Resources for Promotion and Tenure
The University Libraries have a variety of resources available for assessing the scholarly work of a promotion and tenure candidate. In addition, there are many free sources on the Web that provide insight and analysis of data regarding the contribution and value of a candidate's publications.
Resources for Evaluating Citation Counts
Resources for Journal Ranking and Evaluation
Journal Acceptance Rates
Sources for Books
Further Reading
Sources for finding Cited References
If you are doing extensive citation analysis, we recommend that you begin by making an appointment with the Customized Search Service. Trained librarians can run a DIALOG search which will provide a ranked count of citations, as well as other services that make citation searching more efficient. For DIALOG searches on the downtown campus, contact Elaine Lasda Bergman.
Social Sciences Citation Index
This print resource allows researchers to track cited references in leading social and behavioral sciences journals. SSCI is found in the reference sections at both the University Library (from 1970 - 2007) and the Dewey Graduate Library (1982 - 2007): REF H 1 Z999 S63.
Science Citation Index
Available on CD-Rom until 2003 and on DVD 2004 and thereafter, this database allows users to track cited references for authors in science and mathematics. Science Citation Index is housed on a stand-alone terminal in the Science Library Information Commons, near the color printer. Electronic holdings run from 1980 to the present. For assistance in using the CD-Rom or DVD, please contact a Reference Librarian. Print volumes go back to 1964 and are found at Science Library / Reference - Index: Q 1 Z999 S28.
ACM Digital Library
This database contains the full text of Association of Computing Machinery journals, magazines, conference papers, and other resources. Enter a search for an author or article, and look for a “cited by” link at the bottom of the record. A researcher is able to retrieve citing references for only one record at a time. ACM Digital Library is found by searching Databases and Indexes.
Arts and Humanities Citation Index
UA Libraries subscribe to this databases which allows users to track cited references for various authors who publish in the humanities. In "Advanced Search," choose "Cited Reference" searching from the pull down menu on the right. Arts and Humanities Citation Index is found by searching Databases and Indexes. Online access runs from 1980 to the present. Print volumes run from 1977 to 2007 and are located at University Library / Reference: AI 3 A28X.
CSA Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
Containing information on a wide range of political science journals, this database covers the years 1975 to the present. To find citing references, type your author’s last name and first initial and select “References” from the pull down menu. CSA Worldwide Political Science Abstracts is found on the Databases and Indexes page.
Ebsco Academic Search Premier
This database covers a wide span of topic areas and is known for its functionality. If you click on the "Cited References" link on the green bar of the Ebsco search screen, you will be given a search menu that allows you to search Cited Author, Cited Title, Cited Source, and so forth. (Some Public Administration and Policy researchers may also find Ebsco’s Business Source Premier worth searching using the same process.) Ebsco Academic Search Premier is found by searching Databases and Indexes.
JSTOR
Our JSTOR subscription provides the back issues of many types of journals. Select “Advanced Search” and choose applicable subject collections, such as Sociology, Psychology, Health Science, Public Administration and Policy. JSTOR does not have a specific citation search feature; however a researcher is able to search for an author in the full text of included articles. Be aware however, that the most current publications will not be included and searching the full text of an article for an author will bring up articles written by the author as well as articles which cite your author. JSTOR is found by on the Databases and Indexes page.
Lexis-Nexis Academic
This database provides access to Shepard’s® Citations which provides citing references for law review articles, court cases, and other legal documents. To use this feature, click on the red “Legal” tab on the main Lexis Nexis Screen, select Shepard’s® Citations from the right-hand navigation, and enter the cite for the article or document in the search box. Searchers are only able to retrieve citing references for one article, case or document at a time. Lexis-Nexis Academic is found on the Databases and Indexes page.
PsycINFO
PsycINFO is our primary database for retrieving information on psychology topics. To find articles which cite an author, type the author’s last name and first initial, and then select “Author” from the pull down menu. When you have a list of citations, click the Citing Articles button at the bottom of each record which will locate the articles which cited this item. PsycINFO covers psychology journals from 1887 to the present and is found on the Databases and Indexes page.
