Bibliometric Indicators Reflect Publication and Management Strategies

Henk F. Moed
Additional contact information
Henk F. Moed: Leiden University

Scientometrics, 2000, vol. 47, issue 2, No 10, 323-346

Abstract: Abstract In a bibliometric study of nine research departments in the field of biotechnology and molecular biology, indicators of research capacity, output and productivity were calculated, taking into account the researchers' participation in scientific collaboration as expressed in co-publications. In a quantitative approach, rankings of departments based on a number of different research performance indicators were compared with one another. The results were discussed with members from all nine departments involved. Two publication strategies were identified, denoted as a quantity of publication and a quality of publication strategy, and two strategies with respect to scientific collaboration were outlined, one focusing on multi-lateral and a second on bi-lateral collaborations. Our findings suggest that rankings of departments may be influenced by specific publication and management strategies, which in turn may depend upon the phase of development of the departments or their personnel structure. As a consequence, differences in rankings cannot be interpreted merely in terms of quality or significance of research. It is suggested that the problem of assigning papers resulting from multi-lateral collaboration to the contributing research groups has not yet been solved properly, and that more research is needed into the influence of a department's state of development and personnel structure upon the values of bibliometric indicators. A possible implication at the science policy level is that different requirements should hold for departments of different age or personnel structure.

Date: 2000
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (35)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1023/A:1005695111622 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:scient:v:47:y:2000:i:2:d:10.1023_a:1005695111622

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11192

DOI: 10.1023/A:1005695111622

Access Statistics for this article

Scientometrics is currently edited by Wolfgang Glänzel

More articles in Scientometrics from Springer, Akadémiai Kiadó
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().