Abstract
By employing the Pearson correlation, Fisher-and t-tests, the present study analyzes and compares scientometric data including number of source items, number of citations, impact factor, immediacy index, citing half-life and cited half-life, for essential journals in physics, chemistry and engineering, from SCI JCR on the Web 2002. The results of the study reveal that for all the scientometric indicators, except the cited half-life, there is no significant mean difference between physics and chemistry subjects indicating similar citation behavior among the scientists. There is no significant mean difference in the citing half-life among the three subjects. Significant mean difference is generally observed for most of the scientometric indicators between engineering and physics (or chemistry) demonstrating the difference in citation behavior among engineering researchers and scientists in physics or chemistry.
Significant correlations among number of source items, number of citations, impact factor, and immediacy index and between cited half-life and citing half-life generally prevail for each of the three subjects. On the contrary, in general, there is no significant correlation between the cited half-life and other scientometric indicators. The three subjects present the same strength of the correlations between number of source items and number of citations, between number of citations and impact factor, and between cited half-life and citing half-life.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anderson, T. W. (1984). An Introduction to Multivariable Statistical Analysis. New York: Wiley.
Bottle, R. T., Rowland, J. F. B. (Ed.) (1993), Information Sources in Chemistry, 4th ed. London: Bowker-Saur.
Boyce, B. R., Pollens, J. S. (1982), Citation-based impact measures and Bradfordian criteria. Collection Engineering, 4: 29.
Cho, J. E., Cho, C. T., Belmont, J. M. (1998), Learning to assess the value of infectious disease journals. Journal of the Microbiological Immunology Infectious, 31: 1–4.
De Queiroz, Gilda G., Lancaster, F. W. (1981), Growth, dispersion and obsolescence of the literature — a case study from thermoluminescent dosimetry. Journal of Research Communication Studies, 2: 203–217. http://www.isinet.com/isi/products/citation/jcr/index.html—2003/08/24
ISI JCR (2004), (http://isi.jcrweb.com) (2005/08/24)
Jemec, G. B. (2001), Impact factors of dermatological journals for 1991–2000. (http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-5945/1/7), BMC Dermatology, 1: 7.
Kuhlemeier, K. V. (1992), A bibliometric analysis of the Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 73: 126–132.
Lord, C. R. (Ed.) (2000), Guide to Information Sources in Engineering. Englewood, Colo: Libraries Unlimited.
Magyar, G. (1974), Bibliometric analysis of a new research sub-field. Journal of Documentation, 32.
Minium, E. W., Clarke, R. B. (1982), Elements of Statistical Reasoning. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Moed, H. F., Van Leeuwen, Th. N., Reedijk, J. (1999), Toward appropriate indicators of journal impact. Scientometrics, 46(3): 575–589.
Price, D. De Solla (1976), A general theory of bibliometric and other cumulative advantage processes. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 27: 292–306.
Ren, S., Rousseau, R. (2002), A scientometric data analysis of JCR-covered journals in geo-sciences. Journal of Physics, 28(1): 4–13.
Reyes-Guerra, D. R. (2006), Engineering. Encyclopedia Americana. Retrieved November 18, 2006, from Grolier Online http://ea-ada.grolier.com/cgi-bin/article?assetid=0143510-00
Rousseau, R., Van Hooydonk, G. (1996), Journal production and journal impact factors. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 47(10): 775–780.
Seglen, P. O. (1992), The skewness of science. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 49(3): 628–638.
Stern, D. (Ed.) (2000), Guide to Information Sources in the Physical Sciences. Englewood, Colo: Libraries Unlimited.
Vinkler, P. (2000), Evaluation of the publication activity of research teams by means of scientometric indicators. Current Science, 79(5): 602–612.
Vinkler, P. (2001), An attempt for defining some basic categories of scientometrics and classifying the indicators of evaluative scientometrics. Scientometrics, 50(3): 539–544.
Vinkler, P. (2004), Characterization of the impact of sets of scientific papers: the Garfield (impact) factor. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 55(5): 431–435.
Wallace, D. P. (1985), The Relationship between Journal Productivity and Obsolescence in a Subject Literature. Ph.D. diss., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, p.iii.
White, H. D., McCain, K. W. (1989), Bibliometrics. Annual Review of Information Science and Technology, 24: 119–185.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Tsay, MY. An analysis and comparison of scientometric data between journals of physics, chemistry and engineering. Scientometrics 78, 279–293 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-007-1996-1
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-007-1996-1