Conference proceedings as a source of scientific information: A bibliometric analysis
Open accessAbstract
While several authors have argued that conference proceedings are an important source of scientific knowledge, the extent of their importance has not been measured in a systematic manner. This article examines the scientific impact and aging of conference proceedings compared to those of scientific literature in general. It shows that the relative importance of proceedings is diminishing over time and currently represents only 1.7% of references made in the natural sciences and engineering, and 2.5% in the social sciences and humanities. Although the scientific impact of proceedings is losing ground to other types of scientific literature in nearly all fields, it has grown from 8% of the references in engineering papers in the early 1980s to its current 10%. Proceedings play a particularly important role in computer sciences, where they account for close to 20% of the references. This article also shows that not unexpectedly, proceedings age faster than cited scientific literature in general. The evidence thus shows that proceedings have a relatively limited scientific impact, on average representing only about 2% of total citations, that their relative importance is shrinking, and that they become obsolete faster than the scientific literature in general.
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Some STEM disciplines may communicate more through conference proceedings, potentially limiting the amount of PSL available and leading to less emphasis on reading PSL.
“some STEM disciplines may communicate more through conference proceedings, potentially limiting the amount of PSL available and leading to less emphasis on reading PSL (Lisée et al., 2008).”
From Reading Primary Scientific Literature: Approaches for Teaching Students in the Undergraduate STEM Classroom (2023) · cites this paper as Lisée et al., 2008
The Introduction says conference proceedings are important in engineering and can carry even greater weight than articles in computer science and other emerging disciplines. It does not establish that this limits the amount of PSL available or causes less emphasis on reading PSL. (LLM, conf=0.85)
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Cites
Hicks, D. M. (1999) · Scientometrics · doi:10.1007/bf02457380 · Cited by 391 · see citing works
Larivière, V., Archambault, É., Gingras, Y., & Vignola-Gagné, É. (2006) · J. Assoc. Inf. Sci. Technol. · doi:10.1002/asi.20349 · Cited by 294 · see citing works
Self-citationA bibliometric study of reference literature in the sciences and social sciences
Glänzel, W., & Schoepflin, U. (1999) · Information Processing & Management · doi:10.1016/s0306-4573(98)00028-4 · Cited by 280 · see citing works
Citation analysis in research evaluation
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Extending citation analysis to non-source items
Butler, L., & Visser, M. S. (2006) · Scientometrics · doi:10.1007/s11192-006-0024-1 · Cited by 218 · see citing works
Scholarly publishing in the Internet age: a citation analysis of computer science literature
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Larivière, V., Archambault, É., & Gingras, Y. (2008) · J. Assoc. Inf. Sci. Technol. · doi:10.1002/asi.20744 · Cited by 188 · see citing works
Self-citationProceedings literature as additional data source for bibliometric analysis
Glänzel, W., Schlemmer, B., Schubert, A. P., & Thijs, B. (2006) · Scientometrics · doi:10.1007/s11192-006-0124-y · Cited by 83 · see citing works
Reexamining the role of conference papers in scholarly communication
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ICT assessment: Moving beyond journal outputs
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Measuring knowledge flows between countries: The use of scientific meeting data
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Flagged first, then by citations
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Sorted by citations
A review of the literature on citation impact indicators
Waltman, L. (2016) · Journal of Informetrics · doi:10.1016/j.joi.2016.02.007 · Cited by 1,356 · see citing works
Goudsouzian, L. K., & Hsu, J. L. (2023) · CBE - Life Sciences Education · doi:10.1187/cbe.22-10-0211 · Cited by 26 · see citing works
“For instance, some STEM disciplines may communicate more through conference proceedings, potentially limiting the amount of PSL available and leading to less emphasis on reading PSL (Lisée et al., 2008).”
Background
- Authors
- Lisée, C., Larivière, V., & Archambault, É.
- Affiliations
- Université du Québec à Montréal (CA)
- Venue
- Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2008-06-18
- Volume
- 59
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 1776-1784
- ISSN
- 1532-2882 (ISSN-L)
- 1532-2890
- OpenAlex
- W4241889296
- Cited by
- 164
- References
- 12
- Citations by year
- 2026: 14 · 2025: 14 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 14 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 19 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 4 · 2012: 5
- FWCI
- 6.81
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (publishedVersion)
- Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology (cc-by)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty › scientometrics and bibliometrics research
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Library Science and Information
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Psychology Research and Bibliometrics
- Keywords
- scientific impact, citation analysis, scientific publications, citation patterns, natural sciences and engineering, humanities and social sciences, bibliometric analysis
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