index (DI1) as a bibliometric indicator that measures disruptive and consolidating research. When we summarized the literature on the disruption index for our recently published review article (Leibel and Bornmann in Scientometrics 129:601–639, 2024), we noticed that the calculation of disruption scores comes with numerous (hidden) degrees of freedom. In this Letter to the Editor, we explain based on the DI1 (as an example) why the analytical flexibility of bibliometric indicators potentially endangers the credibility of research and advertise the application of multiverse-style methods to increase the transparency of the research.

Keywords: Bibliometrics; Disruption index; CD index; Robustness; Multiverse-style methods (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1007/s11192-024-05201-1

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