Influence of proceedings papers on citation impact in seven sub-fields of sustainable energy research 2005–2011

Abstract

This paper analyses the following seven sub-fields of Sustainable Energy Research with respect to the influence of proceedings papers on citation patterns across citing and cited document types, overall sub-field and document type impacts and citedness: the Wind Power, Renewable Energy, Solar and Wave Energy, Geo-thermal, Bio-fuel and Bio-mass energy sub-fields. The analyses cover peer reviewed research and review articles as well as two kinds of proceeding papers from conferences published 2005–2009 in (a) book series or volumes and (b) special journal issues excluding meeting abstracts cited 2005–2011 through Web of Science. Central findings are: The distribution across document types of cited versus citing documents is highly asymmetric. Predominantly proceedings papers from both proceeding volumes as well as published in journals cite research articles (60–76 %). Largely, journal-based proceedings papers are cited rather than papers published in book series or volumes and have field impacts corresponding to research articles. With decreasing proceedings paper dominance in research fields the ratio of proceeding paper volumes over journal-based proceedings papers decreases significantly and the percentage of proceedings papers in journals citing journal-based proceedings papers over all publications citing journal-based proceedings papers decreases significantly (from 26.3 % in Wind Power to 4 % in Bio Fuel). Further, the segment of all kinds of proceedings papers (the combined proceedings paper types) citing all proceedings papers over all publications citing all kinds of proceedings papers decreases significantly (from 36.1 % in Wind Power to 11.3 % in Bio Fuel). Simultaneously the field citedness increases across the seven research fields. The distribution of citations from review articles shows that novel knowledge essentially derives directly from research articles (53–72 %)—to a much less extent from proceedings publications published in journals (9–13 %).

Appendices

Appendix A

Annual distribution of published proceedings papers in the seven energy research fields (WoS, January 2014).

PP in vol.	Wind power	Renewable energy	Wave energy	Solar energy	Geo-thermal	Bio mass	Bio fuel
2005	239	165	70	769	39	62	88
2006	538	358	64	1,033	70	69	101
2007	903	574	76	1,193	75	91	131
2008	979	673	109	1,318	104	104	252
2009	1,522	1,074	140	1,698	119	208	419
Total	4,181	2,844	459	6,011	407	534	991

PP in jnls.	Wind power	Renewable energy	Wave energy	Solar energy	Geo-thermal	Bio mass	Bio fuel
2005	53	71	10	604	53	55	95
2006	84	101	22	751	32	65	93
2007	61	105	20	514	37	71	151
2008	60	114	12	580	47	79	127
2009	47	102	32	613	30	74	154
Total	305	493	96	3,062	199	344	620

Appendix B

Pearson’s Residuals for cells in Tables 3, 4, and 5 in the seven energy research fields.

r_a: cited research article; re_a: cited review article; c_a: citing research article; c_pr_v: citing proc. papers in volumes; c_pr_j: citing proc. papers in journals; c_re: citing review articles

	c_a	c_pr_v	c_pr_j	c_re
Pearson’s residuals: wind power
r_a	1.4	1.9	−3.0	−5.5
PP_vol	−5.7	11.5	−1.2	−4.1
PP_j	−0.9	0.3	7.1	−3.2
re_a	0.9	−10.2	−0.6	17.4
Pearson’s residuals: renewable energy research
r_a	2.8	−0.1	−3.4	−5.0
PP_vol	−8.1	23.7	1.0	−3.8
PP_j	−4.3	5.4	10.7	−0.8
re_a	0.5	−9.0	−2.5	9.3
Pearson’s residuals: wave energy research
r_a	1.8	−2.5	−0.9	−2.3
PP vol	−2.6	5.4	1.1	1.2
PP_j	−2.3	4.1	2.6	0.3
re a	−2.5	0.9	−0.8	8.9
Pearson’s residuals: solar energy
r_a	5.7	−2.5	−8.7	−10.0
PP_vol	−13.5	41.5	5.7	−1.9
PP_j	−14.7	21.1	37.9	−4.0
re_a	3.3	−21.1	−13.9	23.4
Pearson’s residuals: geo−thermal energy
r_a	3.0	−2.3	−3.7	−3.9
PP_vol	−1.2	6.4	−0.2	−1.0
PP_j	−2.4	1.3	9.0	−0.7
re_a	−4.0	1.9	0.4	9.0
Pearson’s residuals: bio−mass
r_a	3.9	−2.4	−4.1	−6.5
PP_vol	−2.9	16.6	2.1	−2.6
PP_j	−3.2	3.6	9.5	1.0
re_a	−4.9	0.0	1.1	12.1
Pearson’s residuals: bio−fuel
r_a	4.0	0.9	−1.2	−10.8
PP_vol	−4.8	21.5	2.1	−0.8
PP_j	−4.2	0.8	9.9	4.9
re_a	−2.7	−4.2	−4.3	12.5