Premium
Scholarly communication and practices in the world of metrics: An exploratory study
Author(s) -
Ma Lai,
Ladisch Michael
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
proceedings of the association for information science and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.193
H-Index - 14
ISSN - 2373-9231
DOI - 10.1002/pra2.2016.14505301132
Subject(s) - bibliometrics , ranking (information retrieval) , citation , exploratory research , scholarly communication , index (typography) , psychology , journal ranking , applied psychology , computer science , social science , political science , sociology , library science , information retrieval , world wide web , publishing , law
Metrics have become objective standards for evaluating research performance. Measurements such as citation counts and h‐index are used for evaluating individual research performance as well as the ranking of research institutions and universities. This exploratory study aims to understand the implications of the increasing use of metrics on scholarly communication and practices. A pilot study was conducted in universities in Ireland. Preliminary findings show that researchers use Google Scholar and ResearchGate for self‐monitoring and that they perceive bibliometric measures as indicators of achievements. The pilot study also shows that there are mixed feelings toward bibliometrics: while the participants emphasise that research interest is the most important criterion in choosing research topics and publication channels and that citation counts, h‐index, and RG scores are coincidental of their research activities, they also perceive the quantitative measures as objective evaluation of research performance without knowing how the h‐index or RG scores are calculated.