题名：Measuring the visibility of the university’s scientific production through scientometric methods: an exploratory study at the Transilvania University of Brasov, Romania

作者：Angela Repanovici

Transilvania University, Brasov, Romania

本文来源：Performance Measurement and Metrics，Volume 12 issue 2 ，2011

以下是本文摘要：

The measurement of the quality of science is difficult. In this paper, we define the scientific production and productivity, and present the main indicators for the measurement of the scientific activity. The impact of the research is measured and analyzed through citation analysis. The number of citations suggests the quality of the university and the statistical evaluation of an individual’s scientific research results. Google Scholar, a freely available scientometric database, indexes academic papers from open access repositories and commercial sources, and also identifies referenced citations. The free Publish or Perish software can be used as an analysis instrument for the impact of the research.

We present an exploratory study made at the Transilvania University of Brasov to evaluate the research output of the faculty. We analyzed their 2008 research performances as documented in their annual evaluation that states the number of papers, books, and research contracts. Using Publish or Perish, we calculated the H-index, Gindex, HC-index and HI norm, of the 60 more-productive professors. We present correlation indicators and discuss the importance of open access tools and repositories for increasing the impact of scientific research.

The Publish or Perish software is an easy to use instrument for analyzing the impact of research. It calculates the impact of the researchers using the very visible resource, Google Scholar. The data source provides a more comprehensive coverage of citations than ISI Web of Science, including citations in books, conference proceedings, working papers and non-ISI indexed journals. So, some consideration is needed about which scientometic tool to use depending on the field of research. Google Scholar has better indexing of proceedings and non-English language material than ISI Web of Science, still does not perform so well tracking citations from books and chapters of books. The natural sciences and those related to health are well covered in ISI Web of Science given its journal coverage, and as a result Google Scholar fewer citations in these fields.

Authors’ impact analysis and citations are not an assessment tool in Romanian universities, but it is commonly accepted that increasing research impact through more citations is one qualitative indicator. ISI Web of Science and Google Scholar are scientometric databases that can generate an individual’s H-index. The academic community is not familiar with these instruments and their potential role in describing the impact of one’s science.

This exploratory study was presented to academic community to illustrate the utility of these tools and to inform faculty of challenges with assessing their impact. We showed that professors with high H-index calculated using Publish or Perish are those with papers indexed in ISI Web of Science. This is not correlated with the number of research points garnered by faculty. We suggested to the faculty that all professors have to be analysed with the same indicator. Further, we recommended that Google Scholar and the H-index obtained using Publish or Perish offer tools for assessing scientific research in university and evaluating professors.

Open access to scientific information through institutional digital repositories presents today’s world information environment and the transformations imposed by information society. The first Romanian institutional repository was implemented at Transilvania University of Brasov. As part of the undertaken research, the visibility and the impact of the university's scientific production was measured using the scientific methods of scientometry, as a fundamental instrument for determining the international value of an university as well as for the statistical evaluation of scientific research results. The results showed that an open access institutional repository would significantly add to the visibility of the university's scientific production.

We present the methodology and the results of an exploratory study made at the Transilvania University of Brasov regarding the h-index of the academic staff. H-index was calculated by using “Publish or Perish” software, comparing the number of ISI indexed published articles and the number of citations from “ISI 

Web of Science”. Using “Publish or Perish”, we calculated h-index, g-index, hc-index and HI norm. We analyzed the research performances achieved by Brasov academic community in 2008, as realised in their annual evaluation -number of papers, books, research contracts, etc- by comparing the four indexes of those 60 professors with the best results. We will present correlation indicators and the importance of open access for increasing the impact of scientific research by using institutional repositories.