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Severe language effect in university rankings: particularly Germany and France are wronged in citation-based rankings

Author

Listed:
  • Anthony F. J. Raan

    (Leiden University)

  • Thed N. Leeuwen

    (Leiden University)

  • Martijn S. Visser

    (Leiden University)

Abstract

We applied a set of standard bibliometric indicators to monitor the scientific state-of-arte of 500 universities worldwide and constructed a ranking on the basis of these indicators (Leiden Ranking 2010). We find a dramatic and hitherto largely underestimated language effect in the bibliometric, citation-based measurements of research performance when comparing the ranking based on all Web of Science (WoS) covered publications and on only English WoS covered publications, particularly for Germany and France.

Suggested Citation

  • Anthony F. J. Raan & Thed N. Leeuwen & Martijn S. Visser, 2011. "Severe language effect in university rankings: particularly Germany and France are wronged in citation-based rankings," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 88(2), pages 495-498, August.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:88:y:2011:i:2:d:10.1007_s11192-011-0382-1
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-011-0382-1
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Zharova, Alona & Härdle, Wolfgang Karl & Lessmann, Stefan, 2023. "Data-driven support for policy and decision-making in university research management: A case study from Germany," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 308(1), pages 353-368.
    2. Jacek Pietrucha, 2018. "Country-specific determinants of world university rankings," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 114(3), pages 1129-1139, March.
    3. Ludo Waltman & Nees Jan Eck, 2013. "Source normalized indicators of citation impact: an overview of different approaches and an empirical comparison," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 96(3), pages 699-716, September.
    4. A. Ferrer-Sapena & E. Erdogan & E Jiménez-Fernández & E. A. Sánchez-Pérez & F. Peset, 2020. "Self-defined information indices: application to the case of university rankings," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 124(3), pages 2443-2456, September.
    5. Guillermo Armando Ronda-Pupo & J. Sylvan Katz, 2016. "The scaling relationship between citation-based performance and international collaboration of Cuban articles in natural sciences," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 107(3), pages 1423-1434, June.
    6. Fang Liu & Guangyuan Hu & Li Tang & Weishu Liu, 2018. "The penalty of containing more non-English articles," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 114(1), pages 359-366, January.
    7. Michels, Carolin & Fu, Junying & Neuhäusler, Peter & Frietsch, Rainer, 2013. "Performance and Structures of the German Science System 2012," Studien zum deutschen Innovationssystem 6-2013, Expertenkommission Forschung und Innovation (EFI) - Commission of Experts for Research and Innovation, Berlin.
    8. Frenken, Koen & Heimeriks, Gaston J. & Hoekman, Jarno, 2017. "What drives university research performance? An analysis using the CWTS Leiden Ranking data," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 859-872.
    9. Alona Zharova & Wolfgang K. Härdle & Stefan Lessmann, 2017. "Is Scientific Performance a Function of Funds?," SFB 649 Discussion Papers SFB649DP2017-028, Sonderforschungsbereich 649, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany.
    10. Zhenglu Yu & Zheng Ma & Haiyan Wang & Jia Jia & Lu Wang, 2020. "Communication value of English-language S&T academic journals in non-native English language countries," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 125(2), pages 1389-1402, November.
    11. Thelwall, Mike, 2016. "Are there too many uncited articles? Zero inflated variants of the discretised lognormal and hooked power law distributions," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 622-633.
    12. Waltman, Ludo, 2016. "A review of the literature on citation impact indicators," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 365-391.
    13. Anthony F J van Raan, 2013. "Universities Scale Like Cities," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(3), pages 1-14, March.
    14. Christian Handke & Lucie Guibault & Joan‐Josep Vallbé, 2021. "Copyright's impact on data mining in academic research," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 42(8), pages 1999-2016, December.
    15. Meng-Chen Zhang & Bo-Wei Zhu & Chao-Meng Huang & Gwo-Hshiung Tzeng, 2021. "Systematic Evaluation Model for Developing Sustainable World-Class Universities: An East Asian Perspective," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-20, April.
    16. Waltman, Ludo & van Eck, Nees Jan, 2013. "A systematic empirical comparison of different approaches for normalizing citation impact indicators," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 7(4), pages 833-849.
    17. Zohreh Zahedi & Rodrigo Costas & Paul Wouters, 2014. "How well developed are altmetrics? A cross-disciplinary analysis of the presence of ‘alternative metrics’ in scientific publications," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 101(2), pages 1491-1513, November.
    18. Jung Cheol Shin & Soo Jeung Lee, 2022. "Different measures of international faculty and their impacts on global rankings," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(11), pages 6125-6145, November.
    19. Maziar Montazerian & Edgar Dutra Zanotto & Hellmut Eckert, 2019. "A new parameter for (normalized) evaluation of H-index: countries as a case study," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 118(3), pages 1065-1078, March.
    20. Hans P. W. Bauer & Gabriel Schui & Alexander Eye & Günter Krampen, 2013. "How does scientific success relate to individual and organizational characteristics? A scientometric study of psychology researchers in the German-speaking countries," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 94(2), pages 523-539, February.

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