Citation Statistics: A Report From The International Mathematical =

["Pippa Smart" <pippa.smart@googlemail.com>]

As the Book Reviews Editor for Learned Publishing, I would like
to ask if anyone on these lists would like to prepare a review of
this report, perhaps comparing it against other reviews of
citation use and abuse? I would be looking for a review of about
750-1000 words.

If anyone is interested, please reply to me directly,
Many thanks

pippa

pippa.smart@gmail.com


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Gerry Mckiernan <gerrymck@iastate.edu>
Date: 2008/6/13
Subject: [LIS-E-JOURNALS] _Citation Statistics_: A Report From The
International Mathematical Union
To: LIS-E-JOURNALS@jiscmail.ac.uk

Friends:  Those Damn Statistics: Can't Live WithOut Them, Can't
Live With Them

Citation Statistics

A report from the International Mathematical Union (IMU) in
cooperation with the International Council of Industrial and
Applied Mathematics (ICIAM) and the Institute of Mathematical
Statistics (IMS)

Executive Summary

This is a report about the use and misuse of citation data in the
assessment of scientific research. The idea that research
assessment must be done using "simple and objective" methods is
increasingly prevalent today. The "simple and objective" methods
are broadly interpreted as bibliometrics, that is, citation data
and the statistics derived from them. There is a belief that
citation statistics are inherently more accurate because they
substitute simple numbers for complex judgments, and hence
overcome the possible subjectivity of peer review. But this
belief is unfounded.

[snip]

Using citation data to assess research ultimately means using
citation-based statistics to rank things:  journals, papers,
people, programs, and disciplines. The statistical tools used to
rank these things are often misunderstood and misused.

[snip]

The validity of statistics such as the impact factor and h-index
is neither well understood nor well studied. The connection of
these statistics with research quality is sometimes established
on the basis of "experience." The justification for relying on
them is that they are "readily available." The few studies of
these statistics that were done focused narrowly on showing a
correlation with some other measure of quality rather than on
determining how one can best derive useful information from
citation data.

[more]

[http://scholarship20.blogspot.com/2008/06/citation-statistics-report-from.=
html]

OR

[http://tinyurl.com/3ldmts]

Regards,

Gerry McKiernan
Associate Professor
Science and Technology Librarian
Iowa State University Library
Ames IA 50011
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