Designing the Greek Citation Index in the humanities and the social sciences (GCI – H&SS)

2014 ◽  
Vol 63 (6/7) ◽  
pp. 452-464
Author(s):  
Daphne Kyriaki-Manessi
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Impact Factor ◽  
Citation Index ◽  
Research Issues ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Citation Indexes ◽  
The Social ◽  
National Production ◽  
Language Environment ◽  
Selection Of

Purpose – This study aims to examine the major policy issues regarding the formation of a Greek Citation Index. Design/methodology/approach – Literature search for determining international practices on the formation of citation indexes and applied inquiries on the major citation indexes available today online for which goals, policies on inclusion of published research, issues on impact factor, major concerns on distribution and use were examined within the Greek parameters imposed by language barriers, readability and usability. A blueprint of scholarly Greek production in humanities and social sciences (H&SS) was made along with the development of a mechanism for assessing and incorporating journals to the index. Findings – The study reports on the following issues: selection of H&SS as a start of point for the citation index; setting of the index’s goals and objectives in view of the use of impact factor for the assessment of academics; comparison of international to national production of citation indexes; development of a mechanism needed to establish policies regarding the use of standards, selection of material, compliance with repository policies and open-access practices; and assessment of difficulties arising from language (and alphabet) differences, demographics, audience and scientific production. Originality/value – The paper presents the designing of an information tool in a unique language environment and in isolation from the international indexing community. In addition, it contributes to the adoption of international indicators, such as impact factor, and their implementation within the Greek environment and the specification of parameters arising from language, demographics and publishing practices of the country.

Institutional repositories: a bibliometric study of the social sciences citation index (SSCI)

2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 504-517 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi-Ping Liao ◽  
Tsu-Jui Ma
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Information Science ◽  
Citation Index ◽  
Bibliometric Study ◽  
Library And Information Science ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Institutional Repositories ◽  
The Social ◽  
Prolific Authors ◽  
Social Sciences Citation Index

Purpose This paper aims to provide a bibliometric study of journal articles related to institutional repositories in the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) between January 1993 and August 2017. This study will provide researchers with a foundation for further research. Design/methodology/approach In this study, articles published were analyzed; titles were searched using the term “institutional repositories.” The data were evaluated in response to four research questions on the following topics: publication trends, prolific authors, core journals and times cited. Findings The results indicate that 124 articles on institutional repositories were authored by 223 individuals. These articles were cited 722 times in 37 journals, and the h-index provided by the Web of Science was 14. Research limitations/implications This study only investigated articles titled with institutional repositories in the SSCI. Other items were not included. Practical implications This study shows that the implementation of institutional repositories has been limited to library and information science. If they can be used broadly in different disciplines, a better outcome can be expected. Social implications Based on the findings, the growth of institutional repositories as an academic subject is likely to continue. If such discussions can be conducted in other disciplines, institutional repositories may be able to provide a more promising outcome to academia. Originality/value This paper is valuable for researchers who wish to examine the trends of institutional repositories in the SSCI and seek possible areas for further research.

Reading routines: strategies of recall in graduate education

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary Alan Fine ◽  
Hannah Wohl ◽  
Simone Ispa-Landa
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Graduate Students ◽  
Doctoral Students ◽  
Graduate Program ◽  
Graduate Training ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Doctoral Program ◽  
Note Taking ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Social

Purpose This study aims to explore how graduate students in the social sciences develop reading and note-taking routines. Design/methodology/approach Using a professional socialization framework drawing on grounded theory, this study draws on a snowball sample of 36 graduate students in the social sciences at US universities. Qualitative interviews were conducted to learn about graduate students’ reading and note-taking techniques. Findings This study uncovered how doctoral students experienced the shift from undergraduate to graduate training. Graduate school requires students to adopt new modes of reading and note-taking. However, students lacked explicit mentorship in these skills. Once they realized that the goal was to enter an academic conversation to produce knowledge, they developed new reading and note-taking routines by soliciting and implementing suggestions from advanced doctoral students and faculty mentors. Research limitations/implications The specific requirements of the individual graduate program shape students’ goals for reading and note-taking. Further examination of the relationship between graduate students’ reading and note-taking and institutional requirements is warranted with a larger sample of universities, including non-American institutions. Practical implications Graduate students benefit from explicit mentoring in reading and note-taking skills from doctoral faculty and advanced graduate students. Originality/value This study uncovers the perspectives of graduate students in the social sciences as they transition from undergraduate coursework in a doctoral program of study. This empirical, interview-based research highlights the centrality of reading and note-taking in doctoral studies.

