Abstract
The CD-ROM and web versions of the Science Citation Index databases are compared as to their content and format features. Several differences have been detected such as the use of different punctuation marks in both versions and a different organisation of author’s affiliation data. These differences make automatic comparisons of ISI products difficult and they should be considered when matching both databases. Some recommendations to ensure more normalisation and reliability of data are pointed out.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adam, D. (2002), The counting house, Nature, 415: 726–729.
Fernández, M. T., Cabrero, A., Zulueta, M. A., Gómez, I. (1993), Constructing a relational database for bibliometric analysis, Research Evaluation, 3(1): 55–62.
Garfield, E. (1996), How can impact factors be improved?, British Medical Journal, 313: 411–413.
Gómez, I., Bordons, M. (1996), Limitaciones en el uso de los indicadores bibliométricos para la evaluación científica, Política científica, 46: 21–27.
Gómez, I., Galbán, C. (1986), Lack of standardisation in the corporate source field of different databases, 10th International Online Information Meeting. London, 2–4, Dec, Learned Information, Oxford, pp. 335–352.
Jain, N. C. (2005), Scopus™ has wider scope than Science Citation Index, Current Science, 88(3): 331.
Moed, H. F., Van Leeuwen, TH. N. (1995), Improving the accuracy of institute for scientific information’s journal impact factors, Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 46(6): 461–467.
Moed, H. F. (2002), The impact-factors debate: the ISI’s uses and limits, Nature, 415: 731–732.
Ruíz Pérez, R., Delgado López-Cozar, E., Jiménez-Contreras, E. (2002), Spanish personal name variations in national and international biomedical databases: implications for information retrieval and bibliometric studies, Journal of Medical Library Association, 90(4): 411–430.
Sanz Casado, E., Martín Moreno, C., Maura, M., Rodríguez, B., García Zorita, C., Lascurain Sánchez, M. L. (2002), Análisis de la interdisciplinariedad de los investigadores puertorriqueños en ciencias químicas, durante el período 1992–1999, Revista Española De Documentación Científica, 25(4): 421–432.
Satyanarayana, K., Jain, N. C. (2004), Web of science: measuring and assessing science beyond SCI, Current Science, 86(5): 627–629.
Sevinc, A. (2004), Web of Science: a unique method of cited reference searching, Journal of the National Medical Association, 96(7): 980–983.
Thackray, A., Brock, D. C. (2000). Eugene Garfield: History, Scientific Information, and Chemical Endeavor. In: B. Cronin, H. Barsky Atkins (Eds), The Web of Knowledge: A Festschrift in Honor of Eugene Garfield. Information Today, Inc., New Jersey, pp. 11–25.
Thomson (2005a), Thomson Scientific: Products & Services [Web Page], Available: http://scientific.thomson.com/products/
Thomson (2005b), Isi®timeline [web page], available: http://www.isinet.com/aboutus/timeline/
Voutier, C. (2004), Web of Science: index not as useful as it appear, Journal of the National Medical Association, 96(9): 1240–1241.
Whitley, K. M. (2002), Analysis of SciFinder Scholar and Web of Science Citation Searches, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 53(14): 1210–1215.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Costas, R., Iribarren-Maestro, I. Variations in content and format of ISI databases in their different versions: The case of the Science Citation Index in CD-ROM and the Web of Science. Scientometrics 72, 167–183 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-007-1589-z
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-007-1589-z