Understanding Faculty Publishing Trends Using Document Analysis
ESBB Featured Session
View this presentation on the conference site
Theron Muller – Waseda University, Japan
Alaa Salem – University of Toyama, Japan
John Adamson – University of Niigata Prefecture, Japan
Sunday, October 13th, 9:00 AM – 9:50 AM (50 minutes)
Abstract
Bibliometrics and scientometrics are the de facto way to evaluate scholarly research output. However, relying on citation counts to frame scholarly productivity, and the journal citation indexes that power such analyses, is problematic. In this presentation, we will reference data from an ongoing document analysis project examining faculty publication activity at a Japanese national university, illustrating how journal citation indexes are limited to the papers that they include, meaning they do not give a complete picture of scholarly output. Further, reliance on outsourcing of evaluation metrics should be problematized. We propose better understanding of academic authors’ spectrum of knowledge production beyond a narrow focus on indexed journal citation analysis. Citation analysis creates a problematic ecosystem where scholars are pushed toward publishing trending topics to meet institutional requirements concerning publication metrics. This favors English language publication over other languages, impoverishing language diversity and simultaneously narrowing the focus of scholarly discourse.
Recording
Following is a prerecorded video of the presentation we gave at the conference:
Leave a Reply