Research area schemas and baselines are important when you want to put bibliometric data into context. A citation count for a paper in isolation is relatively meaningless. However, if you view it in the context of peer publications, you can capture the performance of the paper, see if it is above or below average, and by how much.
It is necessary to understand performance within the context of research areas because publication rates and citation behavior can vary considerably from discipline to discipline, document type, and over time. For example, mathematics papers have a low citation rate, but the rate can persist over a long period of time. Alternatively, molecular biology papers are cited more frequently and the citation rate decreases after a few years as the research is superseded. By understanding underlying trends and comparing publications of interest to other publications in the same research area, year, and document type, you will get more valuable results.
12 research area schemas are available in InCites, but three are exclusive to InCites. Eight are based on mapping Clarivate data to external subject classification systems. These schemas enable the use of bibliometric indicators in the context of a regional research evaluation program, such as the Research Excellence Framework in the UK.
Alternatively, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) subject class schema is a valuable tool for looking at national level bibliometric indicators in the context of demographic and financial data provided by the OECD. Typically, schemas based on external subject classes are developed in partnership with research evaluation bodies in that region. They may be based on journal classifications or the mapping of Web of Science categories.
The schema you use depends on the objectives of the analysis. Typically, if you're looking at small sets of publications, such as the output of a single department or individual author, we suggest you use the higher precision of a narrow subject classification such as the Web of Science schema. You may find this approach useful to overcome differences between things such as applied and theoretical research of the same topic. However, if you want to understand the overall subject mix of an organization or country/region, the broader schema may be more appropriate.
Web of Science
Web of Science is the narrowest categorization. The Web of Science schema includes 252 subject categories in science, social sciences, and arts and humanities. Creating the schema involves assigning each journal to one or more subject categories. Broad disciplines such as physics are represented as smaller sub-fields (e.g., Physics, Applied and Physics, Nuclear). This narrow subject definition is an important characteristic of the schema, because citation behavior may significantly vary among sub-fields. The Web of Science subject schema is generally considered the best for detailed bibliometric analysis, because its granularity allows you to objectively measure performance against papers similar in scope and citation characteristics.
However, because it is often impossible to assign a journal to a single category, overlapping coverage of categories can occur, which may complicate an analysis. Each published item will inherit all subject categories assigned to the parent journal. Coverage of books and conferences follow the same definitions of subject area.
Categories, Scope Notes, and Journal Coverage
Essential Science Indicators
Journal Coverage
Article counts for Essential Science IndicatorsTM (ESI) are derived from 11,855 journals indexed in Web of Science Core Collection (Science Citation Index Expanded and Social Sciences Citation Index only) over a 10-year period. Citation counts for these articles are derived from journals indexed in Web of Science Core Collection: Science Citation Index Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index and Arts & Humanities Citation Index.
Each journal is assigned to one of 22 research fields. In ESI, a journal can be assigned to only one field. Journals such as Science and Nature are categorized as multidisciplinary since they publish research in many different fields. As a result, papers published in these multidisciplinary journals are assigned to a field based on the representation of the cited journals. For example, if the majority of cited references in the paper are to neuroscience journals, the paper is then categorized as neuroscience.
Journal List
The master journal list, which comprises all active journal titles eligible for inclusion in ESI, has been updated as of January 12, 2017, to cover a 10-year plus 10-month period, January 1, 2006 – October 31, 2016. Data is updated bi-monthly (six times a year). This is the fifth bi-monthly period of 2016.
Institutional Profiles Research Areas
A very broad categorization. The Institutional Profiles schema comprises six broad disciplines but covers all fields of scholarly research. The Institutional Profiles schema is based on an aggregation of the Web of Science subject categories and contains significant overlap between disciplines.
The mapping of Web of Science subject area to Institutional Profiles category must be reviewed periodically because Web of Science subject areas may change from one year to the next. The Web of Science subject area Green & Sustainable Science & Technology is new to Web of Science for 2016, and it has been mapped as follows:
| Web of Science Subject Area | Institutional Profiles Classification |
|---|---|
| Green & Sustainable Science & Technology | Engineering & Technology |
| Green & Sustainable Science & Technology | Overall |
Research Area Schema Selection and Total Results
Each Research Area schema maps uniquely to the research areas/journals established with the Web of Science Core Collection. For that reason, document totals within the results table will not necessarily correspond to the same total displayed when Web of Science is selected. You can view how categories relate to those in Web of Science Core Collection by viewing the mappings included in each of the Research Area descriptions.
