New Article: “Measuring Researcher Independence Using Bibliometric Data: A Proposal For a New Performance Indicator” (Preprint)
The following preprint was posted to bioRxiv on August 9, 2018.
Title
Measuring Researcher Independence Using Bibliometric Data: A Proposal For a New Performance Indicator
Authors
KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm
Source
via bioRxiv
doi: 10.1101/388678
Abstract
Bibliometric indicators are increasingly used at the individual level – as is exemplified by the popularity of the H-index and many other publication and citation based indicators used in evaluation. The issue not is whether these indicators can be considered useful, as they do provide a description of a researcher’s oeuvre. However, at the same time, they are not enough to assess the quality of a researcher and his/her oeuvre: Quality has more dimensions than productivity and impact alone. In this paper, we argue that independence is an equally important characteristic that however lacks validated indicators for measuring it at the individual level.
In this paper, we propose two indicators to measure different dimensions of independence: one measuring whether a researcher has developed an own collaboration network, and another measuring the level of thematic independence. We illustrate how these indicators distinguish between researchers that are equally productive and have similar impact. The independence indicator is a step forward in measuring individual scholarly quality: in cases where citations and publications do not distinguish, the indicators for independence may do.
Direct to Full Text Article (Preprint)
31 pages; PDF.
Filed under: Data Files, Journal Articles, News, Productivity
About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.