Google Scholar
Google Scholar provides bibliographic information and sometimes, full text of scholarly journal articles, reports and government documents. To locate citing references, select Advanced Search. It may be best to limit the search to the Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities category. Put the author’s name in the appropriate search box. In the result list, you will see links for some records that say “Cited by 13” or another number. Click on that link to see the items in Google Scholar that have cited this result. Be aware however, that Google will search for variations of your name, for example, a search with the name "Luis" will turn up results with "Louis" as well. Also, there may be multiple entries which cover identical articles.
Resources for Evaluating Citation Counts
Journal Citation Reports
The Thomson Scientific web page states that JCR “presents quantifiable statistical data” for assessing journal quality. The most well known statistic JCR provides is the “impact factor,” which provides a way of measuring the “importance” of a journal in relation to others in the same subject field. The Libraries have JCR on microfiche; the Social Sciences Edition goes back to 1998 and is found in the University Library / Reference: H 1 Z999 S635X. The Science Edition also goes back to 1998, and is found in the Science Library / Reference - Index: Q 1 Z999 S285X.
Publish or Perish
An alternative citation analysis tool, Publish or Perish uses the information from Google Scholar to determine various statistics and measurements related to citing references. Its creators state that Publish or Perish is best used when one’s works are not in the ISI listed journals. In addition to determining simple totals, Publish or Perish will calculate Hirsch's H-index, Egghe's g-Index, which are alternatives to the JCR's impact factor. According to the creators, it often produces a higher count than the ISI indexes. Results may be imported into a variety of formats including for use in EndNote and Excel.
Resources for Journal Ranking and Evaluation
Eigenfactor.org
This free web resource from the Bergstrom Lab at the University of Washington uses citations in the academic literature as tallied by JCR (Journal Citation Reports) in order to identify the most "influential" journals. The Eigenfactor score claims to offer a rough estimate of how often a journal will be used by scholars.
In-Cites
In-Cites is a website which provides information from Thompson's Essential Science Indicators including citation count information, impact statistics, and assessments of scholarly achievement by author, institution, country and journal, and provides information on the social sciences as well as the "hard" sciences. Check the "Sci-Bytes" section for brief articles highlighting "Hot Papers" and top Impact rankings by subject field.
Red Jasper's Center for Journal Ranking
This citation analysis tool adds more flexibility for the user in terms of weighting various journals and articles, and the ability to cross-categorize citation reports. The results are described as an “influence index” for either a journal or an individual paper. Emphasis of this resource is on the “hard” sciences, and the tool has not been updated since 2005.
Ulrich's Periodicals Directory
UA Libraries subscribe to this database, which provides detailed information on almost all currently published journals. Among other information, Ulrich’s provides the circulation count of a given journal and a list of where the journal is indexed. Online access is available through Databases and Indexes. The print version is located at: Dewey Library/ REF Z 6941 U5 2006.
Journal Acceptance Rates
The following reference resources are listed by subject and provide information on scholarly publishing, including journal acceptance rates:
Criminal Justice
O'Block, R.L. CJ Research Sources: a Guide to Criminal Justice Literature, Research, and Sources of Data. Location: Dewey Library: HV 8665 Z999 O35X.
Whitehouse, E. A Research Guide for Law Enforcement and the Criminal Justice System: a Bibliography of Bibliographies, Journals, Research, and Reference Materials. Location: Dewey Library: Reference: HV 6025 Z999 W55X 1982.
Library and Information Science
Stevens, N.D. Author's Guide to Journals in Library and Information Science. Location: Dewey Library Z666 S84 1982.
Political Science, Public Administration, Public Policy
Donovan, C.P. The Directory of Journals in Public Affairs, Public and Non-profit Administration , and Political Science. Location: Dewey Library REF JA60 D57 1999.
Martin, F.S. Getting Published in Political Science Journals: A Guide for Authors, Editors, and Librarians. Location: Dewey Library REF JA 86 M37 2001.
Social Welfare
American Psychological Association. Journals in Psychology. Location: University Library BF 76.8 J68
The American Psychological Association also makes its journal acceptance rates available on their website: http://www.apa.org/journals/statistics.html
Loke, W.H. A Guide to Journals in Psychology and Education. Location: University Library REF BF76.8 L65 1990.