scholarly journals Quality weighted citations versus total citations in the sciences and social sciences, with an application to finance and accounting

2016 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 324-337 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chia-Lin Chang ◽  
Michael McAleer
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Impact Factor ◽  
Research Assessment ◽  
Academic Journal ◽  
Additional Measure ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Thomson Reuters ◽  
Number Of Citations ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Article Influence

Purpose – Both journal self-citations and exchanged citations have the effect of increasing a journal’s impact factor, which may be deceptive. The purpose of this paper is to analyse academic journal quality and research impact using quality-weighted citations vs total citations, based on the widely used Thomson Reuters ISI Web of Science citations database (ISI). A new Index of Citations Quality (ICQ) is presented, based on quality-weighted citations. Design/methodology/approach – The new index is used to analyse the leading 500 journals in both the sciences and social sciences, as well as finance and accounting, using quantifiable Research Assessment Measures (RAMs) that are based on alternative transformations of citations. Findings – It is shown that ICQ is a useful additional measure to 2-year impact factor (2YIF) and other well-known RAMs for the purpose of evaluating the impact and quality, as well as ranking, of journals as it contains information that has very low correlations with the information contained in the well-known RAMs for both the sciences and social sciences, and finance and accounting. Practical implications – Journals can, and do, inflate the number of citations through self-citation practices, which may be coercive. Another method for distorting journal impact is through a set of journals agreeing to cite each other, that is, by exchanging citations. This may be less coercive than self-citations, but is nonetheless unprofessional and distortionary. Social implications – The premise underlying the use of citations data is that higher quality journals generally have a higher number of citations. The impact of citations can be distorted in a number of ways, both consciously and unconsciously. Originality/value – Regardless of whether self-citations arise through collusive practices, the increase in citations will affect both 2YIF and 5-year impact factor (5YIF), though not Eigenfactor and Article Influence. This leads to an ICQ, where a higher ICQ would generally be preferred to lower. Unlike 5YIF, which is increased by journal self-citations and exchanged citations, and Eigenfactor and Article Influence, both of which are affected by quality-weighted exchanged citations, ICQ will be less affected by exchanged citations. In the absence of any empirical evidence to the contrary, 5YIF and AI are assumed to be affected similarly by exchanged citations.

Teaching the West and the World from the Massachusetts Framework

1998 ◽  
Vol 180 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-78
Author(s):  
Paul Gagnon
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Science Curriculum ◽  
World History ◽  
Student Assessment ◽  
The West ◽  
The Social ◽  
Curriculum Framework ◽  
Massachusetts History ◽  
Common Problems ◽  
Selection Of

This article summarizes how teachers may implement the Massachusetts History and Social Science Curriculum Framework as they design and teach courses in Western civilization and world history. It discusses the integration of history, geography, and the social sciences, together with suggested approaches to common problems such as the balance between Western and world studies, selection of main topics and questions, professional development, student assessment, and challenges teachers may confront.

Journal influence in corporate research

2016 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 376-389 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth Borokhovich ◽  
Allissa Lee ◽  
Betty Simkins
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Corporate Finance ◽  
Relative Influence ◽  
Impact Factors ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Journal Citation Reports ◽  
The Social ◽  
Total Influence ◽  
The Impact

