Scholarly publication patterns in the social sciences and humanities and their coverage in Scopus and Web of Science Gunnar Sivertsen Nordic Institute for Studies in Innovation, Research and Education, Oslo, Norway 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% Health Sciences Natural Sciences Engineering Social Sciences Humanities Scopus Web of Science Indexed journals Journals and series Books
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Scholarly publication patterns in the social sciences and humanities and their coverage in Scopus and Web of Science
Gunnar Sivertsen
Nordic Institute for Studies in Innovation, Research and Education, Oslo, Norway
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Health
Sciences
Natural
Sciences
Engineering Social
Sciences
Humanities
Scopus Web of Science
Indexedjournals
Journals and series
Books
Overview
1. Introduction: Why?
2. Methods: WoS, BCI, and Scopus compared to National CRIS-data
3. Results: Large variations among subfields in the SSH
4. Discussion:
a. Major differences between Elsevier and Thomson Reuters?
b. What types of publications are not covered?
c. Same pattern across countries?
d. What will happen to book publishing and the use of native languages in the SSH?
e. Will it become possible to achieve comprehensive coverage of scholarly publishing in the SSH?
Overview
1. Introduction: Why?
2. Methods: WoS, BCI, and Scopus compared to National CRIS-data
3. Results: Large variations among subfields in the SSH
4. Discussion:
a. Major differences between Elsevier and Thomson-Reuters?
b. What types of publications are not covered?
c. Same pattern across countries?
d. What will happen to book publishing and the use of native languages in the SSH?
e. Will it become possible to achieve comprehensive coverage of scholarly publishing in the SH?
Why?
The purpose of the study is to discuss the options for an improved coverage of the SSH in international bibliographic data sources in the future.
How?
A dataset of more than 70,000 scholarly publications from the eight years 2005-2012, 44 per cent of which are in the SSH, will be used here to study the publication patterns in the SSH and their coverage in Scopus and Web of Science.
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20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
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100%
Health Sciences Natural Sciences Engineering Social Sciences Humanities
Scopus Web of Science
How?
Names of publication channels are standardized in the Cristin-data:
Journals or series (ISSN)
Publishers of books (ISBN-)
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
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100%
Health Sciences Natural Sciences Engineering Social Sciences Humanities
Scopus Web of Science
How?
Only peer-reviewed scholarly publications are included in the comparison:
Articles in journals or series
Articles in books
Books
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10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Health Sciences Natural Sciences Engineering Social Sciences Humanities
Scopus Web of Science
Cristin-data are matched by publication channel to the channels covered by Scopus, BCI, and WoS in 2013
Overview
1. Introduction: Why?
2. Methods: WoS, BCI, and Scopus compared to National CRIS-data
3. Results: Large variations among subfields in the SSH
4. Discussion:
a. Major differences between Elsevier and Thomson Reuters?
b. What types of publications are not covered?
c. Same pattern across countries?
d. What will happen to book publishing and the use of native languages in the SSH?
e. Will it become possible to achieve comprehensive coverage of scholarly publishing in the SH?
Coverage in WoS and Scopus of the HumanitiesScholarly journal publishingBased on complete data from the Norwegian HE sector 2005-2012
All publications Journal publications
Subfield Total % in journals % in int. language % in WoS % in Scopus
2. Methods: WoS, BCI, and Scopus compared to National CRIS-data
3. Results: Large variations among subfields in the SSH
4. Discussion:
a. Major differences between Elsevier and Thomson Reuters?
b. What types of publications are not covered?
c. Same pattern across countries?
d. What will happen to book publishing and the use of native languages in the SSH?
e. Will it become possible to achieve comprehensive coverage of scholarly publishing in the SH?
Major differences?
Scopus: Wider coverage of international and regional journals in the SSH
(WoS more limited)
Book Citation Index: Wider coverage of international English language publishers in the SSH
(Scopus more limited)
Overview
1. Introduction: Why?
2. Methods: WoS, BCI, and Scopus compared to National CRIS-data
3. Results: Large variations among subfields in the SSH
4. Discussion:
a. Major differences between Elsevier and Thomson Reuters?
b. What types of publications are not covered?
c. Same pattern across countries?
d. What will happen to book publishing and the use of native languages in the SSH?
e. Will it become possible to achieve comprehensive coverage of scholarly publishing in the SH?
Indexedjournals
Journals and series
Books
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Health
Sciences
Natural
Sciences
Engineering Social Sciences Humanities
Coverage of 70,500 scholarly publications from thehigher education sector in Norway 2005-2012.
ScopusWeb of Science
Incomplete coverage of internationaljournals in the SSH.
Very limited coverage of books.
Random or no coverage of the nationallevel (books and journals)
Österreichische Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaftis covered …
But Österreichische Zeitschrift für Soziologie is not covered
Swedish Journal of Sociologyis covered …
But Swedish Journal of Political Science is not covered
Overview
1. Introduction: Why?
2. Methods: WoS, BCI, and Scopus compared to National CRIS-data
3. Results: Large variations among subfields in the SSH
4. Discussion:
a. Major differences between Elsevier and Thomson Reuters?
b. What types of publications are not covered?
c. Same pattern across countries?
d. What will happen to book publishing and the use of native languages in the SSH?
e. Will it become possible to achieve comprehensive coverage of scholarly publishing in the SH?
