Abstract
Identification of national research output is very common in bibliometric analyses and research evaluation. Searching appropriate country/territory names and using the country/territory refinement option are two methods provided by Scopus/Web of Science Core Collection to directly identify national research output. Using multi-source data, a recent but representative paper published in Scientometrics mapped computer science research in Africa, which was an important supplement to the existing literature. Forty-eight sub-Saharan African country/territory names were adopted to search in the country/territory field in Scopus and Web of Science Core Collection respectively to identify research output of sub-Saharan Africa. By repeating the above study, we find that the identification method is not always used accurately in practice, which may have some effect on the reliability of research. In addition, we further find that the above two national research output identification methods obtain different results for some countries/territories when using the Scopus database. Therefore, we probe this anomaly and try to provide explanations and give follow-up suggestions. We hope that the information conveyed in this brief communication will promote scholars to use the bibliographic databases more carefully in identifying national research output and provide more detailed data retrieval information to readers. At the same time, the providers of bibliographic databases should improve their products constantly based on recommendations from academics.
Notes
http://webofscience.help.clarivate.com/en-us/Content/home.htm. Accessed on 3rd May 2022.
http://images.webofknowledge.com//WOKRS535R111/help/WOS/hp_database.html. Accessed on 3rd May 2022.
According to Boshoff (2010), all possible variants of country/territory names should be considered when extracting data from bibliographic databases including historical names and names in different languages. We only identified some typical cases in Harsh et al. (2021). Since the purpose of this brief communication was not to identify how many papers had been published by African countries, the analyses focusing on names used historically by individual countries/territories were largely neglected in this study. However, we mentioned this point in the discussion section.
To facilitate the retrieval process, publications from United States of Minor Outlying Islands were merged into the United States.
It is also the easiest way for us to identify the standard country/territory names used in a bibliographic database. Web of Science Core Collection also provides a list of special country/region names via https://images.webofknowledge.com/images/help/WOS/hs_country_abbreviations.html
References
Álvarez-Bornstein, B., Morillo, F., & Bordons, M. (2017). Funding acknowledgments in the Web of Science: Completeness and accuracy of collected data. Scientometrics, 112(3), 1793–1812. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-017-2453-4
Asubiaro, T. (2019). How collaboration type, publication place, funding and author’s role affect citations received by publications from Africa: A bibliometric study of LIS research from 1996 to 2015. Scientometrics, 120(3), 1261–1287. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-019-03157-1
Asubiaro, T. V., & Badmus, O. M. (2020). Collaboration clusters, interdisciplinarity, scope and subject classification of library and information science research from Africa: An analysis of Web of Science publications from 1996 to 2015. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 52(4), 1169–1185. https://doi.org/10.1177/0961000620907958
Bornmann, L., & de Moya Angeon, F. (2019). Hot and cold spots in the US research: A spatial analysis of bibliometric data on the institutional level. Journal of Information Science, 45(1), 84–91. https://doi.org/10.1177/0165551518782829
Boshoff, N. (2010). South-South research collaboration of countries in the Southern African development community (SADC). Scientometrics, 84(2), 481–503. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-009-0120-0
Csomós, G. (2018). A spatial scientometric analysis of the publication output of cities worldwide. Journal of Informetrics, 12(2), 547–566. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joi.2018.05.003
Franceschini, F., Maisano, D., & Mastrogiacomo, L. (2015). Errors in DOI indexing by bibliometric databases. Scientometrics, 102(3), 2181–2186. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-014-1503-4
Franceschini, F., Maisano, D., & Mastrogiacomo, L. (2016). The museum of errors/horrors in Scopus. Journal of Informetrics, 10(1), 174–182. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joi.2015.11.006
Harsh, M., Bal, R., Weryha, A., Whatley, J., Onu, C. C., & Negro, L. M. (2021). Mapping computer science research in Africa: Using academic networking sites for assessing research activity. Scientometrics, 126(1), 305–334. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-020-03727-8
Hu, G., Wang, L., Ni, R., & Liu, W. (2020). Which h-index? An exploration within the Web of Science. Scientometrics, 123(3), 1225–1233. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-020-03425-5
Krauskopf, E. (2017). Call for caution in the use of bibliometric data. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 68(8), 2029–2032. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.23809
Krauskopf, E. (2019). Missing documents in Scopus: The case of the journal Enfermeria Nefrologica. Scientometrics, 119(1), 543–547. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-019-03040-z
Liu, F. (2022). Retrieval strategy and possible explanations for the abnormal growth of research publications: Re-evaluating a bibliometric analysis of climate change. Scientometrics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-022-04540-1
Liu, W. (2019). The data source of this study is Web of Science Core Collection? Not enough. Scientometrics, 121(3), 1815–1824. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-019-03238-1
Liu, W. (2020). Accuracy of funding information in Scopus: A comparative case study. Scientometrics, 124(1), 803–811. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-020-03458-w
Liu, W. (2021a). A matter of time: Publication dates in Web of Science Core Collection. Scientometrics, 126(1), 849–857. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-020-03697-x
Liu, W. (2021b). Caveats for the use of Web of Science Core Collection in old literature retrieval and historical bibliometric analysis. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 172, 121023. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2021b.121023
Liu, W., Hu, G., & Tang, L. (2018). Missing author address information in Web of Science—An explorative study. Journal of Informetrics, 12(3), 985–997. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joi.2018.07.008
Liu, W., Huang, M., & Wang, H. (2021). Same journal but different numbers of published records indexed in Scopus and Web of Science Core Collection: Causes, consequences, and solutions. Scientometrics, 126(5), 4541–4550. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-021-03934-x
Meester, W. J., Colledge, L., & Dyas, E. E. (2016). A response to “The museum of errors/horrors in Scopus” by Franceschini et al. Journal of Informetrics, 10(2), 569–570. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joi.2016.04.011
Pouris, A., & Ho, Y. S. (2014). Research emphasis and collaboration in Africa. Scientometrics, 98(3), 2169–2184. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-013-1156-8
Tang, L., Hu, G., & Liu, W. (2017). Funding acknowledgment analysis: Queries and caveats. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 68(3), 790–794. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.23713
Zhu, J., Hu, G., & Liu, W. (2019). DOI errors and possible solutions for Web of Science. Scientometrics, 118(2), 709–718. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-018-2980-7
Zhu, J., & Liu, W. (2020). A tale of two databases: The use of Web of Science and Scopus in academic papers. Scientometrics, 123(1), 321–335. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-020-03387-8
Acknowledgements
The work has been supported by Humanities and Social Sciences Research Project of Ministry of Education, China (No. 20YJC870003) and Soft Science Project of Zhejiang Province (No. 2022C35055).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Huang, X., Wang, L. & Liu, W. Identification of national research output using Scopus/Web of Science Core Collection: a revisit and further investigation. Scientometrics 128, 2337–2347 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-023-04649-x
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-023-04649-x