Scientific journals in the Communication and Information area
consolidation of the h-index and ethical issues regarding its use
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1590/1808-5245.30.136673Keywords:
scientific journals, h-index, google scholar, metrics, ethicsAbstract
This research investigates the impact of using the h-index in the evaluation of scientific journals. Specifically, we aim to assess the use of these metrics to categorize a set of Brazilian journals from the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior Communication and Information area. The methodological approach involves an exploratory examination in which data from 20 scientific journals in the area were extracted from Google Scholar Metrics on July 4, 2022. The data collection also included recording authorship metadata, publication URL, periodical, year, and the total number of citations received. Data analysis was conducted through a calculation to measure each journal's self-citation, and one journal had its analysis highlighted. The results demonstrated that two journals stood out in terms of citation percentage, the volume of citations resulting from metadata errors, and the lack of structured metadata for source analysis. Therefore, despite the h-index being an interesting metric for evaluating journals in the Communication and Information area, it is considered that it could be complemented by qualitative evaluations capable of understanding the ethical challenges necessary to ensure a fair and adequate evaluation of academic research.
Downloads
References
BORNMANN, L.; DANIEL, H. D. The state of h index research. Is the h index the ideal way to measure research performance? EMBO Reports, Heidelberg, v. 10, n. 1, p. 2-6, 2009. Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.1038/embor.2008.233. Acesso em: 14 mar. 2024.
BRASIL. Ministério da Educação. Relatório do Qualis Periódicos - Área 31: Comunicação e Informação. Brasília: CAPES, 2019. Disponível em: https://www.gov.br/capes/pt-br/centrais-de-conteudo/relatorio-qualis-comunicacao-informacao-pdf. Acesso em: 7 nov. 2023.
CANTO, F. L. Avaliação de impacto de periódicos ibero-americanos com base no índice h5 do Google Scholar Metrics. 2022. Tese (Doutorado em Ciência da Informação) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, 2022.
CANTO, F. L.; PINTO, A. L.; DIAS, T .M. R.; GAVRON, E. M.; TALAU, M. Gsm_hdata: a bibliometric tool to analyze data from google scholar metrics. Mobile Networks and Applications, Berlin, 2023. Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11036-023-02258-9. Acesso em: 20 fev. 2024.
CANTO, F. L.; PINTO, A. L.; GAVRON, E. M.; TALAU, M. Latin American and Caribbean journals indexed in Google Scholar Metrics. Scientometrics, Budapeste, v. 127, p. 763-783, 2022. Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-021-04237-x. Acesso em: 20 fev. 2024.
COORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DE PESSOAL DE NÍVEL SUPERIOR (CAPES). Plataforma Sucupira: Qualis. Brasília, 2022. Disponível em: https://sucupira.capes.gov.br/sucupira/public/consultas/coleta/veiculoPublicacaoQualis/listaConsultaGeralPeriodicos.jsf. Acesso em: 20 fev. 2024.
COORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DE PESSOAL DE NÍVEL SUPERIOR (CAPES). Documento técnico do Qualis Periódicos. Brasília, 2023. Disponível em: https://www.gov.br/capes/pt-br/centrais-de-conteudo/documentos/avaliacao/avaliacao-quadrienal-2017/DocumentotcnicoQualisPeridicosfinal.pdf. Acesso em: 20 fev. 2024.
COSTA, H.; CANTO, F. L.; PINTO, A. L. Google Scholar Metrics e a proposta do novo Qualis: impacto dos periódicos brasileiros de Ciência da Informação. Informação & Sociedade: Estudos, João Pessoa, v. 30, n. 1, p. 1-16, 2020. Disponível em:
https://doi.org/10.22478/ufpb.1809-4783.2020v30n1.50676. Acesso em: 20 fev. 2024.
EISENLOHR, P. et al. Thinking better about high-quality science: a look at some ethical flaws and productivity evaluation. Brazilian Journal of Biology, São Carlos, v. 74, n. 4, p.1009-1010, 2014. Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.1590/1519-6984.17413. Acesso em: 20 fev. 2024.
FONG, E. A.; WILHITE, A. W. Authorship and citation manipulation in academic research. PloS One, São Francisco, v. 12, n. 12, p. 1-34, 2017. Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0187394. Acesso em: 20 fev. 2024.
GOOGLE SCHOLAR. Artigos que citam Knowledge management: the field’s constitution, themes, and research […]. Califórnia, [2023?]. Disponível em: https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=pt-BR&venue=wNMkUMmBG1sJ.2022&view_op=hcore_citedby&hcore_pos=0. Acesso em: 20 fev. 2024.
HARZING, A. W. Publish or perish. London, 2007. Disponível em: https://harzing.com/resources/publish-or-perish. Acesso em: 14 mar. 2024.