Mendelssohn, H.N. An Author's Guide to Social Work Journals. Location Dewey Library REF HV 85 M46 1997.
This web page from the University at Iowa provides acceptance rates and other publication data for a number of social science titles. http://ww2.hs.iastate.edu/rge/research/compendiumWEBpage.asp
Wang, A. Author's Guide to Journals in the Behavioral Sciences. Location: University Library BF 76.8 W36 1989.
Sources for Books
Book Review Digest Plus and Book Review Digest Retrospective
Authors can find reviews of their books. Select "Author, Personal" from the field menu and enter the author's name in the search box. Book Review Digest Plus contains some full text and citations from over 8,000 journals from 1983-present. Book Review Digest Retrospectives contains citations from 1905-1983. Print runs from 1905 to the present and is found at Dewey Library / Reference: Z 1035 Z999 B66.
Google Book Search
Google Book Search will provide some information on books which cite an author when one executes a general keyword search for the author’s name. Researchers will need to scrutinize the results for books written by the author, and if the author’s name is common, books about individuals with the same or similar name. Google Books provides what they call “snippets” of many books in copyright, which enable you to see a brief amount of context surrounding your keywords. The full text of a large number of out of copyright books is also available.
Further Reading
General
Coleman, A. (2007). Assessing the value of a journal beyond the impact factor. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 58(8), 1148-1161.
Traces several bibliometrics of one journal over time and shows the inadequacies of both impact factors and perceptual measurements in determining the value of scholarly publishing.
The Agony and the Ecstasy--the History and Meaning of the Journal Impact Factor
This article was written by the creator of the Science Citation Index and the JCR Impact Factor and uses a citation analysis of top research in the hard sciences to explain how these resources work.
Gordon, M.D. (1982). Citation Ranking Versus Subjective Evaluation in the Determination of Journal Hierarchies in the Social Sciences. Journal of the American Society of Information Science, 33(1), 55-57.
Compares the JCR impact factors of social sciences journals to rankings by sociologists, to determine if there is a correlation between those journals determined by JCR to have a significant impact and those highly ranked by the sociologists.
Mc Donald, J.D. (2007). Understanding journal usage: a statistical analysis of citation and use. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 58(1), 39.
Examines the use of print and online journals and their relationship to local citations. Citations increase when the material is available online in addition to print.
The Rise and Rise of Citation Analysis
This article by Lokman Meho examines the history of the traditional citation analysis tools as well as newer methods. While his examples are within the subject of physics, the article provides a good overview of the newer resources that are available to scholars.
Scholarly Communication and Bibliometrics.
The authors discuss the newer, more sophisticated use of bibliometric tools such as citation analysis, especially due to the increase of research presented in an electronic format.
Why the Impact Factor of Journals Should Not be Used for Evaluating Research
Seglen posits: if the impact factor provides information about a journal title as a whole, it should not be used to evaluate individual articles.
The Tyranny of Citations
Altbach discusses the “cottage industry” of citation analysis and the strengths and weaknesses of this technique. Amongst the weaknesses, he feels that quantity is not valued as much as quality, there is too great of a focus on research published in the English Language, and the system for analyzing citations is too “narrow.”
Subject-Specific
Criminal Justice
Shichor, D., et. al.(1983). Periodical prestige in criminology and criminal justice. Criminology, 21(3),457-461.
Library and Information Science
Kim, M.T. (1991). Ranking of journals in library and information science: a comparison of perceptual and citation-based measures. College and Research Libraries, 51(1), 24-37.
Nisonger, T. (1999). JASIS and library and information science journal rankings: a review and analysis of the last half-century. Journal for the American Society for Information Science, 50(11), 1004-1019.
Political Science, Public Policy, Public Administration
Vocino, T., Elliot, RH. (1984). Research note: public administration journal prestige: a time series analysis. Administrative Science Quarterly, 29(1), 43-51.
Social Welfare
Holden, G., et. al. (2005). Tracing thought through time and space: a selective review of bibliometrics in social work. Social Work in Health Care, 41(3/4), 1-34. Sellers, SL, et. al. (2004). Evaluation of social work journal quality: citation versus reputation approaches. Journal of Social Work Education, 40(1), 143-160.
