The article (preprint vefrsion) linked to below was recently made available on arXiv.
Title
Authors
Daniel Torres-Salinas
University of Granada, Spain
Wenceslao Arroyo-Machado
University of Granada, Spain
Mike Thelwall
University of Wolverhampton
Source
via arXiv
Note: “This is a pre-print of an article published in Scientometrics. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-020-03814-w”
Abstract
Assessing the impact of scholarly books is a difficult research evaluation problem. Library Catalog Analysis facilitates the quantitative study, at different levels, of the impact and diffusion of academic books based on data about their availability in libraries. The WorldCat global catalog collates data on library holdings, offering a range of tools including the novel WorldCat Identities. This is based on author profiles and provides indicators relating to the availability of their books in library catalogs.
Here, we investigate this new tool to identify its strengths and weaknesses based on a sample of Bibliometrics and Scientometrics authors. We review the problems that this entails and compare Library Catalog Analysis indicators with Google Scholar and Web of Science citations. The results show that WorldCat Identities can be a useful tool for book impact assessment but the value of its data is undermined by the provision of massive collections of ebooks to academic libraries.
Direct to Full Text Article
15 pages; PDF.
Direct to Access/Use WorldCat Identities
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