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Database collection evaluation

An application of evaluative methods

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Today’s topics

• Types of (academic) databases• What and why to evaluate• Evaluate collections through bibliometric

methods

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Types of (academic) databases

• Full-text– Elsevier, Springer, Sage, JSTOR, arxiv, IEEE, ACM DL, etc.

• Citation-based– Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar, CiteSeerX, etc.

• Bibliographic– DBLP, PubMed, etc.

• Special– Book: WorldCat– Journal: Eigenfactor, SCImago, Journal Citation Report– Country: SCImagoA comprehensive list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_academic_databases_and_se

arch_engines

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What to evaluate

• Interface (see slides in week)• Query/results (see slides in week)• Collection

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Why do we need to evaluate research collections

• Researchers/librarians need to effectively and efficiently obtain information

• Information institutes (i.e. libraries and research facilities) need to allocate research fund wisely

• Science policy making

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Collection evaluation

• Dimensions– Size: number of publications– Impact: number of citations– Price

• Entities– Topic dynamics– Paper– Author– Journal– Subject category– Country

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Demo – Google Scholar

• Features– Comprehensive– No quality control

• Things to cover– Search article/author/journal– Search result (PageRank + citation counts)– Stability– Classification– Export options

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Demo – CiteSeerX

• Features– Over 700,000 documents– Primarily in the fields of computer and information

science and engineering• Things to cover– Most cited articles/citations/authors– Venue impact ratings– Years of citing articles– Co-citation– Author: h-index

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Demon – ACM DL

• Features– Computer science publications

• Things to cover– Browse – Search– Tag cloud– Bibliometrics– Share function– Facet search– Sort

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Demo – Web of Science • Features

– Provided by Thomson Reuters– 11,261 journals selected on the basis of impact evaluations– One of the most frequently used citation databases (science, social

science, arts & humanities)• Things to cover

– Basic search– Advanced search– Cited reference search– Facet– Sort and rank– Analyze results– Journal Citation Report

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Demo – Special academic databases

• WorldCat– Book popularity

• Eigenfactor– Visualizations– EF/AI– Cost effectiveness

• SCImago– Journal/country ranking– Map generator