Extending the cultural research infrastructure: The rise of the regional cultural consortiums in England

Two distinguishing features of the New Labour Government have been its focus on regionalism and the establishment of a department of state, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), explicitly dedicated to ‘cultural’ policy. This paper tracks the development of a new set of regional cultural organizations, the Regional Cultural Consortiums (RCCs). These were established to contribute to regional development and to deliver the DCMS's national policy goals. The paper examines the RCCs' remit, challenges, achievements and prospects, and locates these in wider debates about evidence-based policy and continuity and change in cultural and regional policy. Particular consideration is given to the RCCs' research and data collection activities and their role in developing a move towards improved capacity in regional cultural research and data collection.     

HistCite analysis of papers constituting the h index research front

In the Essential Science Indicators (Thomson Reuters), a research front exists to the h index (entitled “GOOGLE SCHOLAR H-INDEX; SCIENCE CITATION INDEX; GENERALIZED HIRSCH H-INDEX; H INDEX; GOOGLE SCHOLAR CITATIONS”) consisting of a group of highly cited papers. We used HistCite to analyze the structure and relationships of the 45 papers forming the h index research front. Since we were interested in the topics of research on the h index at the front, we classified each paper according to its main topic. Six topics (inductively generated) were sufficient to classify the 45 papers: (1) citation database, (2) empirical validation study, (3) new application, (4) theoretical analysis, (5) new index development, and (6) literature review.     

The proposal of a broadening of perspective in evaluative bibliometrics by complementing the times cited with a cited reference analysis

A proposal is made in this paper for a broadening of perspective in evaluative bibliometrics by complementing the (standard) times cited with a cited reference analysis for a field-specific citation impact measurement. The times cited approach counts the citations of a given publication set. In contrast, we change the perspective and start by selecting all papers dealing with a specific research topic or field (the example in this study is research on Aspirin). Then we extract all cited references from the papers of this field-specific publication set and analyse which papers, scientists, and journals have been cited most often. In this study, we use the Chemical Abstracts registry number to select the publications for a specific field. However, the cited reference approach can be used with any other field classification system proposed up to now.     

Latent Markov modeling applied to grant peer review

In the grant peer review process we can distinguish various evaluation stages in which assessors judge applications on a rating scale. Research on the grant peer review process that considers its multi-stage character scarcely exists. In this study we analyze 1954 applications for doctoral and post-doctoral fellowships from the Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds (B.I.F.), which are evaluated in three stages (first: evaluation by an external reviewer; second: internal evaluation by a staff member; third: final decision by the B.I.F. Board of Trustees). The results of a latent Markov model (in combination with latent class analysis) show that a fellowship application has a chance of approval only if it is recommended for support already in the first evaluation stage, that is, if the external reviewer's evaluation is positive. Based on these results, a form of triage or pre-screening of applications seems desirable.     

The negative effects of citing with a national orientation in terms of recognition: National and international citations in natural-sciences papers from Germany,the Netherlands,and the UK

Nations can be distinguished in terms of whether domestic or international research is cited. We analyzed the research output in the natural sciences of three leading European research economies (Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK) and ask where their researchers look for the knowledge that underpins their most highly-cited papers. Is one internationally oriented or is citation limited to national resources? Do the citation patterns reflect a growing differentiation between the domestic and international research enterprise? To evaluate change over time, we include natural-sciences papers published in the countries from three publication years: 2004, 2009, and 2014. The results show that articles co-authored by researchers from Germany or the Netherlands are less likely to be among the globally most highly-cited articles if they also cite “domestic” research (i.e. research authored by authors from the same country). To put this another way, less well-cited research is more likely to stand on domestic shoulders and research that becomes more highly-cited is more likely to stand on international shoulders. A possible reason for the results is that researchers “over-cite” the papers from their own country – lacking the focus on quality in citing. However, these differences between domestic and international shoulders are not visible for the UK.     

Creativity in science and the link to cited references: Is the creative potential of papers reflected in their cited references?

Several authors have proposed that a large number of unusual combinations of cited references in a paper point to its high creative potential (or novelty). However, it is still not clear whether the number of unusual combinations can really measure the creative potential of papers. The current study addresses this question on the basis of several case studies from the field of scientometrics. We identified some landmark papers in this field. Study subjects were the corresponding authors of these papers. We asked them where the ideas for the papers came from and which role the cited publications played. The results revealed that the creative ideas might not necessarily have been inspired by past publications. The literature seems to be important for the contextualization of the idea in the field of scientometrics. Instead, we found that creative ideas are the result of finding solutions to practical problems, result from discussions with colleagues, and profit from interdisciplinary exchange. The roots of the studied landmark papers are discussed in detail.