Appendix Rules for Citation of Universty of Groningen Affiliation in Publications.

Explanatory notes on the Web of Science and the ESI

An important and much used instrument for calculating our international standing in terms of research (primarily in the fields of science and medicine) are the so-called ‘Essential Science Indicators’ (ESI), one of the tools offered by Thomson ISI on the ISI Web of Knowledge. It lists the total publications (P) and citations (C) for each of the listed institutions in 22 different fields, including the citations/publications quotient, an indicator of the impact of citations. This instrument has many applications, among them use by the compilers of the annual Times HES World University Rankings (to date, the University of Groningen has always fallen tantalizingly short of the top 200).

Last year, the University of Groningen took action to enhance recognition of its publications by the Institutions Menu of the ESI. We sent a ‘unification key’ to the editors of ESI which resulted in a significant increase (from 1 November 2005) in the number of recognized University of Groningen publications (+ 13.3%), citations (+ 16.3%) and the citations/publications quotient (+ 2.7 %, see appended table for variations per field). Expectations are that our position in rankings that are influenced by the ESI, such as the Times HES table, will rise as a result.

But we must not rest on our laurels. The source of the problem of publications written by RUG authors but not accredited to the University lies in the WoS database itself. The most important reason for this is the wide variety of names used to indicate affiliation in the original publications and, in turn, transferred by ISI operatives to the so-called affiliation section of the relevant publication record in the WoS.

In autumn 2005, the University Library had traced no less than 121 instances of research units of the University and the UMCG/AZG providing different affiliation indication. Thanks to the unification key, such publications can be identified as University of Groningen publications with the ESI Institutions Menu.

However, many tables, including the Academic Ranking of World Universities published by Shanghai’s Jiao Tong University, get their data directly from the WoS. This is why incorrect statements of affiliation on articles associated with the University must be avoided at all costs. That calls for a two-pronged attack:

1) Rectification of incorrect statements of affiliation of University of Groningen publications in the WoS files
Authors of publications listed in the WoS can flag citation errors themselves, using an on-line form. In view of the fact that many publications ‘mis-credit’ affiliation (in autumn 2005, this was c. 2150 articles and growing) and also that many authors have since left the University, rectifying this situation will require an enormous effort, both from the University Library (tracing errors and the authors in question) and from the authors themselves (who will have to fill in a separate on-line form for each article). We were recently in talks with Thomson ISI, which resulted in a promise to rectify a batch of errors reported by the University Library. The University Library will thus trawl the WoS files at regular intervals and take the requisite action to correct University of Groningen statements of affiliation where appropriate.

2) Prevention of dissemination of incorrect statements of affiliation in the WoS files
As we all know, prevention is better than cure; you can help us by adhering to the new rules.