Papers by Elise Bassecoulard
Scientometrics, 2004
The tremendous social and political changes that culminated in the Soviet Union's dissolution had... more The tremendous social and political changes that culminated in the Soviet Union's dissolution had a great impact on the Russian science community. Due to the Russian transformation to a market economy a new model of R&D emerged on the basis of the higher education system (R&D in universities). This paper is part of a project, the main goals of which were to analyse the impact of competitive funding on R&D in provincial universities, the distribution of funding by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, and the level of cross-sectoral and international collaboration. This paper gives a descriptive overview of R&D conducted at the 380 provincial universities, looking at 9,800 applications, 1,950 research projects, 19,981 individuals, and more than 29,600 publications for the period 1996–2001. Our data demonstrated a positive tendency in demographic statistics in the provinces. A map of intra-national collaboration taking place in 1995–2002 in provincial universities situated in different economic regions was designed. Our data show a strong collaboration within the regions, which is an important factor of sustainability. Publication output grew by a factor two or two-and half in six years. The share in output on mathematics was the highest at about 45%, physics and chemistry had equal shares of about 20% each. Researchers from the Ural and Povolzh'e regions were more active in knowledge dissemination than their colleagues from the other nine economic-geographic regions. Bibliometric analysis of more than 1,450 international collaborative publications for 1999‘2001 demonstrated a strong shift in collaboration partners from Former East Block and former USSR countries to Western Europe, USA and Japan. Among the regions, Povolzh'e, Ural, Volgo-Vyatsky and Central Chernozem'e demonstrated a stronger tendency to collaborate. This collaboration depends heavily on financial support from foreign countries.
This communication presents some aspects of an on-going research on a class of indicators of scie... more This communication presents some aspects of an on-going research on a class of indicators of scientific visibility. Relying on a new usage of classic citation distribution studies, the "activity index in citation classes" (AIC) describes the "relative citation profile" or distribution of actors' articles among quantile classes of citations defined by the world reference. AIC exists in multiple variants reproducing various types of fieldnormalization, as well as direct or cumulative (AICC) presentation. The profiles of AIC can be summarized by empirical indexes, or parameters of simple laws, which are good candidates for indicators of overall citation performance. As profile performance indicators derived from AICC and classical "relative impact" (RI) indicators basically reflect the same information, their comparison is appealing. Empirical profiles obtained for national or institutional actors also raise the question of homogeneity of scientific literature: the high tail (excellence) and especially the low tail of the profile can show large deviations to the medium range of profile reflecting the general performance.
Hybrid citation-word representations in science mapping: Portolan charts of research fields
Journal of The American Society for Information Science and Technology, 2011
The mapping of scientific fields, based on principles established in the seventies, has recently ... more The mapping of scientific fields, based on principles established in the seventies, has recently shown a remarkable development and applications are now booming with progress in computing efficiency. We examine here the convergence of two thematic mapping approaches, citation-based and word-based, which rely on quite different sociological backgrounds. A corpus in the nanoscience field was broken down into research themes, using the same clustering technique on the 2 networks separately. The tool for comparison is the table of intersections of the M clusters (here M=50) built on either side. A classical visual exploitation of such contingency tables is based on correspondence analysis. We investigate a rearrangement of the intersection table (block modeling), resulting in pseudo-map. The interest of this representation for confronting the two breakdowns is discussed. The amount of convergence found is, in our view, a strong argument in favor of the reliability of bibliometric mapping. However, the outcomes are not convergent at the degree where they can be substituted for each other. Differences highlight the complementarity between approaches based on different networks. In contrast with the strong informetric posture found in recent literature, where lexical and citation markers are considered as miscible tokens, the framework proposed here does not mix the two elements at an early stage, in compliance with their contrasted logic.
