Authors:
Katja Meden, Ana Cvek
Abstract:
The fields of humanities and social sciences are often deprived of inclusion within the international citation indexes such as Scopus and Web of Science (WOS). The reason for this offshift in the indexes are commonly associated with the format of published works, e.g. the most common type of published works in humanities are monographs (though the scientific journals are on the rise), which are not typically included in WOS and Scopus. Even though Scopus is far more inclusive of such types and fields in comparison to WOS, there is still a gap t (...)
The fields of humanities and social sciences are often deprived of inclusion within the international citation indexes such as Scopus and Web of Science (WOS). The reason for this offshift in the indexes are commonly associated with the format of published works, e.g. the most common type of published works in humanities are monographs (though the scientific journals are on the rise), which are not typically included in WOS and Scopus. Even though Scopus is far more inclusive of such types and fields in comparison to WOS, there is still a gap to be filled. As a response to this predicament the Institute of Contemporary History developed its own citation index – the Historiography Citation Index (HCI), which was first meant to only track the research production within the institution, but has since been expanded to cover the production of the whole field of Slovene historiography. Over the years HCI was a subject of several upgrades and data harmonization attempts. Even with the upgrades, several shortcomings of the systems were apparent, and therefore, another upgrade was taken into consideration, and after the extensive analysis was performed, we identified the most problematic aspects of the index and began working on another upgrade. The upgrade was performed in two parts – in the first one, we took upon ourselves to improve the administrative system in which we implemented the ElasticSearch technology to improve our search engine and filtration system, as well as improving the data masks to increase the precision and accuracy of the data input into the index. As a part of the administrative system upgrade we also modeled the MODS application profile to increase the interoperability of our data and therefore, enabling the exchange of our data between different information systems without losing data and its context. In the second part, we upgraded the user interface of the citation index to be more user friendly. In order to increase the coherence of the data display, we implemented a table-like design of the search result, equipped with filters in each column. To increase the visibility of the most important factor of the citation index, number of citations the work has received, we included additional column just for that information. The index aims to enable researchers access to the information on the number of citations, cited works ect. It is also recognised by the Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS) as a valid source of citations and could be used to provide proof of the researchers achievements and scientific excellency, though it is still not recognised as equal to the SICRIS information system. With the upgrade we increased the efficiency of the citation index, as well as its usability, and with it ensured a more intuitive system to its indexators and users.
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