The Citation Impact of German Sociology Journals: Some Problems with the Use of Scientometric Indicators in Journal and Research Evaluations

Loet Leydesdorff; Staša Milojević

doi:10.5771/0038-6073-2015-2-193

Contents
- Chapter Expand | CollapseAuthorsPage
- 119–120 Titelei/Inhaltsverzeichnis 119–120
- 121–140 Anatomie des Journal Impact Faktors Tobias Wolbring Tobias Wolbring 121–140
- 141–148 Impact Faktoren Bruno S. Frey, Margit Osterloh Bruno S. Frey, Margit Osterloh 141–148
- 149–160 Alle Macht den Zahlen! Zur Soziologie des Zitationsindexes Richard Münch Richard Münch 149–160
- 161–176 Bibliometrische Verfahren zur Bewertung von Forschungsleistung Werner Marx, Lutz Bornmann Werner Marx, Lutz Bornmann 161–176
- 177–192 Das Forschungsrating des Wissenschaftsrats für die Soziologie in Deutschland revisited Katrin Auspurg, Andreas Diekmann, Thomas Hinz, Matthias Näf Katrin Auspurg, Andreas Diekmann, Thomas Hinz, Matthias Näf 177–192
- 193–204 The Citation Impact of German Sociology Journals: Some Problems with the Use of Scientometric Indicators in Journal and Research Evaluations Loet Leydesdorff, Staša Milojević Loet Leydesdorff, Staša Milojević 193–204
- 205–214 Soziale Bedingungen und Effekte der quantitativen Leistungsmessung Jan-Christoph Rogge Jan-Christoph Rogge 205–214
- 215–224 Der Journal Impact Faktor in der Soziologie: Die Gefahren eines Un-Maßes Jochen Gläser Jochen Gläser 215–224
- 225–242 Der Impact Faktor war gestern Martina Franzen Martina Franzen 225–242
- 243–250 Nostalgia for the world without numbers Peter Weingart Peter Weingart 243–250
- 251–256 Abstracts 251–256
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SozW Soziale Welt , page 193 - 204

The Citation Impact of German Sociology Journals: Some Problems with the Use of Scientometric Indicators in Journal and Research Evaluations

Autoren

Loet Leydesdorff Staša Milojević

DOI
- doi.org/10.5771/0038-6073-2015-2-193
- ISSN: 0038-6073
- ISSN online: 2942-3414
Abstract

We analyze the citation impacts (‚cited‘) and citation practices (‚citing‘) of sociological journals which publish mainly in German, and discuss major drawbacks of using the journal impact factor (IF) to assess the quality of these journals. First, sociological literature moves very slowly in terms of citations, whereas journal impact factors (IF) measure short-term impact at research fronts. Second, the citation distributions are heavily skewed because of the so-called Matthew effect (Merton) of cumulative advantages; one should not use quasi-averages (such as the IF) given this skewness. The alternative of using non-parametric statistics (e.g., percentiles), however, requires delineation of the reference sets. We discuss the unsolved problems in the case of (inter)disciplinary delineations and show empirically the ecological fallacy in nevertheless attributing journal characteristics to individual papers. Algorithmic constructs (e.g., the various rankings) cannot be used for policy or management purposes without validation or specification of statistical error.
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