Abstract

Digital technology led to the emergence of a new economic model for scientific journals: consortial purchasing. This has been a breakthrough, providing library users widespread access to scientific information. In addition, the transition from individual paper subscriptions to electronic joint purchases has meant significant savings in processing costs for libraries. Nonetheless, consortium purchasing is not without problems: cost of journals continues to increase above the CPI, consortial agreements with publishers are inflexible, and pricing models become obsolete as time passes. In this state of impasse, open access appeared (and remains) on the scene, based on the powerful idea that information will be more useful the more easily it flows between its users. On the other hand, academic and research reputations have long been based on cumulated research citations: this is the “original sin” of the current scientific communication system, and until somebody figures out how to build an alternative system our high dependence on journals will persist.

Abstract

This paper analyzes the situation of Spanish journals in the master journal list of ISI Thomson Reuters’ citation indexes. The changes since 2007 will influence future results of bibliometric indicators of Journal Citation Reports. The presence of Spanish journals has increased significantly, especially in Social Sciences, where it started from a situation of invisibility. However, there are two important constraints in this success: the percentage of Spanish publications remains very limited and not all scientific fields will benefit equally from this progress.

Abstract

Within the current panorama of science evaluation, the limitations of citation indexes to study the social sciences and humanities have been the subject of wide debate. To resolve this situation, different products have been created for use in national contexts, since they cover certain aspects not contained in more international indices. An example is the In-RECS family, where an indicator such as the impact factor of Eugene Garfield is defined, but its contribution lies in the ability to evaluate research in Spain by obtaining citation indicators. This paper thus highlights the need to create new products for research evaluation in general, but particularly in the social sciences and humanities. The context in which different alternatives arise and are developed to evaluate existing journals is presented, along with Dialnet Metrics, a citation index developed by the Dialnet Foundation in collaboration with the EC3 Group and dozens of Spanish universities. Based on an analysis of the citations of source journals from different subject areas, Dialnet Metrics provides indicators to evaluate the research impact at different levels. This bibliometric product enables contextualized analysis at the micro (researchers), meso (journals), and macro (areas and universities) levels. Finally, the content, data volumes, and structure of this citation index are described quantitatively.