Coverage of academic citation databases compared with coverage of scientific social media: Personal publication lists as calibration parameters
ISSN: 1468-4527
Article publication date: 13 April 2015
Issue publication date: 13 April 2015
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to show how the coverage of publications is represented in information services. Academic citation databases (Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar) and scientific social media (Mendeley, CiteULike, BibSonomy) were analyzed by applying a new method: the use of personal publication lists of scientists.
Design/methodology/approach
Personal publication lists of scientists of the field of information science were analyzed. All data were taken in collaboration with the scientists in order to guarantee complete publication lists.
Findings
The demonstrated calibration parameter shows the coverage of information services in the field of information science. None of the investigated databases reached a coverage of 100 percent. However Google Scholar covers a greater amount of publications than other academic citation databases and scientific social media.
Research limitations/implications
Results were limited to the publications of scientists working at an information science department from 2003 to 2012 at German-speaking universities.
Practical implications
Scientists of the field of information science are encouraged to review their publication strategy in case of quality and quantity.
Originality/value
The paper confirms the usefulness of personal publication lists as a calibration parameter for measuring coverage of information services.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Katsiaryna Baran, Alexander Bek and Isabelle Dorsch and their research teams for their helpful contributions in data collection.
Citation
Hilbert, F., Barth, J., Gremm, J., Gros, D., Haiter, J., Henkel, M., Reinhardt, W. and Stock, W.G. (2015), "Coverage of academic citation databases compared with coverage of scientific social media: Personal publication lists as calibration parameters", Online Information Review, Vol. 39 No. 2, pp. 255-264. https://doi.org/10.1108/OIR-07-2014-0159
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited