Third world countries (TWC) research publications by disciplines: A country-by-country citation analysis

Osareh, Farideh and Wilson, Concepción S. Third world countries (TWC) research publications by disciplines: A country-by-country citation analysis. Scientometrics, 1997, vol. 39, n. 3, pp. 253-266. [Journal article (Paginated)]

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English abstract

This paper discusses the publications of Third World Countries (TWC) in the Science Citation Index by disciplines. TWC documents which were nationally cross-linked at least 20 times were identified and their citing documents categorised into seven disciplines. The top 12 TWC are discussed vis-a-vis their population, Gross National Product, and the extent of participation using observed rates of contribution in each discipline and expected rates based on numbers of citations received. Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and Chile, appeared most frequently in the top five ranks in each of the seven disciplines; however, none of these countries had neither the largest population nor the highest GNP per capita. Overall observed rates exceeded expected rates in all but two disciplines: Biomedicine and Agriculture. Physics & Engineering had the highest overall observed rate with the top five TWC exceeding the overall and their individual expected rates. Brazil and Venezuela led by exceeding their expected rates in four of the seven disciplines.

Item type: Journal article (Paginated)
Keywords: Bibliometrics, Scientometrics, Research publication, Iranian scientific publications
Subjects: B. Information use and sociology of information > BB. Bibliometric methods
Depositing user: Farideh Osareh
Date deposited: 15 Nov 2006
Last modified: 02 Oct 2014 12:05
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10760/8401

References

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2. B. CRON1N, The Citation Process: The Role and Signi]~cance of Citations in Scientific Communication, Oxford: Taylor Graham, 1984, p. 17.

3. S. ARUNACHALAM, K. MANORAMA, Are citation-based quantitative techniques adequate for measuring science on the periphery? Scientometrics, 15 (1989) 393-408.

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6. F. OSAREH, C. S. WILSON, Scientific productivity and impact of the Third World Countries (TWC): A citation study. In: Proceedings of the F~'fth International Conference of the International Society for Scientometrics andlnfi)rmetrics. Rosary College. June 7-10, 1995. Medford, NJ., Learned Information, 1995, pp. 403-412.

7. B. REEVES, C. BORGMAN, A bibliometric evaluation of core journals in communication research, Human Communication Research, 10 (1983) No. 1, 119-136.

8. A detailed explanation of the data collection procedures and methodology can be obtained from the following PhD dissertation: F. OSAREH, Evaluation and Measurement of Third World Countries" Research Publications: A Citation and Country-by-Country Citation Study. PhD Dissertation. Sydney, UNSW, Australia, University of New South Wales, School of Information, Library and Archive Studies, 1996.

9. Science Citation Index 1985-1989: Five Year Cumulation: an International Interdisciplinary Index to the Literature of Science, Medicine, Agriculture, Technology, and the Behavioral Sciences, Guide and lists of source publications, Philadelphia, ISI Press, 1991, pp. 113-131.

10. H. SMALL, E. GARFIELD, The geography of science: disciplinary and national mapping, Journal of Information Science, 11 (1985) No. 4, 147-159.

11. For aggregating the 128 subfields to seven major fields, the Library of Congress Subject Heading (LCSH) 15th ed. 1992 was used as a guide to find out which subfield belonged to which ISI scientific field. The subject fields of the documents which were published in a multidisciplinary journal were

inspected and added to the appropriate field in each file for each country.

12 Calculations for observed and expected rates are based on Small & Garfield, 1985, p. 151. See reference in footnote [10] above.

13 G. T. KURIAN (Ed.) Encyclopedia of the Third World, 4th ed. New York, Facts on File, 3 vols, 1992. Scientometrics 39 (1997) 265. This program was started in the mid-1980s; it was intended to form links between scientists in the European Community (EC) and their colleagues in the Asian, Latin American and Mediterranean (ALAMed) countries. The program provides one-year post-doctoral fellowships to ALAMed scientists to visit an EC laboratory for planning joint research projects; holds workshops to focus and stimulate research; and helps in the submission of fellowships and research project proposals. See Ref. 13 below.

15. G. LEWISON, A. FAWCETI'-JONES, C. KESSLER, Latin American scientific output 1986-91 and international co-authorship patterns, Scientometrics, 27 (1993) 317-336.

16. Reasons for exclusion of India were articulated in the paper by Osareh & Wilson (1995). See Ref. 6 above.

17. W. W. GIBBS, Lost science in the Third World, Scientific American, 273 (1995) No. 2, 76-83.

18. In this study, the high country self-citing reported refers only to publications which are in internationally refereed journals and therefore are indexed by the Science Citation hMex as source publications; these publications do not include 'domestic' journals.


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