CRIS systems for PBF
Both Elsevier and Thomson Reuters are nowintegrating thecitation databases with researchmanagement toolsand CRIS-systems
ERIH will become dynamic and include the social sciences
Overview
1. Introduction: Why?
2. Methods: WoS, BCI, and Scopus compared to National CRIS-data
3. Results: Large variations among subfields in the SSH
4. Discussion:
a. Major differences between Elsevier and Thomson Reuters?
b. What types of publications are not covered?
c. Same pattern across countries?
d. What will happen to book publishing and the use of native languages in the SSH?
e. Will it become possible to achieve comprehensive coverage of scholarly publishing in the SH?
Publication typesBased on 59,100 scholarly publications from the higher education sector in Norway 2005-2011.
0 % 20 % 40 % 60 % 80 % 100 %
Eng Sci
Nat Sci
Health Sci
Social Sci
Humanities
Articles in journals/series Articles in books Books
Publication types and research methodologies
Articles in journals/series:
Individual, often empirical studies based on a limiteddataset or with a particular focus
Author name(s) on title page of each article
Edited volumes (articles in books):
A collaborative effort represented in several individualstudies that are coordinated and edited from the outset
Author name(s) on title page of each article; names of theeditors on the title page of the book
Books:
A coherent presentation of in-depth studies with a widerfocus
Author name(s) on the title of the book
Articles in journals/series as share of all publicationsBased on 59,100 scholarly publications from the higher education sector in Norway 2005-2011.
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Natural Sci
Health Sci
Engineering
Soc Sci
Humanities
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Economics
Sociology
Linguistics
History
Articles in journals/series as share of all publicationsBased on 4,600 scholarly publications from the higher education sector in Norway 2005-2011.
Will English become the single scholarly language in the SSH?
No, probably not, because:
The so-called societal impact or relevance of the SSH depends on the scholars’ communication with their ownsociety and culture
Some findings may be less relevant to publish on theinternational level, but can be of high interest if publishedon the national level
The now widespread use of English among SSH scholars in some non-English speaking countries is so far accompaniedby the use of native language in some of their publications
Percentage publications in the national languageBased on 59,100 scholarly publications from the higher education sector in Norway 2005-2011.
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Humanities
Social Sci
Health Sci
Nat Sci
Engineering
Percentage publications in the national languageBased on 4,600 scholarly publications from the higher education sector in Norway 2005-2011.
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Economics
Sociology
Linguistics
History
Overview
1. Introduction: Why?
2. Methods: WoS, BCI, and Scopus compared to National CRIS-data
3. Results: Large variations among subfields in the SSH
4. Discussion:
a. Major differences between Elsevier and Thomson Reuters?
b. What types of publications are not covered?
c. Same pattern across countries?
d. What will happen to book publishing and the use of native languages in the SSH?
e. Will it become possible to achieve comprehensive coverage of scholarly publishing in the SH?
Scholarly journal articles on the national level will be concentrated in a few journals. Example: SociologyBased on 435 scholarly journal articles from the higher education sector in Norway 2005-2011.
0 20 40 60 80
53 other journals
Dansk Sociologi
Work, Employment and Society
European Societies: The Official Journal of the European…
Pakistan Journal of Criminology
Sociologia Ruralis
Comparative Sociology
Qualitative Inquiry
Journal of Classical Sociology
International Journal of Sociology
International Journal of Social Research Methodology
Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences
European Journal of Social Theory
Asian Journal of Social Science
Qualitative Sociology Review
Leisure Studies
Sociologisk forskning
Sociology
Ethnic and Racial Studies
Journal of Youth Studies
Journal of Critical Realism
Sociological Review
Social Indicators Research
European Sociological Review
Acta Sociologica
Journal of Risk Research
Sosiologisk Årbok
Sosiologi i dag
Sosiologisk Tidsskrift
Typically, Scopus will have a wider coverage of these journalsExample: SociologyBased on 435 scholarly journal articles from the higher education sector in Norway 2005-2011.
0 20 40 60 80
53 other journals
Dansk Sociologi
Work, Employment and Society
European Societies: The Official Journal of the European…
Pakistan Journal of Criminology
Sociologia Ruralis
Comparative Sociology
Qualitative Inquiry
Journal of Classical Sociology
International Journal of Sociology
International Journal of Social Research Methodology
Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences
European Journal of Social Theory
Asian Journal of Social Science
Qualitative Sociology Review
Leisure Studies
Sociologisk forskning
Sociology
Ethnic and Racial Studies
Journal of Youth Studies
Journal of Critical Realism
Sociological Review
Social Indicators Research
European Sociological Review
Acta Sociologica
Journal of Risk Research
Sosiologisk Årbok
Sosiologi i dag
Sosiologisk Tidsskrift
Scholarly book publishing on the national level is evenmore concentrated in a few channels in each country
What is beyond coverage? Is comprehensive coveragefeasible?
Beyond coverage:
• Incomplete coverage of internationaljournals in the SSH.
• Very limited coverage of books.
• Random or no coverage of the nationallevel (books and journals)
• Feasible?
• Yes, if the coverage is restricted to scholarly publication channels (journals, series, book publishers) that publish with• Peer review• Authors from several institutions• Abstracts in English and standard