Internationalization of scientific journals: A measurement based on publication and citation scope
Scientometrics, 1998
Although impact factor and related measurements are the best-known features of scientific journal... more Although impact factor and related measurements are the best-known features of scientific journals, other characteristics are of particular interest. The way a journal reflects the internationalized nature of science may be determined by many methods, one of which is based on the distribution of authoring and citing countries. This can be systematically measured either by a comparison of these distributions with averages profiles of a discipline or specialty, or by concentration indexes on the other. This paper focuses on the first approach. As the average profile of science drifts with the level of visibility, stratification by impact level is discussed. In this study, experimental internationalization indexes were calculated on the SCI for journals belonging to Earth&Space and Applied Biology. Convergence of measurements (types of indexes, type of normalization, publication vs citation scope) is adressed. Internationalization indexes may have a variety of applications, including characterization of the scientific publishing market and sampling of the SCI for science indicators.
Ethics in Science and Environmental Politics, 2008
Scientometrics and bibliometrics are being forced to respond to a strong increase in demand (e.g.... more Scientometrics and bibliometrics are being forced to respond to a strong increase in demand (e.g. research assessment practices, economics of science & technology, and innovation) and new forms of supply (e.g. availability of publication sources and statistics, Internet developments and online tools). This situation results in contrasting perspectives: on the one hand, it can favour spectacular 'hit-parades' and some veneration of numbers; on the other hand, it paves the way for more cautious and sophisticated evaluation systems, rooted in a better understanding of the dynamics of science. This paper describes some of the challenges for bibliometric indicators (data 'demining', knowledge-flow measurements and diversity issues) underlying, among other applications, reliable evaluation procedures. Responding to these challenges is necessary to promote a better use of scientometrics, although there are no guarantees against misuse in decision-making contexts. A few open issues are outlined on the dynamics of science, challenges of the web age, and interactions between scientometrics and scientific communities.
Patents and Publications
The quantitative appraisal, partly through bibliometrics, of science-technology connections has m... more The quantitative appraisal, partly through bibliometrics, of science-technology connections has made great progress in the last decade. We investigate in this chapter the lexical linkage between articles and patents, an alternative method to the systematic exploitation of the citations of patents to scientific papers. We explore in particular the ability to establish correspondence tables between patent classification and scientific categories. After a reminder of the methodological background (S&T linkages, lexical methods, statistical measures) we report an exploratory study based on a subset of the Chemical Abstracts database (CA) that covers both articles and patents by a very precise indexing system. Connection measures have been established, first on controlled vocabulary, and secondly on some natural language fields. The comparison shows some robustness of the lexical approach, with clear limitations at the micro level: topic sharing between a particular article and a particular patent cannot be interpreted in the general case as the sharing of a research question. At the macro level, for example IPC sub-classes and ISI subject categories, the lexical approach is an appealing technique, complementary to usual citation based analysis built on very sparse matrices, because informetric performances of lexical methods can be tuned in a large scope of precision-recall features. The extension to databases specific either to articles or patents requires language processing which can be alleviated if macro level correspondence is solely sought.
Co-citations and co-sitations: A cautionary view on an analogy
Scientometrics, 2002
Like the citation network of scientific publications, the Web is also a graph where pages are con... more Like the citation network of scientific publications, the Web is also a graph where pages are connected together by hypertext links or “sitations”. In the new research field Webometrics, scholars have investigated equivalencies between citationist concepts established in bibliometrics and hyperlinks networks. This paper focuses on the possible analogy between co-citation and co-sitation to structure Web universes. It reports an experiment in the field of bibliometrics and scientific indicators. Several technical aspects that must be dealt with are reviewed. Co-sitation seems a promising way to delineate topics on the Web. However, the analogy with traditional co-citation is deeply misleading: many precautions must be taken in the interpretation of the results.
