No abstract

Our aim is to compare the coverage of the Scopus database with that of Ulrich, to determine just how homogenous it is in the academic world. The variables taken into account were subject distribution, geographical distribution, distribution by publishers and the language of publication. The analysis of the coverage of a product of this nature should be done in relation to an accepted model, the optimal choice being Ulrich's Directory, considered the international point of reference for the most comprehensive information on journals published throughout the world. The results described here allow us to draw a profile of Scopus in terms of its coverage by areas -geographic and thematic -and the significance of peer-review in its publications. Both these aspects are highly pragmatic considerations for information retrieval, the evaluation of research, and the design of policies for the use of scientific databases in scientific promotion.

A new size-independent indicator of scientific journal prestige, the SJR2 indicator, is proposed. This indicator takes into account not only the prestige of the citing scientific journal but also its closeness to the cited journal using the cosine of the angle between the vectors of the two journals' cocitation profiles. To eliminate the size effect, the accumulated prestige is divided by the fraction of the journal's citable documents, thus eliminating the decreasing tendency of this type of indicator and giving meaning to the scores. Its method of computation is described, and the results of its implementation on the Scopus 2008 dataset is compared with those of an ad hoc Journal Impact Factor, JIF(3y), and SNIP, the comparison being made both overall and within specific scientific areas. All three, the SJR2 indicator, the SNIP indicator and the JIF distributions, were found to fit well to a logarithmic law. Although the three metrics were strongly correlated, there were major changes in rank. In addition, the SJR2 was distributed more equalized than the JIF by Subject Area and almost as equalized as the SNIP, and better than both at the lower level of Specific Subject Areas. The incorporation of the cosine increased the values of the flows of prestige between thematically close journals.

No abstract

Our objective is the generation of schematic visualizations as interfaces for scientific domain analysis. We propose a new technique that uses thematic classification (classes and categories) as entities of cocitation and units of measure, and demonstrate the viability of this methodology through the representation and analysis of a domain of great dimensions. The main features of the maps obtained are discussed, and proposals are made for future improvements and applications.