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The rate of growth in scientific publication and the decline in coverage provided by Science Citation Index

The growth rate of scientific publication has been studied from 1907 to 2007 using available data from a number of literature databases, including Science Citation Index (SCI) and Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI). Traditional scientific publishing, that is publication in peer-reviewed journals,...

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Autores principales: Larsen, Peder Olesen, von Ins, Markus
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer Netherlands 2010
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2909426/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20700371
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11192-010-0202-z
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author Larsen, Peder Olesen
von Ins, Markus
author_facet Larsen, Peder Olesen
von Ins, Markus
author_sort Larsen, Peder Olesen
collection PubMed
description The growth rate of scientific publication has been studied from 1907 to 2007 using available data from a number of literature databases, including Science Citation Index (SCI) and Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI). Traditional scientific publishing, that is publication in peer-reviewed journals, is still increasing although there are big differences between fields. There are no indications that the growth rate has decreased in the last 50 years. At the same time publication using new channels, for example conference proceedings, open archives and home pages, is growing fast. The growth rate for SCI up to 2007 is smaller than for comparable databases. This means that SCI was covering a decreasing part of the traditional scientific literature. There are also clear indications that the coverage by SCI is especially low in some of the scientific areas with the highest growth rate, including computer science and engineering sciences. The role of conference proceedings, open access archives and publications published on the net is increasing, especially in scientific fields with high growth rates, but this has only partially been reflected in the databases. The new publication channels challenge the use of the big databases in measurements of scientific productivity or output and of the growth rate of science. Because of the declining coverage and this challenge it is problematic that SCI has been used and is used as the dominant source for science indicators based on publication and citation numbers. The limited data available for social sciences show that the growth rate in SSCI was remarkably low and indicate that the coverage by SSCI was declining over time. National Science Indicators from Thomson Reuters is based solely on SCI, SSCI and Arts and Humanities Citation Index (AHCI). Therefore the declining coverage of the citation databases problematizes the use of this source.
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spelling pubmed-29094262010-08-09 The rate of growth in scientific publication and the decline in coverage provided by Science Citation Index Larsen, Peder Olesen von Ins, Markus Scientometrics Article The growth rate of scientific publication has been studied from 1907 to 2007 using available data from a number of literature databases, including Science Citation Index (SCI) and Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI). Traditional scientific publishing, that is publication in peer-reviewed journals, is still increasing although there are big differences between fields. There are no indications that the growth rate has decreased in the last 50 years. At the same time publication using new channels, for example conference proceedings, open archives and home pages, is growing fast. The growth rate for SCI up to 2007 is smaller than for comparable databases. This means that SCI was covering a decreasing part of the traditional scientific literature. There are also clear indications that the coverage by SCI is especially low in some of the scientific areas with the highest growth rate, including computer science and engineering sciences. The role of conference proceedings, open access archives and publications published on the net is increasing, especially in scientific fields with high growth rates, but this has only partially been reflected in the databases. The new publication channels challenge the use of the big databases in measurements of scientific productivity or output and of the growth rate of science. Because of the declining coverage and this challenge it is problematic that SCI has been used and is used as the dominant source for science indicators based on publication and citation numbers. The limited data available for social sciences show that the growth rate in SSCI was remarkably low and indicate that the coverage by SSCI was declining over time. National Science Indicators from Thomson Reuters is based solely on SCI, SSCI and Arts and Humanities Citation Index (AHCI). Therefore the declining coverage of the citation databases problematizes the use of this source. Springer Netherlands 2010-03-10 2010 /pmc/articles/PMC2909426/ /pubmed/20700371 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11192-010-0202-z Text en © The Author(s) 2010 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
spellingShingle Article
Larsen, Peder Olesen
von Ins, Markus
The rate of growth in scientific publication and the decline in coverage provided by Science Citation Index
title The rate of growth in scientific publication and the decline in coverage provided by Science Citation Index
title_full The rate of growth in scientific publication and the decline in coverage provided by Science Citation Index
title_fullStr The rate of growth in scientific publication and the decline in coverage provided by Science Citation Index
title_full_unstemmed The rate of growth in scientific publication and the decline in coverage provided by Science Citation Index
title_short The rate of growth in scientific publication and the decline in coverage provided by Science Citation Index
title_sort rate of growth in scientific publication and the decline in coverage provided by science citation index
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2909426/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20700371
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11192-010-0202-z
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