Poster presented at the 21st International Conference on Science and Technology Indicators, 14-16 September 2016, València, Spain. (http://www.sti2016.org/). Paper: Rons, N. (2016). 4D Specialty Approximation: Ability to Distinguish between Related Specialties. In: Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Science and Technology Indicators, 14-16 September 2016, València, Spain.

1. Journals contain a mix of specialties.
Specialties can have very different characteristics,
even if closely related.
ê
Journal based structures are not accurate enough
to approximate certain specialties for analyses at specialty level.
&
Specialties with extreme characteristics can distort analyses
at the larger discipline level.
E.g.:
Without correction, the list of highly cited researchers in Physics produced for
Thomson Reuters' Essential Science Indicators (ESI) contains high-energy
physicists only, excluding researchers working in other subfields.
(http://hcr.stateofinnovation.thomsonreuters.com/page/methodology, last accessed 04.08.2016)
Theoretical Particle Physics (TPF) and Experimental Particle Physics (EPF)
are both included in the scope of the Journal of High Energy Physics and
consequently in the 'Physics, Particles & Fields' Web of Science subject category.
(http://jhep.sissa.it/jhep/help/helpLoader.jsp?pgType=about#sbjAreas, last accessed 04.08.2016)
EPF is known to have extreme characteristics related to numbers of authors,
references and citations per publication, largely constituting the upper end of
distributions for the Physics discipline as a whole.
Illustration based on publication records of a TPF and an EPF team leader,
enlarged with all publications referred to (which maintains the specialty focus):
The two specialties' different characteristics are also visible in the main journal
published in by both team leaders:
Effects in other fields?
More accurate ways to approximate a particular specialty?
4D Specialty Approximation:
Ability to Distinguish between Related Specialties
Nadine Rons, Nadine.Rons@vub.ac.be, https://cris.cumulus.vub.ac.be/portal/en/persons/search.html?search=Nadine+Rons
Research Coordination Unit, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Pleinlaan 2, BE-1050 Brussels, Belgium
4D specialty approximation
consisting of all publications similar to a given seed directory
in 3 out of 4 dimensions that are associated to concepts
defining disciplines and scholarly communication.
Coverage of publications in the TPF seed directory by key values illustrated
graphically:
4D specialty approximation:
All publications covered by key values in at least 3 of the 4 dimensions
- at least 3: ensuring similarity, limiting false positives;
- not necessarily 4: allowing diversity, limiting false negatives.
The 4D specialty approximations calculated from the TPF and EPF seed directories
have no publications in common,
and have characteristics similar to those of the seed directories.
The orders of magnitude attained by numbers of
co-authors and references (above) and of citations (below) strongly differ,
reflecting known differences between the two sub-domains.
Conclusions and perspectives
The developed 4D specialty approximation methodology has the ability to generate
distinct, coherent specialty approximations for seed directories in closely
related specialties.
Potential tracks for further research include accuracy and suitability as a basis
for analyses with various qualitative or quantitative aims (e.g.
recommendation of peers/benchmarks/literature; verification of expertise;
comparison to reference values or thresholds; investigation of differences between
specialties and research levels).
21st international conference on science and technology indicators, València, Spain, 14-16 September 2016, www.sti2016.org
1
10
100
1000
10000
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Numberofcitations
Publication year
Citation levels attained by 4D specialty approximations for two team leaders.
Data sourced from Thomson Reuters Web of Knowledge (formerly referred to as ISI Web of Science).
WoS Core Collection, 2005-2014, accessed online 17.01-07.03.2016.
Experimental Particle Physics (17251), 11% uncited
Theoretical Particle Physics (112), 10% uncited
1
10
100
1000
10000
1 10 100 1000 10000
Numberofreferences
Number of co-authors
Publication records of two team leaders, each enlarged with all publications referred to.
Data sourced from Thomson Reuters Web of Knowledge (formerly referred to as ISI Web of Science).
WoS Core Collection, 2005-2014, accessed online 17-19.01.2016.
Experimental Particle Physics (2353)
Theoretical Particle Physics (21)
1
10
100
1000
1 10 100 1000 10000
Numberofreferences
Number of co-authors
Limited to publications in Journal of High Energy Physics (JHEP).
Experimental Particle Physics (354 out of 2353 in JHEP)
Theoretical Particle Physics (9 out of 21 in JHEP)
1
10
100
1000
10000
1 10 100 1000 10000
Numberofreferences
Number of co-authors
4D specialty approximations for two team leaders.
Data sourced from Thomson Reuters Web of Knowledge (formerly referred to as ISI Web of Science).
WoS Core Collection, 2005-2014, accessed online 17.01-07.03.2016.
Experimental Particle Physics (17251) Theoretical Particle Physics (112)
Number of key values
TPP in common EPF
R 19 – 50
A 5 – 453
T 23 3 125
C 2 2 4
References and notes
[a] Sugimoto, C.R., Weingart, S. (2015). The kaleidoscope of disciplinarity. Journal of Documentation,
71(4), 775-794.
[b] Ni, C., Sugimoto, C.R., Cronin, B. (2013). Visualizing and comparing four facets of scholarly
communication: Producers, artifacts, concepts, and gatekeepers. Scientometrics, 94(3), 1161-1173.
[c] Rons, N. (2012). Partition-based Field Normalization: An approach to highly specialized publication
records. Journal of Informetrics, 6(1), 1-10.
[d] A relatively small part of values covers a relatively large part of publications in a specialty, cf.
regularities observed in occurrences of references, authors, words, and sources, mostly described by
well known laws (Lotka, 1926; Zipf, 1935; Bradford, 1934; Garfield, 1971).
è
Disciplines [a] Scholarly
communication [b]
Matched publication
data-values
n In each of the 4 dimensions,
key values [d] most frequently
Cognitive Artifacts References 1 occurring in the seed directory
Social Producers Authors 1 are selected until a pre-set
Communicative Concepts Title words 2 threshold % of publications is
Separatedness Gatekeepers Cells of sources [c] 1 covered (= associated to ≥n key values).
Tradition – Publication year
Institutional – Addresses
_1101_ _1111_ _1101_ _1010_ _1111_ _1111_ _1111_ _1111_ _1111_ _1010_ _1111_
_0001_ _0111_ _1111_ _1110_ _1100_ _1111_ _1111_ _1111_ _1011_ _0111_
Coverage threshold 80%
4776 x
_1111_
670 x
_1110_
1292 x
_1101_
EPF (17251)
8807 x
_1011_
1706 x
_0111_
18 x
_1111_
3 x
_1110_
27 x
_1101_
TPF (112)
60 x
_1011_
4 x
_0111_