Citation analysis

The library supports WZB employees in executing citation analyses.

Citation analysis is a branch of bibliometrics. This discipline addresses the quantitative examination of publications, authors and institutions. Often the task is to identify thematic trends or the reception of research findings in the scientific community.

Such examinations are typically based on citation analyses. The number of citations, for example of a publication by a person or institution, is thus a significant reference parameter. The resulting relationships formed between the document citing another one and the document being cited can be of interest.

Often, within the framework of citation analyses particular bibliometric indicators are calculated. These are intended to reflect different forms of “impact” for a previously determined quantity of publications.

A significant prerequisite for executing citation-based bibliometric analyses is the presence of relevant data sources with systematically prepared citation data. At the WZB, the “Web of Science”, subject to license and including the “Arts & Humanities Citation Index” and “Social Science Citation Index”, is available. Furthermore, specific bibliometric indicators can be calculated with additional tools (like the freeware “Publish or Perish”  or the browser extension “Scholarometer”) based on the openly accessible data sets in “Google Scholar”. Both data sources have specific advantages and disadvantages; in particular they represent only a part of the scientific output at the WZB.

In addition, helpful in executing citation analysis is sound knowledge of an individual’s or institution’s publishing record, whose publishing output is a potential subject of examination.

The library provides support on various levels in executing citation analysis:

• by providing adequate information on the library website;
• by offering instruction (in particular concerning “Publish  or Perish” and the “Web of Science”);
• in individual cases, by executing concrete citation analyses;
• by registering the most complete listing possible of all publications by WZB employees in the WZB catalog (Research Documentation).

Our goal is always to address the possibilities, but also the limits of these approaches as well, and thus simultaneously contribute to a responsible and informed handling of bibliometric indicators.