Abstract
This paper presents the results of the analysis of the causes for duplicate profiles in the Scopus database on the basis of a random sampling of profiles of 400 Russian authors and 400 organizations. We estimate the number of duplicate profiles and calculate the level of uncertainty that errors in bibliographic descriptions can contribute to the results of scientometric studies using the Scopus database. The analysis showed that in Scopus 76% of the organizations and 24% of the authors have duplicate profiles. In this regard, organizations lose an average of 17% of publications and authors lose 11%. The results of this study can be used in elaboration of the Scopus database and estimating the error level in the research assessment of institutions and individuals.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Gus’kov, A.E., Kosyakov, D.V., and Selivanova, I.V., Methodology for evaluating the effectiveness of scientific organizations, Vestn. Ross. Akad. Nauk, 2018, vol. 88, no. 5, pp. 430–443.
Kosyakov, D. and Guskov, A., Research assessment and evaluation in Russian fundamental science, Procedia Comput. Sci., 2019, vol. 146, pp. 11–19.
Franceschini, F., Maisano, D., and Mastrogiacomo, L., Empirical analysis and classification of database errors in Scopus and Web of Science, J. Inf., 2016, vol. 10, no. 4, pp. 933–953.
Franceschini, F., Maisano, D., and Mastrogiacomo, L., The museum of errors/horrors in Scopus, J. Inf., 2016, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 174–182.
Buchanan, R.A., Accuracy of cited references: The role of citation databases, Coll. Res. Libr., 2006, vol. 67, no. 4, pp. 292–303.
van Eck, N.J. and Waltman, L., Accuracy of citation data in Web of Science and Scopus, arXiv:1906.07011. https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1906/1906.07011.pdf.
Franceschini, F., Maisano, D., and Mastrogiacomo, L., Errors in DOI indexing by bibliometric databases, Scientometrics, 2015, vol. 102, no. 3, pp. 2181–2186.
Zhu, J., Hu, G., and Liu, W., DOI errors and possible solutions for Web of Science, Scientometrics, 2019, vol. 118, no. 2, pp. 709–718.
Valderrama-Zurián, J.-C., Aguilar-Moya, R., Melero-Fuentes, D., and Aleixandre-Benavent, R., A systematic analysis of duplicate records in Scopus, J. Inf., 2015, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 570–576.
Demetrescu, C., Ribichini, A., and Schaerf, M., Accuracy of author names in bibliographic data sources: An Italian case study, Scientometrics, 2018, vol. 117, no. 3, pp. 1777–1791.
Ainsworth, S. and Russell, J.M., Has hosting on science direct improved the visibility of Latin American scholarly journals? A preliminary analysis of data quality, Scientometrics, 2018, vol. 115, no. 3, pp. 1463–1484.
Aman, V., Does the Scopus author ID suffice to track scientific international mobility? A case study based on Leibniz laureates, Scientometrics, 2018, vol. 117, no. 2, pp. 705–720.
Schulz, J., Using Monte Carlo simulations to assess the impact of author name disambiguation quality on different bibliometric analysis, Scientometrics, 2016, vol. 107, no. 3, pp. 1283–1298.
Haak, L.L., Fenner, M., Paglione, L., Pentz, E., and Ratner, H., ORCID: A system to uniquely identify researchers, Learned Publ., 2012, vol. 25, no. 4, pp. 259–264.
Mazov, N.A. and Gureyev, V.N., Modern challenges in bibliographic metadata identification, 3rd Russian-Pacific Conference on Computer Technology and Applications (RPC), Vladivostok, 2018, pp. 1–4.
Moreira, J.M., Cunha, A., and Macedo, N., An ORCID based synchronization framework for a national CRIS ecosystem, F1000Research, 2015, vol. 4, p. 181.
Al’perin, B.L., Vedyagin, A.A., and Zibareva, I.V., SciAct—information-analytical system of the Institute of Catalysis of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences for monitoring and stimulating scientific activity, Tr. Gos. Publ. Nauchno-Tekh.Bibl. Sib. Otdel. Ross. Akad. Nauk, 2015, vol. 9, pp. 95–102.
Kovyazina, E.V., Corporate repositories of scientific publications and problems of data exchange, Tr. Gos. Publ. Nauchno-Tekh.Bibl. Sib. Otdel. Ross. Akad. Nauk, 2016, vol. 10, pp. 288–292.
Zakharova, S.S. and Gureeva, Yu.A., Scientific publications: From card index to bibliographic profiles, Bibliosfera, 2017, no. 2, pp. 85–89.
MacEwan, A., Angjeli, A., and Gatenby, J., The international standard name identifier (ISNI): The evolving future of name authority control, Cataloging Classif. Q., 2013, vol. 51, nos. 1–3, pp. 55–71.
Mogil’chak, E.L., Vyborochnyi metod v empiricheskom sotsiologicheskom issledovanii: Ucheb. posobie (The Selective Technique in Empirical Sociological Research: Handbook), Yekaterinburg: Ural. Univ., 2015.
Funding
This work was carried out as part of the subject of research work no. 0334-2019-006 with the support of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, grant no. 18-011-00797.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Ethics declarations
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Translated by K. Lazarev
About this article
Cite this article
Selivanova, I.V., Kosyakov, D.V. & Guskov, A.E. The Impact of Errors in the Sсopus Database on the Research Assessment. Sci. Tech. Inf. Proc. 46, 204–212 (2019). https://doi.org/10.3103/S0147688219030109
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3103/S0147688219030109