DOI: 10.5530/jscires.2012.1.7
Published: September 2012
Type: Research Article
iAmsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR), University of Amsterdam, Kloveniersburgwal 48, 1012 CX Amsterdam, The Netherlands
iiDepartment of Social Studies of Science, University of Vienna, Universitätsstraße 7/II/6 (NIG), 1010 Vienna, Austria
Abstract:
In 2011, Thomson-Reuters introduced the Book Citation Index (BKCI) as part of the Science Citation Index (SCI). The interface of the Web of Science version 5 enables users to search for both ‘Books’ and ‘Book Chapters’ as new categories. Books and book chapters, however, were always among the cited references, and book chapters have been included in the database since 2005. We explore the two categories with both BKCI and SCI, and in the sister social sciences (SoSCI) and the arts & humanities (A&HCI) databases. Book chapters in edited volumes can be highly cited. Books contain many citing references but are relatively less cited. This may find its origin in the slower circulation of books than of journal articles. It is possible to distinguish between monographs and edited volumes among the ‘Books’ scientometrically. Monographs may be underrated in terms of citation impact or overrated using publication performance indicators because individual chapters are counted as contributions separately in terms of articles, reviews, and/or book chapters.