Practical Applications of Do-It-Yourself Citation Analysis

Abstract

Measures of impact published by Elsevier's Scopus and Thomson Reuters' Journal Citation Reports are useful for collection development, but the data are extensive and they reflect citations from all disciplines. Custom do-it-yourself (DIY) citation analysis allows one to create ranked lists of journals in specifically targeted sub-disciplines or areas of interdisciplinary study. A method for independently analyzing citations to create a ranked list of journals is described. Two methods for testing reliability of ranked lists are described, one employing Spearman's rho rank correlation, the other using coefficient of variation. Strengths and weaknesses of DIY citation analysis are discussed. Tips for conducting DIY citation analysis for publication are offered, and practical applications are summarized. An annotated bibliography of important literature on citation analysis is appended.

Keywords:

• citation analysis
• bibliometrics
• journal rankings
• rank correlation
• collection development

Notes

1. Thomson Reuters, “The Thomson Reuters Impact Factor,” http://thomsonreuters.com/products_services/science/free/essays/impact_factor/ (accessed November 20, 2012).

2. Steve Black, “Frequently Cited Journals in Forensic Psychology,” Psychological Reports, 110, no. 1 (2012): 276–282.

3. Maurice G. Kendall and Jean Dickinson Gibbons, Rank Correlation Methods. 5th ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990).

4. Black, “Frequently Cited Journals in Forensic Psychology.”

5. Ibid.

6. Steve Black, “Using Citation Analysis to Pursue a Core Collection of Journals for Communication Disorders,” Library Resources & Technical Services 45, no. 1 (2001): 3–9.