Information Processing and Management, 2006
Relevance of bibliometric indicators on scientific areas critically depends on the quality of the... more Relevance of bibliometric indicators on scientific areas critically depends on the quality of their delineation. Macro-level studies, often based on a selected list of journals, accept a high degree of fuzziness. Micro-level studies rely on sets of individual articles in order to reduce noise and enhance precision of retrieval. The most usual information retrieval process is based on lexical queries with various levels of sophistication. In the experiment on Nanosciences reported here, this process was used as a first step, to delineate a 'seed' of literature. It has strong limitations, especially for emerging or transversal fields. In a second step, the alternative approach of citation linkages, was used to expand the bibliography starting from lexical seed. The extension process presented is ruled by three parameters, two deal with the cited side (threshold on citation score, and specificity towards the field), one with the citing side (threshold on the number of relevant references) interplaying in the 'referencing structure' function (RSF) introduced in a previous work. This type of combination proves effective for delineating the transversal field of Nanosciences. Further improvements of the method are discussed.
Scientometrics, 2005
As citation practices strongly depend on fields, field normalisation is recognised as necessary f... more As citation practices strongly depend on fields, field normalisation is recognised as necessary for fair comparison of figures in bibliometrics and evaluation studies. However fields may be defined at various levels, from small research areas to broad academic disciplines, and thus normalisation values are expected to vary. The aim of this project was to test the stability of citation ratings of articles as the level of observation - hence the basis of normalisation - changes. A conventional classification of science based on ISI subject categories and their aggregates at various scales was used, namely at five levels: all science, large academic discipline, sub-discipline, speciality and journal. Among various normalisation methods, we selected a simple ranking method (quantiles), based on the citation score of the article in each particular aggregate (journal, speciality, etc.) it belonged to at each level. The study was conducted on articles in the full SCI range, for publication year 1998 with a four-year citation window. Stability is measured in three ways: overall comparison of article rankings; individual trajectory of articles; survival of the top-cited class across levels. Overall rank correlations on the observed empirical structure are benchmarked against two fictitious sets that keep the same embedded structure of articles but reassign citation scores either in a totally ordered or in a totally random distribution. These sets act respectively as a 'worst case' and 'best case' for the stability of citation ratings. The results show that: (a) the average citation rankings of articles substantially change with the level of observation (b) observation at the journal level is very particular, and the results differ greatly in all test circumstances from all the other levels of observation (c) the lack of cross-scale stability is confirmed when looking at the distribution of individual trajectories of articles across the levels; (d) when considering the top-cited fractions, a standard measure of excellence, it is found that the contents of the 'top-cited' set is completely dependent on the level of observation. The instability of impact measures should not be interpreted in terms of lack of robustness but rather as the co-existence of various perspectives each having their own form of legitimacy. A follow-up study will focus on the micro levels of observation and will be based on a structure built around bibliometric groupings rather than conventional groupings based on ISI subject categories.
Development of a method for detection and trend analysis of research fronts built by lexical or cocitation analysis
Scientometrics, 1994
Detecting homogeneous areas in research networks is a very common feature of bibliometric analysi... more Detecting homogeneous areas in research networks is a very common feature of bibliometric analysis, either for academic or policy purposes. The method presented here combines structural analysis and trend detection, by operating on a “thick-slice” of time, starting from co-citation or co-word analysis (applications of either type have already been carried on). Significance of “trend” of clusters is partially addressed, through an analysis of publication delays. Examples are given on a co-citation analysis in the field of astrophysics (1986–1989).
Information Processing and Management, 2007
Delineation of the genomics field by hybrid citation-lexical methods: interaction with experts and validation process
Scientometrics, 2010
In advanced methods of delineation and mapping of scientific fields, hybrid methods open a promis... more In advanced methods of delineation and mapping of scientific fields, hybrid methods open a promising path to the capitalisation of advantages of approaches based on words and citations. One way to validate the hybrid approaches is to work in cooperation with experts of the fields under scrutiny. We report here an experiment in the field of genomics, where a corpus of documents has been built by a hybrid citation-lexical method, and then clustered into research themes. Experts of the field were associated in the various stages of the process: lexical queries for building the initial set of documents, the seed; citation-based extension aiming at reducing silence; final clustering to identify noise and allow discussion on border areas. The analysis of experts’ advices show a high level of validation of the process, which combines a high-precision and low-recall seed, obtained by journal and lexical queries, and a citation-based extension enhancing the recall. This findings on the genomics field suggest that hybrid methods can efficiently retrieve a corpus of relevant literature, even in complex and emerging fields.
