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50 years of space research in Europe: a bibliometric profile of the European Space Agency (ESA)

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Abstract

In 2014, the European Space Agency (ESA) celebrated its 50th anniversary. In this period, ESA has led European programs in space research, and has coordinated the efforts of the national industries through different, successful programs. This paper reports the conclusions of a bibliometric analysis of ESA’s scientific and technical bibliographic production. Input data covering the period from 1964 to 2014 have been collected from the Elsevier Scopus database. Using these data, a set of bibliometric indicators have been obtained to obtain knowledge on different aspects: productivity, collaboration, impact of ESA’s research on subsequent works, and information consumption patterns. The study has made use of the data analysis features provided by the Scopus database, and of two bibliometric software tools: BibExcel and VosViewer. These tools were used to complete complementary analysis (co-citation, bibliographic coupling and clustering) and generate visualizations that support the exploration of data.

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Notes

  1. http://m.esa.int/About_Us/Welcome_to_ESA/ESA_s_Purpose. Last consulted on 29.02.2016.

  2. https://www.elsevier.com/solutions/scopus. Last visited on: 28.02.2016.

  3. http://www.scimagojr.com/help.php. Last visited on 28.02.2016.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Information and Documentation Department, Universidad Carlos III, 28430, Madrid, Spain

    Ricardo Eito-Brun

  2. Departamento de Documentación, Agencia EFE, Madrid, Spain

    María Ledesma Rodríguez

Authors
  1. Ricardo Eito-Brun
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  2. María Ledesma Rodríguez
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Correspondence to Ricardo Eito-Brun.

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Eito-Brun, R., Ledesma Rodríguez, M. 50 years of space research in Europe: a bibliometric profile of the European Space Agency (ESA). Scientometrics 109, 551–576 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-016-2053-8

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