Abstract

Library & Information science in Spain is currently facing serious problems because the divorce between the academic and the professional approach, being the first closer to the integration in the humanities and social sciences and the second with a more technological profile. The unfortunate proposal for a specific and differential treatment of the social sciences and humanities in the evaluation processes is going to penalize severely to our discipline and urgent and serious measures should be taken for avoiding a catastrophic situation. These measures include, among others, the pursuit of excellence, punishing the scientific fraud and plagiarism, and defending not only the publication but also the reading in English. An even stronger support of open access initiatives is a sound objective, including the adoption of new standards, such as for example the not well-known yet strategies of the new Book citation index. Today the professional profile should be more involved in the generation of content than in t its mere labeling, especially taking control of the usage statistics and indicators.

Abstract

Bibliometric indicators of production and impact of e-learning research are analyzed to know the contribution of countries and institutions in the scientific development of this subject and to strengthen its characterization as knowledge domain. We extracted bibliometric indicators from 39,244 documents indexed in Scopus and SCImago  Institutional  Rankings, and generated maps of production and collaboration networks and graphics about the impact of e-learning research in countries and institutions. The results of this combined analysis showed that at country level the United States produce most of the works and generated the greatest international collaboration. At institutional level, the University of Hong Kong is the most productive and National Taiwan University of Science and Technology is the one with the greatest collaboration. In addition, the analysis showed that Taiwan ranks first in productivity and impact, which is why we linked these results to a brief analysis of its national policies. This study presents a new method to analyze both emerging and established knowledge domains.

Abstract

Scientific research in the communication field has experienced great growth in recent years. Recent technological changes, as well as the emergence of Web 2.0 and 3.0 and new forms of communication, such as social networks, have led to new and varied studies in the discipline. This paper analyzes the scientific production of the 27 countries with the greatest scientific production in the communication field in the period from 2003 to 2018. The results indicate that: the most productive countries are the USA, UK, and Spain; there is less international collaboration than in other disciplines, but there is a network of European collaboration that is quite dense and has great impact, and another network in Pacific countries (Asia + Oceania), albeit with lower density and impact.  

Abstract

This work presents a current map of scientific research on Communication in Spain, identifying both the research fronts of the publications with the greatest impact over the last three years (2019–2021) and the authors who led such work and their universities of reference. The original methodology applied herein focuses on an analysis of the cited authors. After a careful selection process, we work with a corpus of more than 800 articles, using Scopus and the VOSviewer software to generate a co-referencing map and throw light on the structure of the Communication field. On the basis of that analysis, we identify nine thematic clusters, with a particular grouping structure, leading authors, and relationships around fields of study such as communication, democracy and power, audiences and media consumption, the media industry, journalistic practice, fact checking and disinformation, journalistic innovation, and SEO journalism. The ranking of cited authors, where Ramón Salaverría and Rasmus K. Nielsen hold equal first position and the Chilean Claudia Mellado is the only woman at the head of a strong group, is put into context by analyzing their scientific production and the normalized impact in Communication of their institutions. The comparative analysis reveals the elite Spanish authors in Communication (Xosé López-García, Ignacio Aguaded, Andreu Casero-Ripollés, Lluís Codina, and Ramón Salaverría) and shows how universities in Madrid maintain their importance in terms of production but that those in Catalunya have the lead in terms of impact. The research is completed with a map of keyword co-occurrence that confirms the barrage of studies around the Covid crisis and the parallel and growing number of hoaxes (fakes). The research confirms the relevance of and opportunity to apply scientometric techniques to the Communication field.