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Publicatie
Tracing the context in disciplinary classifications
Tijdschriftbijdrage - Tijdschriftartikel
Ondertitel:a bibliometric pairwise comparison of five classifications of journals in the social sciences and humanities
Despite the centrality of disciplinary classifications in bibliometric analyses, it is not well known how the choice of disciplinary classification influences bibliometric representations of research in the social sciences and humanities (SSH). This is especially crucial when using data from national databases. Therefore we examine the differences in the disciplinary profile of an article along with the absolute and relative number of articles across disciplines using five disciplinary classifications for journals. We use data on journal articles (2006-2015) from the national bibliographic databases VABB-SHW in Flanders (Belgium) and Cristin in Norway. Our study is based on pairwise comparisons of the local classifications used in these databases, the Web of Science subject categories, the Science-Metrix and the ERIH PLUS journal classifications. For comparability, all classifications are mapped to the OECD Fields of Research and Development classification. The findings show that the choice of the disciplinary classification can lead to over- or under-estimation of the absolute number of publications per discipline. In contrast, if the focus is on the relative numbers, the choice of classification has practically no influence. These findings facilitate an informed choice of a disciplinary classification for journals in SSH when using data from national databases.
Tijdschrift: Quantitative science studies
ISSN: 2641-3337
Volume: 2
Pagina's: 65 - 88
Jaar van publicatie:2021
Trefwoorden:A1 Journal article
BOF-keylabel:ja
Toegankelijkheid:Open