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What factors affect the visibility of Argentinean publications in humanities and social sciences in Scopus? Some evidence beyond the geographic realm of research

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Abstract

Argentina´s patterns of publication in the humanities and social sciences were studied for the period 2003–2012, using the Scopus database and distinguishing the geographic realm of the research. The results indicate that “topics of national scope” have grown and gained international visibility. They can be broadly characterized as having Spanish as the language of publication, and a marked preference for single authorship; in contrast, the publication of “global topics”, not geographically limited, characteristically have English as the language of divulgation, and institutional collaboration is stronger and more consolidated. Citation is apparently not determined only by the geographic realm of research, but also by language of publication, co-authorship, and the profiles of the journals where published. These results could contribute to constructive reflection upon publishing policy. The existence of a community of journals that tolerates biased patterns may make researchers echo and perpetuate poor practices, constructing or adapting the channels of communication. Such results also prove useful as a point of reference when evaluation criteria are elaborated by scientific committees, as unsupervised promotion and evaluation patterns could become based on local or overly subjective precepts, disregarding the disciplinary practices of the international scientific community.

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Notes

  1. In Spain, the evaluation criteria in the realm of social sciences laid down by the Comisión Nacional Evaluadora de la Actividad Investigadora (CNEAI) specify that the number of authors of a contribution should be justified by the subject matter, its complexity and its extension. In the case of Humanities: “Unless plainly justified by the complexity of the subject matter, the size of the corpus analyzed or the extensión and innovative nature of the contribution, the existence of more than one author can reduce the qualification assigned to it.” (España 2013)

  2. In Argentina, for the case of Social Sciences and the Humanities there exists a preliminary document for evaluation criteria that can be consulted at: http://www.ceil-conicet.gov.ar/divulgacion/articulo-del-mes/criterios-de-evaluacion-de-la-produccion-cientifica-de-las-humanidades-y-ciencias-sociales-ciecehcs-comision-interinstitucional-de-elaboracion-de-criterios-de-evaluacion-para-las-humanidades-y-cie/.

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Acknowledgments

This work was made possible through financing by the Project PICT-2011-2183 “Argentina como objeto de estudio en la producción científica con visibilidad regional e internacional. Una aproximación al estudio del dominio temático argentino” funded by the Fondo para la Investigación Científica y Tecnológica (FONCYT) of Argentina. The authors appreciate the comments of the reviewers, which served to improve the quality and clarity of the manuscript, as well as support in the statistical analysis of data offered by José Manuel Rojo (CSIC-UAE), and translating/editing of the manuscript by Jean Sanders.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Instituto de Políticas y Bienes Públicos, C/Albasanz, 26-28, Madrid, 28037, Spain

    Zaida Chinchilla-Rodríguez & Félix de Moya-Anegón

  2. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación, Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales - IdIHCS (UNLP-CONICET), Universidad Nacional de La Plata, La Plata, Argentina

    Sandra Miguel

  3. SCImago Research Group, Madrid, Spain

    Zaida Chinchilla-Rodríguez, Sandra Miguel & Félix de Moya-Anegón

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  1. Zaida Chinchilla-Rodríguez
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Correspondence to Zaida Chinchilla-Rodríguez.

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Chinchilla-Rodríguez, Z., Miguel, S. & de Moya-Anegón, F. What factors affect the visibility of Argentinean publications in humanities and social sciences in Scopus? Some evidence beyond the geographic realm of research. Scientometrics 102, 789–810 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-014-1414-4

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