The Swiss Year of Scientometrics gains momentum with the second lecture

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Prof Emanuel Kulczycki presenting the second SYoS lecture

Professor Emanuel Kulczycki speaking to the audience at the second SYoS lecture (ETH Zurich / Mahmoud Hemila)

On October 11, 2023, the second lecture in the series “Swiss Year of Scientometrics” took place at ETH Zurich. Over 50 participants gathered on a sunny autumn afternoon to listen to Professor Emanuel Kulczycki’s lecture on “Reframing scientometrics: How ontological understanding of science influences what we count and how we interpret it”. A video recording … Read more

Shenanigans with Impact Factors 1: The curious case of Acta Crystallographica Section A

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Pink water drop

"Drop" by Arek Socha, Pixabay

“More is better” surely also applies to the journal impact factor (IF), wouldn’t you agree? A paper published in a high IF journal clearly must create a significant impact in the research community. Or is that an oversimplification? Taking a closer look, we will see how an impact factor can go up and down unexpectedly. … Read more

Second Lecture on 11 October 2023 – Reframing scientometrics: How ontological understanding of science influences what we count and how we interpret it

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Emanuel Kulczycki speaker of SYoS Lecture no 2

The second SYoS lecture on “Reframing scientometrics: How ontological understanding of science influences what we count and how we interpret it” is organised in collaboration with the Centre for Higher Education and Science Studies (CHESS). It will take place on 11 October 2023 at ETH Zurich (Campus Zentrum, Leonhardstrasse 21, 8092 Zürich, LEE E 101). … Read more

How important are international collaborations for research in Switzerland and the UK?

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Figure 2 Cropped

Switzerland and the UK are partly barred from participation in the huge research programme Horizon Europe. This limits access to research funding for scientists in both countries and might hinder international collaborations in larger projects. The loss of these funding opportunities and a potential loss of EU collaborations might have a negative impact on these … Read more

Increasing demand for scientometrics: Insights from the first SYoS Workshop

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The participants of the first SYoS workshop pose for a group photo after an intensive day of discussion.

The participants of the first SYoS workshop pose for a group photo after an intensive day of discussion.

On 8 June 2023, the first SYoS Workshop took place at ETH Zurich. It followed Dr Stefanie Haustein’s opening lecture entitled “Opportunities and challenges of scientometrics: Diversification of data sources and applications”. The workshop was moderated by Sven Hug from the Swiss Science Council. In addition to Dr Stefanie Haustein (University of Ottawa), the workshop … Read more

Swiss Year of Scientometrics off to successful start with first lecture

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Dr Stefanie Haustein speaking to the audience at the first SYoS lecture.

Dr Stefanie Haustein speaking to the audience at the first SYoS lecture. (ETH Zurich / Andreas Eggenberger).

Dr Stefanie Haustein began the event series for the Swiss Year of Scientometrics on 7 June 2023 with her stimulating lecture on the opportunities and challenges of scientometrics. The video of the lecture and the presentation are now available online. On 7 June 2023, a beautiful summer’s evening, some 40 people attended the first event … Read more

The wonderful world of Open Science? The case of eLife

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The case of eLife, a life science journal, shows that Open Science is not an easy task and can generate many open questions and uncertainties in the assessment of research. eLife drastically changed its peer review procedure this year, for example, by revoking editorial decisions for acceptance and rejection of a manuscript. Perhaps disciplines focusing on individual assessment, such as psychology or medicine, could give some perspectives on how to deal with uncertainty in research assessment. A broader set of information is necessary that includes peer review ratings and a set of bibliometric indicators beyond the classical citation impact indicators. The quality of information in terms of reliability, validity, and fairness should be explicitly taken into account.

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First lecture on 07 June 2023 – Opportunities and challenges of scientometrics: diversification of data sources and applications

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2023 04 04 Eth Bibliothek Syos Lecture 1 Blog

The first lecture on “Opportunities and challenges of scientometrics: diversification of data sources and applications” will take place on 07 June 2023 at ETH Zurich (Campus Zentrum, Leonhardstrasse 21, 8092 Zürich, LEE E 101), followed by the first workshop on the following day. We are extremely pleased to welcome Dr Stefanie Haustein as a speaker. Dr … Read more

Promoting the responsible use of scientometrics in Switzerland

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Three persons discussing an image of a complex network.

Whether we like it or not, scientometric indicators and data are inevitably important for assessing the research performance of countries, institutions, departments, research groups and individual researchers. This not only applies to the science landscape of international research, but also to higher education institutions (HEI) in Switzerland. Correct usage of these indicators and data requires proper contextualisation and interpretation; however, they are often used inappropriately. Careless use of these indicators and data is problematic as it can lead to misinterpretation and ultimately to poor decisions.