Abstract

In the last few years, Thomson Reuters has launched two new scientific data sources: Book citation index and Data citation index. The renowned family of citation indexes has been expanded to six members, including journal articles, proceedings papers, books, book chapters and research data. For the first time ever we have the chance to include this wide variety of scientific formats in developing bibliometric tools such as university rankings. For some, this would end the serious coverage limitations derived from their exclusive reliance on journal articles. In this short article we suggest the creation of a ranking of Spanish universities based on the various citation indexes and we reflect on their potential interest as well as on their limitations.

Abstract

In 2010 Thomson launched a new citation index devoted to books: the Book citation index. This new database has opened new possibilities for analyzing fields such as the Humanities and Social Sciences from a bibliometric point of view. However we still know little about their coverage and especially about the scientific publishers that have been taken into account in the construction of this citation database. In this paper we analyze the BKCI coverage: countries, languages, concentration of publishers and finally we compare the database with Scholarly publishers indicators (SPI), produced in Spain by CCHS/CSIC. The conclusion is that Thomson is making the same mistakes as before: a clear Anglo-Saxon bias, a large concentration of publishers and an absence of a number of reputable publishers.

Abstract

The new bibliometric product announced by Thomson Reuters, Book citation index, is described. The authors discuss how this powerful company can carry out this big project (big science) and also improve its other products, taking advantage of the many studies undertaken by small bibliometric research teams (little science) in previous years. The new index promises to be successful because books are the main communication vehicle in the humanities.

Abstract

The presentation of the Book citation index, the new tool for bibliometric assessment of the ISI / Thomson Reuters, has generated deep concern about its inclusion criteria that perpetuate the biases of the citations databases already produced by this company. Given the importance this product may have for the description of scientific activity in disciplines such as social sciences and humanities, we propose a series of recommendations for book publishers with the aim of promote the indexation of their works in this database. A key proposal is to group the books in collections and then to build series in a similar fashion to scientific periodicals. Following this procedure and for guarantying formal quality, it is suggested to set up international committees for the collections, reviewers for each individual title, and additional information that can be added to the database like authors affiliation, extended summary, at least in English, keywords or the cited bibliography following international standards. As a final recommendation it is proposed the open access through any available channels.