Skip to main content
Log in

The challenges to expand bibliometric studies from periodical literature to monographic literature with a new data source: the book citation index

Scientometrics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This study aims to gain a better understanding of communication patterns in different publication types and the applicability of the Book Citation Index (BKCI) for building indicators for use in both informetrics studies and research evaluation. The authors investigated the differences not only in citation impact between journal and book literature, but also in citation patterns between edited books and their monographic authored counterparts. The complete 2005 volume of the Web of Science Core Collection database including the three journal databases and the BKCI has been processed as source documents. The results of this study show that books are more heterogeneous information sources and addressed to more heterogeneous target groups than journals. Comparatively, the differences between edited and authored books in terms of the citation impact are not so impressive as books versus journals. Advanced models and indicators which have been developed for periodicals also work for books—however with some limitations.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Adams, J., & Testa, J. (2011). Thomson reuters book citation index. In E. Noyons, P. Ngulube, & J. Leta (Eds.), The 13th conference of the international society for scientometrics and informetrics (Vol. I, pp. 13–18). Durban: ISSI, Leiden University and the University of Zululand.

    Google Scholar 

  • Book Citation Index (2015). Retrieved September 15, 2015 from http://wokinfo.com/products_tools/multidisciplinary/bookcitationindex/.

  • Chi, P.-S., Jeuris, W., Thijs, B., & Glänzel, W. (2015). Book bibliometrics—a new perspective and challenge in indicator building based on the book citation index. In A. A. Salah, Y. Tonta, A. A. Akdağ Salah, C. Sugimoto, U. Al (Eds.), Proceedings of ISSI 2015 Istanbul: 15th International Conference of the International Society of Scientometrics and Informetrics (pp. 1161–1169), Istanbul: Bogaziçi University Printhouse.

  • Glänzel, W. (1992). On some stopping times on citation processes. From theory to indicators. Information Processing and Management, 28(1), 53–60.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glänzel, W. (2007). Characteristic scores and scales. A bibliometric analysis of subject characteristics based on long-term citation observation. Journal of Informetrics, 1(1), 92–102.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glänzel, W. (2013). Bibliometrics as a research field. Course script, KU Leuven (3rd ed.).

  • Glänzel, W., & Chi, P.-S. (2015). A comparative study of citation distributions of books and journal articles in three fields for indicator building. Proceedings of the 20 th International Conference on Science and Technology Indicators, Lugano, Switzerland. Accessible at http://www.sti2015.usi.ch/sites/www.sti2015.usi.ch/files/media/sti_bkci_final.pdf.

  • Glänzel, W., & Moed, H. F. (2013). Opinion paper: Thoughts and facts on bibliometric indicators. Scientometrics, 96(1), 381–394.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glänzel, W., & Schoepflin, U. (1995). A bibliometric study on ageing and reception processes of scientific literature. Journal of Information Science, 21(1), 37–53.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glänzel, W., & Schoepflin, U. (1999). A bibliometric study of reference literature in the sciences and social sciences. Information Processing and Management, 35(3), 31–44.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glänzel, W., & Schubert, A. (1988). Characteristic scores and scales in assessing citation impact. Journal of Information Science, 14(2), 123–127.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glänzel, W., & Schubert, A. (2003). A new classification scheme of science fields and subfields designed for scientometric evaluation purposes. Scientometrics, 56(3), 357–367.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glänzel, W., Schlemmer, B., & Thijs, B. (2003). Better late than never? On the chance to become highly cited only beyond the standard bibliometric time horizon. Scientometrics, 58(3), 571–586.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glänzel, W., Schubert, A., Thijs, B., & Debackere, K. (2011). A priori versus a posteriori normalisation of citation indicators. The case of journal ranking. Scientometrics, 87(2), 415–424.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glänzel, W., Thijs, B., & Debackere, K. (2014). The application of citation-based performance classes to the disciplinary and multidisciplinary assessment in national comparison and institutional research assessment. Scientometrics, 101(2), 939–952.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gorraiz, J., Purnell, P., & Glänzel, W. (2013). Opportunities and limitations of the book citation index. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 64(7), 1388–1398.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leydesdorff, L., & Felt, U. (2012). Edited volumes, monographs and book chapters in the Book Citation Index. Journal of Scientometric Research, 1(1), 28–34.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moed, H. F. (2010). Measuring contextual citation impact of scientific journals. Journal of Informetrics, 4, 265–277.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moed, H. F., van Leeuwen, T. N., & Reedijk, J. (1998). A new classification system to describe the ageing of scientific journals and their impact factors. Journal of Documentation, 54(4), 387–419.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Torres-Salinas, D., Robinson-García, N., Cabezas-Clavijo, Á., & Jiménez-Contreras, E. (2014). Analyzing the citation characteristics of books: edited books, book series and publisher types in the book citation index. Scientometrics, 98(3), 2113–2127.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Raan, A. F. J. (2004). Sleeping beauties in science. Scientometrics, 59(3), 467–472.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zitt, M., & Small, H. (2008). Modifying the journal impact factor by fractional citation weighting: The audience factor. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 59, 1856–1860.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This paper is based on previous works which are done at ECOOM and presented at the fifteenth ISSI Conference in Istanbul (Chi et al. 2015) and the twentieth STI Conference in Lugano (Glänzel and Chi 2015). The authors thank Wouter Jeuris for structuring a database with WoS data provided by Thomson Reuters.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Wolfgang Glänzel.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Glänzel, W., Thijs, B. & Chi, PS. The challenges to expand bibliometric studies from periodical literature to monographic literature with a new data source: the book citation index. Scientometrics 109, 2165–2179 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-016-2046-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-016-2046-7

Keywords

Navigation