HIRSCH, J. E. An index to quantify an individual’s scientific research output. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Washington, v. 102, n, 46, p. 16569-16572, 2005. Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0507655102. Acesso em: 20 fev. 2024.
IOANNIDIS, J. P. A. A generalized view of self-citation: direct, co-author, collaborative, and coercive induced self-citation. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, Oxford, v. 78, n. 1, p. 7-11, 2015. Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychores.2014.11.008. Acesso em: 20 fev. 2024.
JACSÓ, P. Metadata mega mess in Google Scholar. Online Information Review, Bradford, v. 34, n. 1, p. 175-191, 2010. Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.1108/14684521011024191. Acesso em: 20 fev. 2024.
JACSÓ, P. Google Scholar duped and deduped: the aura of “robometrics”. Online Information Review, Bradford, v. 35, n. 1, p. 154-160, 2011. Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.1108/14684521111113632 .Acesso em: 20 fev. 2024.
KOUSHA, K.; THELWALL, M. Sources of Google Scholar citations outside the Science Citation Index: a comparison between four science disciplines. Scientometrics, Dordrecht, v. 74, n. 2, p. 273-294, 2008. Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-008-0217-x. Acesso em: 20 fev. 2024.
LÓPEZ-CÓZAR, E. D.; ROBINSON-GARCÍA, N.; TORRES-SALINAS, D. The Google Scholar Experiment: how to index false papers and manipulate bibliometric indicators. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, New York, v. 65, n. 3, p. 446-454, 2014. Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.23056. Acesso em: 20 fev. 2024.
MARTÍN-MARTÍN, A. et al. Google Scholar, Web of Science, and Scopus: a systematic comparison of citations in 252 subject categories. Journal of Informetrics, Amsterdam, v. 12, n. 4, p. 1160-1177, 2018. Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joi.2018.09.002. Acesso em: 20 fev. 2024.
MIRANDA, G. Quatro revistas brasileiras são suspensas de índice internacional. Folha de S. Paulo, São Paulo, 3 jul. 2013.
ONBEKEND, N.; WALTMAN, L.; RIJCKE, S. What do we know about journal citation cartels? A call for information. CWTS: Meaningful Metrics -Blog archive. Leiden, 24 June 2016.
OPTHOF, T. Inflation of impact factors by journal self-citation in cardiovascular science. Netherlands Heart Journal, Amsterdam, v. 21, n. 4, p. 163-165, 2013. Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12471-013-0384-0. Acesso em: 18 out. 2023.
PARIJA, S. C.; MANDAL, J.; POONAMBATH, D. K.; HALDER, A. Ethical dilemmas and etiquettes of scientific publication. In: PARIJA, S. C.; KATE, V. (org.) Writing and publishing a scientific research paper. Springer: Berlin, 2017. p. 189-195.
PINTO, A. L.; CANTO, F. L.; GAVRON, E. M.; TALAU, M. Periódicos científicos brasileiros indexados no Google Scholar Metrics. Informação & Sociedade: Estudos, João Pessoa, v. 30, n. 4, p. 1-18, 2020. Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.22478/ufpb.1809-4783.2020v30n4.57048. Acesso em: 20 fev. 2024.
SCIENCE-MATRIX. Analytical support for bibliometrics indicators: open access availability of scientific publications. Montréal, 2018. Disponível em: https://www.science-metrix.com/sites/default/files/science-metrix/publications/science-metrix_open_access_availability_scientific_publications_report.pdf. Acesso em: 31 ago. 2023.
SILVA, J. A. T. The Google Scholar h-index: useful but burdensome metric. Scientometrics, Dordrecht, v. 117, n. 1, p. 631-635, 2018. Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-018-2859-7. Acesso em: 31 ago. 2023.
SILVA, J. A. T; DOBRÁNSZKI, J. Multiple versions of the h-index: cautionary use for formal academic purposes. Scientometrics, Dordrecht, v. 115, n. 2, p. 1107-1113, 2018. Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-018-2684-z.Acesso em: 31 ago. 2023.
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Edson Fernando D'Almonte, Fabio Assis Pinho, Thaiane Moreira de Oliveira, Marcelo Alves dos Santos Junior, Ronaldo Ferreira de Araújo, Ana Carolina Rocha Pessoa Temer , Francisco Paulo Jamil Marques, Mozahir Salomão Bruck
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
Authors will keep their copyright and grant the journal with the right of first publication, the work licensed under License Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0), which allows for the sharing of work and the recognition of authorship.
Authors can take on additional contracts separately for non-exclusive distribution of the version of the work published in this journal, such as publishing in an institutional repository, acknowledging its initial publication in this journal.
The articles are open access and free. In accordance with the license, you must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
