Tracking the use of engineering conference papers: citation influence of the Stapp Car Crash Conference

Abstract

Purpose -This paper seeks to investigate the use of engineering conference papers by examining where the papers presented at the Stapp Car Crash Conference from 1980-2005 were subsequently cited. Also, to examine whether the references were made to the conference paper or to the individual, the SAE Technical Paper, the second publication method. It also aims to study whether the citations were made to the lead author or secondary authors. Design/methodology/approach -The individual papers were searched in Science Citation Index on the Web of Science platform using the "Cited author" search and the appropriate work(s) were selected using the "Cited work" information. The number of citations to each paper was recorded and the bibliographic information from the citing articles for the "top cited" articles were retrieved and examined to determine the subject focus of the citing journals. Findings -Almost two-thirds of the papers from the Stapp Car Crash Conference were cited at least once, mirroring that of engineering journal articles. These citations appear in journals representing a wide variety of disciplines besides engineering including journals covering "clinical neurology", "orthopedics", "rehabilitation" and "surgery". The majority of citations (92 per cent) were found to be to the lead author and approximately 85 per cent were cited as papers within the conference proceedings with the remaining papers cited as individual technical papers. Originality/value -The results on the impact and use of engineering conference papers, especially the results in terms of author and material type, will provide valuable insight into this literature, providing librarians and researchers with a better understanding of their use in the advancement of research and scholarship.

Grey Literature: Use, Creation, and Citation Habits of Faculty Researchers across Disciplines

“…The norms of an individual discipline vary in regard to whether it is common or even appropriate to cite some forms of grey literature-such as conference papers and posters or technical reports-which influences their inclusion or exclusion in citation analyses. A few authors have performed citation analyses that focus on conference papers (e.g., Chiware & Becker, 2018;McMinn & Fleming, 2011). In these two cases the authors had specific research questions that revolved around conference materials.…”

“…In one case (Chiware & Becker, 2018), the authors wondered about graduate student behavior regarding citations to conference materials in their own theses and dissertations in information technology. In another example (McMinn & Fleming, 2011), the authors wanted to track the influence of one engineering conference over a period of 25 years and used citations as a proxy. Neither of these studies offered large universal truths about grey literature, but they serve as examples for others who might want to study citations to grey literature in their own fields.…”

Citation Patterns of Conference Proceedings in Master’s and Doctoral Studies: A Case Study of Information Technology and Systems

“…Several studies have looked at specific types of conferences to determine their impact, for example, in engineering. McMinn and Fleming (2011) tracked the use of engineering papers presented at Stapp Car Crash Conferences; Shamir (2010) reviewed the effect of conference proceedings on scholarly communication in computer science and engineering; Cocosila, Serenko, and Turel (2011) 2008) reported on how conference papers in software engineering are extended to journal articles, whereas Eckmann, Rocha, and Wainer (2012) studied the relationship between high-quality journals and conferences in computer vision. In most of these studies, results show the relevance and importance of the research presented at conferences and how the literature is cited in journals that are indexed in leading abstracting and indexing tools.…”