Paper Info
Title
The effects and their stability of field normalization baseline on relative performance with respect to citation impact: A case study of 20 natural science departments
Abstract
In this paper we study the effects of field normalization baseline on relative performance of 20 natural science departments in terms of citation impact. Impact is studied under three baselines: journal, ISI/Thomson Reuters subject category, and Essential Science Indicators field. For the measurement of citation impact, the indicators item-oriented mean normalized citation rate and Top-5% are employed. The results, which we analyze with respect to stability, show that the choice of normalization baseline matters. We observe that normalization against publishing journal is particular. The rankings of the departments obtained when journal is used as baseline, irrespective of indicator, differ considerably from the rankings obtained when ISI/Thomson Reuters subject category or Essential Science Indicators field is used. Since no substantial differences are observed when the baselines Essential Science Indicators field and ISI/Thomson Reuters subject category are contrasted, one might suggest that people without access to subject category data can perform reasonable normalized citation impact studies by combining normalization against journal with normalization against Essential Science Indicators field.
Year
DOI
Venue
2011
10.1016/j.joi.2010.09.003
Journal of Informetrics
Keywords
Field
DocType
Stability analysis,Field normalization baseline,Journal,ISI/Thomson Reuters subject category,Essential Science Indicators field,Citation impact
Data mining,Normalization (statistics),Computer science,Citation impact,Citation,Baseline (configuration management),Essential science indicators,Natural science
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
5
1
1751-1577
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
15
1.23
18
Authors
2
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Cristian Colliander1694.79
Per Ahlgren and Ting Yue234827.37