Purpose – Studies of research influence commonly look at the overall field of finance. The purpose of this paper is to examine the sub-field of corporate finance at four different points in time to determine its evolution and range of influence, specifically focussing on the relative influence of seven leading journals. Design/methodology/approach – Not all articles appearing in the set of journals are in corporate finance. The authors examine each article published in the journals for four key periods and identify those that are corporate. The impact factors (IFs) published in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) are for all articles appearing in a journal. The authors are interested only in the corporate articles, so the authors calculate separate corporate IFs based on the citations to the corporate articles using the JCR technique. Findings – The authors find a broad corporate research environment with influence that extends well beyond finance. The authors also find differences in the relative influence of the journals not only in their total influence, but in where the influence occurs outside finance and other business journals and even more broadly in the social sciences. Research limitations/implications – The exclusion of journals outside the seven selected may not uncover other areas where corporate finance articles impact research more broadly. Also, classification of articles is inherently subjective. Practical implications – The authors draw comparisons between journals and corporate finance topic areas; indicating the breadth and depth research in these areas attain. These results should prove beneficial to researchers in determining areas of influence for their work, consequently providing opportunities for additional exchanges of ideas resulting in better and more informed research in the overall social sciences. Further, our approach to analyzing journal influence could prove fruitful for additional research. Originality/value – The findings allow for a greater understanding of the influence of individual journals and their subsequent rankings by a number of different means. The authors propose that the means and measures employed here can lead to a greater understanding of how influential a journal really is. Further, the authors contend that the study provides comparisons of the scope and depth of influence for each journal in a way that could lead to new avenues of research.

Secondary analysis in the social sciences and its relation to futures studies

2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 128-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristiano Vezzoni
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Secondary Analysis ◽  
Sociology Of Religion ◽  
Future Scenarios ◽  
Futures Studies ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Research And Teaching ◽  
The Social ◽  
Definition Of

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to show the importance of secondary analysis to social sciences and to futures studies, both for research and teaching purposes. Design/methodology/approach – An illustration of the main characteristics of secondary analysis, presenting it as a theory-driven activity where the definition of the research design plays a fundamental role. Findings – This paper extends the secondary analysis approach to the study of the future. The utility of secondary analysis for futures studies is illustrated by means of the presentation of two examples developed in the field of the sociology of religion. Originality/value – The results are useful for those who want to develop sound and robust approaches to the study of social change, taking into consideration the simulation of possible future scenarios.

Data Mining in the Social Sciences and Iterative Attribute Elimination

2008 ◽  
pp. 308-332 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony Scime ◽  
Gregg R. Murray ◽  
Wan Huang ◽  
Carol Brownstein-Evans
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Data Mining ◽  
Living Arrangement ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Research Issues ◽  
The Social ◽  
Public Resources ◽  
Data Collections ◽  
Analytical Tools ◽  
Election Studies

Immense public resources are expended to collect large stores of social data, but often these data are under-examined thereby missing potential opportunities to shed light on some of society’s pressing problems. This chapter proposes and demonstrates data mining in general and an iterative attribute-elimination process in particular as important analytical tools to exploit more fully these important data from the social sciences. We use an iterative domain-expert and data mining process to identify attributes that are useful for addressing distinct and nontrivial research issues in social science—presidential vote choice and living arrangement outcomes for maltreated children—using the American National Election Studies (ANES) from political science and the National Survey on Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW) from social work. We conclude that data mining is useful for more fully exploiting important but under-evaluated data collections for the purpose of addressing some important questions in the social sciences.

Introduction

2016 ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Ling ◽  
Lorraine Ling
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Education Research ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Research Paradigm ◽  
Field Of Study ◽  
Related Field ◽  
Research Issues ◽  
Research Paradigms ◽  
The Social ◽  
Pragmatic Research

The title of this book refers to both methods and paradigms in education research. Both are addressed, but this book is distinguished from others in that the research paradigm, rather than choice of research method, is placed front of stage. The related field of study is education. The study of education intertwines with a range of disciplines in the social sciences so the research issues arising have implications beyond the education context. The research paradigms addressed in this book include the traditional positivist and post-positivist—here labelled neo-positivist—paradigms. The interpretivist, transformative and pragmatic research paradigms, which have also been nominated in existing literature, are included. A novel supercomplexity paradigm has been added here in acknowledgement of the “supercomplex” environment (Barnett, 2000a) in which education research now operates. Following chapters explore issues relating to the design, implementation and critique of education research in the light of this understanding of research paradigms.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document