Indicators in a research institute: A multi-level classification of scientific journals
Scientometrics, 1999
Indicators in a research Institute ought to be readable at several decision levels, and particula... more Indicators in a research Institute ought to be readable at several decision levels, and particularly with different break-downs of the publication set chosen as reference. Citation transactions between journals have been widely used to structure scientific subfields in ISI databases. We tried a seed-free structuration of SCI/CMCI journals (a) to test convergence of pure citation-built specialties (roughly 150) on SCI/CMCI journals with existing classifications at the subfield level (b) to explore the interest and the limits of this approach for upper levels of aggregation (roughly 30 fields). A few limits of journal-level classification are addressed. At the subfield level, the convergence is large with some discrepancies worth noticing. At the subdiscipline level, the method is not sufficient to achieve a satisfactory 30-level delineation, but gives a good basis for informed expert validation.
Scientometrics, 2003
This article depicts some features of the geography of science and technology outputs in the EU, ... more This article depicts some features of the geography of science and technology outputs in the EU, with a particular attention to regional “co-location” of these two pillars of the “knowledge-based society”. Economists have, for a decade, paid great attention to local “spillovers” stating that industrial firms often draw advantages from the presence of nearby academic centres. The presence in the same areas of strong academic and technological resources is both a condition and a result of science-technology interactions. Concentrating on publications and patents as proxies of the science and technology level in regions, we built a typology of regions according to their commitment to the two knowledge-base activities and then analysed the co-locations of science and technology from several points of view. A fine-grain lattice, mainly based on standard Nuts3 level, was used. Co-location, at the EU level, is not a general rule. A strong potential for spillover/ interaction does exist in the top-class regions which concentrate a high proportion of European S and T output. But for regions with a small/medium level of S&T activity, a divergence of orientations appears between a science-oriented family and a technology-oriented family, indicating an imbalance between local S and T resources. If we look at the S-oriented regions, whilst controlling for underlying factors, such as population and regional economic product, a significant geographic linkage between T and S appears. This suggests a trajectory of science-based technological development. A careful examination of S&T thematic alignments and specialisation is necessary to develop the hypothesis that fostering academic resources could increase the technological power along a growth path.
Internationalisation in Science in the Prism of Bibliometric Indicators
Powerful engines tend to support internationalisation: self-organisation of scientific communitie... more Powerful engines tend to support internationalisation: self-organisation of scientific communities regardless of national borders; international and supranational top down programmes; side effects of economic globalisation; all these trends being boosted latterly by the ICT/Internet revolution. However, internationalisation meets several obstacles: resistance of the national structure in most aspects of innovation systems; proximity effects anchored in infra-structural factors; inertia of personal and institutional networks. Internationalisation of competition and cooperation does not necessarily imply fewer discrepancies in national performances. Bibliometric studies of scientific journals profiles, collaborative and other scientific networks, spatial distribution of scientific activity, tend to validate a real but slow process of the fading of borders. In the last decade advances appear more in globalisation of scientific communication and increase of aggregate collaboration figures than in the geographic distribution of knowledge sources, the reshaping of co-operation networks and the modification of interdisciplinary balances in connection with new growth regimes of science.
Scientometrics, 2003
Citations networks are a core topic of informetrics and science studies. This article proposes to... more Citations networks are a core topic of informetrics and science studies. This article proposes to bridge the cited and citing side of citation transactions by using a disaggregated form, the “referencing-structure” function (RSF). The RSF may be also seen as the “retrieval-structure” which, in a stylized co-citation or co-word model, gives the maximum retrieval that can be expected from the bibliometric characteristics of the field (retrieval and recall features are key issues in co-citation studies). The usual citation and reference distributions may be derived from aggregates or cuts respectively, of the RSF. The RSF representation also generates new points of views on the citing-cited distributions, such as the "iso-retrieval function". A rank version of RSF is also introduced. Part I is devoted to the definition and construction of the RSF, and to the general interpretation of its various aspects in the context of co-citation studies. Generalization to other co-item (co-word, hyperlinks “co-sitations”) studies is discussed briefly. We also introduce a general form a kindred to the Weibull distribution that can be used to fit cuts of the function. The forthcoming Part II will detail empirical fits, using a few experimental files.
