Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Non-English journals and papers in physics and chemistry: bias in citations?

  • Published:
Scientometrics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This study investigates, at the journal as well as the article level, if there is a difference in citations between English-language and non-English publications. The Web of Knowledge is used as data source. The investigation focuses on the fields of physics and chemistry. Using a precise definition of a “non-English journal”, we filter out nine physics and thirty-four chemistry non-English journals, scattered over six physics and seven chemistry subfields. Average received citations per paper (CpP) of the non-English journal(s) are compared with the CpP of pure English journals, and this in the same subfield. We clearly observe that non-English journals are inferior—in number of citations received—to pure English journals and this in all physics and chemistry subfields studied. Further, twelve physics journals and ten chemistry journals were chosen as sample journals to compare the CpP of non-English papers with that of English language papers in the same journal. The result of this comparison is that for the majority of these journals and for most of the publication years the CpP of non-English papers is lower than that of the English language papers. Finally, analyzing linguistic characteristics of the citing literature confirms the own-language preference in non-English physics and chemistry journals.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Bookstein, A., & Yitzhaki, M. (1999). Own-language preference: a new measure of “relative language self-citation”. Scientometrics, 46(2), 337–348.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Egghe, L., & Rousseau, R. (2004). How to measure own-group preference? A novel approach to a sociometric problem. Scientometrics, 59(2), 233–252.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garfield, E. (1978). Do French scientists who publish outside of France and/or in English do better research? Current Contents, May 29. Reprinted in: Essays of an Information Scientist, 3 (1980), (pp. 498–503). Philadelphia: ISI Press.

  • Grupp, H., Schmoch, U., & Hinze, S. (2001). International alignment and scientific regard as macro-indicators for international comparisons of publications. Scientometrics, 51(2), 359–380.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (2007, 2008, 2009). Chinese S&T Journal Citation Reports. Beijing: Scientific and Technical Publishing House

  • Liang, LM., Rousseau, R., Zhong, Z. (2011). Non-English Journals and Papers in Physics: Bias in Citations? In: E. Noyons, P. Ngulube, J. Leta (Eds.), Proceedings of ISSI—The 13th international conference on scientometrics and informetrics, Durban, South Africa, 4–7 July 2011 (pp. 463–473). ISSI, Leiden University & University of Zululand.

  • Lin, M. W., & Zhang, J. J. (2007). Language trends in nanoscience and technology: the case of Chinese-language publications. Scientometrics, 70(3), 555–564.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marshakova, I. V. (1973). System of document connections based on references (in Russian). Nauchno-Tekhnicheskaya Informatsiya, series, 2(6), 3–8.

    Google Scholar 

  • Neuhaus, C., Neuhaus, E., Asher, A., & Wrede, C. (2006). The depth and breadth of Google scholar: an empirical study. Portal-Libraries and the Academy, 6(2), 127–141.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ren, S. L., & Rousseau, R. (2002). International visibility of Chinese scientific journals. Scientometrics, 53(3), 389–405.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Small, H. (1973). Co-citation in the scientific literature: a new measure of the relationship between two documents. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 24(4), 265–269.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Leeuwen, T. N., Moed, H. F., Tijssen, R. J. W., Visser, M. S., & van Raan, A. F. J. (2000). First evidence of serious language-bias in the use of citation analysis for the evaluation of national science systems. Research Evaluation, 8(2), 155–156.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Leeuwen, T. N., Moed, H. F., Tijssen, R. J. W., Visser, M. S., & van Raan, A. F. J. (2001). Language biases in the coverage of the Science Citation Index and its consequences for international comparisons of national research performance. Scientometrics, 51(1), 335–346.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Raan, T., van Leeuwen, T., & Visser, M. (2011). Non-English papers decrease rankings. Nature, 469, 34.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yitzhaki, M. (1988). The language barrier in the humanities: measures of language self-citation and self-derivation—the case of biblical studies. In: Egghe & Rousseau (Eds.), Informetrics 87/88 (pp. 301–314). Elsevier: Amsterdam.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This work is sponsored by the National Natural Science Foundation of China. NSFC project 70973118.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Science, Technology and Society, Henan Normal University, Xinxiang, 453007, China

    Liming Liang

  2. Dalian University of Technology WISE Lab, Dalian, 116024, China

    Liming Liang

  3. Faculty of Engineering Technology, KHBO (Association KU Leuven), Zeedijk 101, 8400, Oostende, Belgium

    Ronald Rousseau

  4. University of Antwerp (UA), IOIW-IBW, Venusstraat 35, 2000, Antwerp, Belgium

    Ronald Rousseau

  5. Department of Mathematics, KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200B, 3000, Leuven (Heverlee), Belgium

    Ronald Rousseau

  6. Business Intelligence and Knowledge Engineering Lab, School of Management, Henan University of Technology, Zhengzhou, 450001, China

    Zhen Zhong

Authors
  1. Liming Liang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ronald Rousseau
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Zhen Zhong
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Liming Liang.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Liang, L., Rousseau, R. & Zhong, Z. Non-English journals and papers in physics and chemistry: bias in citations?. Scientometrics 95, 333–350 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-012-0828-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-012-0828-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation