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Cited by 9scientometrics and bibliometrics researchWeb visibility and informetricsPsychology Research and Bibliometrics

Testing the strength of the normative approach in citation theory through relational bibliometrics: The case of italian sociology

Riviera, Emanuela·2015·Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology
DOI 10.1002/asi.23248
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Abstract

In scientometrics, citer behavior is traditionally investigated using one of two main approaches. According to the normative point of view, the behavior of scientists is regulated by norms that make the detection of citation patterns useful for the interpretation of bibliometric measures. According to the constructivist perspective, citer behavior is influenced by other factors linked to the social and/or psychological sphere that do not allow any statistical inferences that are useful for the purposes of interpretation. An intermediate position supports normative theories in describing citer behavior with respect to high citation frequencies and constructivist theories with respect to low citation counts. In this paper, this idea was tested in a case study of the Italian sociology community. Italian sociology is characterized by an unusual organization into three “political” or “ideological” camps, and belonging to one camp can be considered a potentially strong constructivist reason to cite. An all‐author co‐citation analysis was performed to map the structure of the Italian sociology community and look for evidence of three camps. We did not expect to find evidence of this configuration in the co‐citation map. The map, in fact, included authors who obtained high citation counts that are supposedly produced by a normative‐oriented behavior. The results confirmed this hypothesis and showed that the clusters seemed to be divided according to topic and not by camp. Relevant scientific works were cited by the members of the entire community regardless of their membership in any particular camp.

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Authors
Riviera, E.
Affiliations
Umeå University (SE)
Corresponding author
Riviera, Emanuela
Venue
Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology
Publisher
Wiley
Published
2014-06-11
Volume
66
Issue
6
Pages
1178-1188
ISSN
  • 2330-1635 (ISSN-L)
  • 2330-1643
DOI
10.1002/asi.23248
OpenAlex
W1807334290
Cited by
9
References
45
Citations by year
2024: 1 · 2022: 2 · 2018: 2 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 1
FWCI
1.31
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor (vor)
Locations
  • Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology (publishedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty › scientometrics and bibliometrics research
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Web visibility and informetrics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Psychology Research and Bibliometrics
Keywords
citation theory, normative approach, constructivist approach, co-citation analysis, Italian sociology, citation counts, scientific communities, bibliometric indicators

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Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

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