La scientométrie et la bibliométrie sont confrontées à la fois à un fort développement de la dema... more La scientométrie et la bibliométrie sont confrontées à la fois à un fort développement de la demande d'indicateurs (en évaluation de la recherche, en économie des sciences et de l'innovation) et à l'apparition de nouvelles formes d'offre (sources et statistiques sur les publications scientifiques ; développements Internet et outils en ligne). Cette situation ouvre des perspectives contrastées, d'un côté les "hit-parades" spectaculaires et une certaine frénésie du chiffre, de l'autre des systèmes d'évaluation élaborés et prudents, ancrés dans une meilleure compréhension de la diversité et de la dynamique des systèmes scientifiques. Cet article esquisse quelques-uns des défis rencontrés par les indicateurs scientométriques : déminage des données, mesure des flux de connaissance, questions de diversité. La réponse à ces défis conditionne la mise au point d'indicateurs fiables. Elle ne prémunit pas, toutefois, contre les dérives dans leur utilisation.
Scientometrics, 2000
This article aims at a characterization of the cooperation behavior among five large scientific c... more This article aims at a characterization of the cooperation behavior among five large scientific countries (France, Germany, Japan, United Kingdom and United States of America) from 1986 to 1996. It looks at the cooperation profiles of these countries using classical measures such as the Probabilistic Affinity. The results show the major influence which historical, cultural and linguistic proximities may have on patterns of cooperation, with few changes over the period of time studied.A lack of specific affinities among the three largest European countries is revealed, and this contrasts with the strong linkage demonstrated between United States and Japan. The ensuing discussion raises some questions as to the process of Europeanization in science. The intensity of bilateral cooperation linkages is then studied with regard to field specialization by country, and this analysis yields no general patterns at the scale studied. Specific bilateral behaviors are also analyzed.
Correcting glasses help fair comparisons in international science landscape: Country indicators as a function of ISI database delineation
Scientometrics, 2003
The increasing use of bibliometric indicators in science policy calls for a reassessment of their... more The increasing use of bibliometric indicators in science policy calls for a reassessment of their robustness and limits. The perimeter of journal inclusion within ISI databases will determine variations in the classic bibliometric indicators used for international comparison, such as world shares of publications or relative impacts. We show in this article that when this perimeter is adjusted using a natural criterion for inclusion of journals, the journal impact, the variation of the most common country indicators (publication and citation shares; relative impacts) with the perimeter chosen depends on two phenomena. The first one is a bibliometric regularity rooted in the main features of competition in the open space of science, that can be modeled by bibliometric laws, the parameters of which are “coverage-independent” indicators. But this regularity is obscured for many countries by a second phenomenon, the presence of a sub-population of journals that does not reflect the same international openness, the nationally-oriented journals. As a result indicators based on standard SCI or SCISearch perimeters are jeopardized to a certain extent by this sub-population which creates large irregularities. These irregularities often lead to an over-estimation of share and an under-estimation of the impact, for countries with national editorial tradition, while the impact of a few mainstream countries arguably benefits from the presence of this sub-population.
Co - citations and co - sitations: A cautionary view on an analogy
Scientometrics, 2002
... Several authors, among them Rousseau (1997), Ingwersen (1998), Aguillo (1999), Boubourides (1... more ... Several authors, among them Rousseau (1997), Ingwersen (1998), Aguillo (1999), Boubourides (1999), Egghe (2000) and Björneborn (2001) have investigated equivalencies between citationist concepts established in ... co-citation dispute (Leydesdorff, 1997; Braam et al., 1991 ...
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Papers by Elise Bassecoulard