|
on Sociology of Economics |
|
Issue of 2010‒07‒31
four papers chosen by Jonas Holmström Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration |
| By: | Ravallion, Martin; Wagstaff, Adam |
| Abstract: | Bibliometric measures based on citations are widely used in assessing the scientific publication records of authors, institutions and journals. Yet currently favored measures lack a clear conceptual foundation and are known to have counter-intuitive properties. The authors propose a new approach thatis grounded on a theoretical"influence function,"representing explicit prior beliefs about how citations reflect influence. They provide conditions for robust qualitative comparisons of influence -- conditions that can be implemented using readily-available data. An example is provided using the economics publication records of selected universities and the World Bank. |
| Keywords: | Information Security&Privacy,Economic Theory&Research,Information and Records Management,Tertiary Education,Knowledge for Development |
| Date: | 2010–07–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5375&r=sog |
| By: | Chia-Lin Chang; Michael McAleer (University of Canterbury); Les Oxley (University of Canterbury) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the novelty and usefulness of two new journal performance metrics, namely the Eigenfactor Score and Article Influence Score, using ISI data for 2009 for the 200 most highly cited journals in each of the sciences and social sciences, and compares them with existing ISI metrics, namely Total Citations and the 5-year Impact Factor (5YIF) of a journal. It is shown that the sciences and social sciences are different in terms of the strength of the relationship of journal performance metrics, although the actual relationships are very similar. |
| Keywords: | Journal performance metrics; Total citations; 5-year impact factor (5YIF); Eigenfactor score; Article influence score |
| JEL: | A12 |
| Date: | 2010–07–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cbt:econwp:10/44&r=sog |
| By: | Müller-Langer, Frank; Watt, Richard |
| Abstract: | In a recent paper, Prof. Steven Shavell (see Shavell, 2009) has argued strongly in favor of eliminating copyright from academic works. Based upon solid economic arguments, Shavell analyses the pros and cons of removal of copyright and in its place to have a pure open access system, in which authors (or more likely their employers) would provide the funds that keep journals in business. In this paper we explore some of the arguments in Shavell’s paper, above all the way in which the distribution of the sources of journal revenue would be altered, and the feasible effects upon the quality of journal content. We propose a slight modification to a pure open access system which may provide for the best of both the copyright and open access worlds. |
| Keywords: | Open Access; Academic Works; Effects of Removal of Copyrights |
| JEL: | I23 K19 |
| Date: | 2010–06–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:24095&r=sog |
| By: | Ravallion, Martin; Wagstaff, Adam |
| Abstract: | The World Bank has produced a huge volume of books and papers on development -- 20,000 publications spanning decades, but growing appreciably since 1990. This paper finds evidence that many of these publications have influenced development thinking, as indicated by the citations found using Google Scholar and in bibliographic data bases. However, the authors also find that a non-negligible share of the Bank's publications have received no citations, suggesting that they have had little scholarly influence, though they may well have had influence on non-academic audiences. Individually-authored journal articles have been the main channel for scholarly influence. The volume of the Bank's research output on development is greater than that of any of the comparator institutions identified, including other international agencies and the top universities in economics. The bibliometric indicators of the quality and influence of the Bank's portfolio of scholarly publications are on a par with, or better than, most of the top universities. |
| Keywords: | Banks&Banking Reform,Information Security&Privacy,Tertiary Education,Corporate Law,Access to Finance |
| Date: | 2010–07–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5374&r=sog |