2009/09/17 by Loet Leydesdorff, Leydesdorff, Loet, Félix de Moya Anegón +3
Decision Sciences · #FOS: Physical sciences #Physics and Society (physics.soc-ph) #scientometrics and bibliometrics research
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.0909.3193
openalex publication_date 2009/09/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Using the Scopus dataset (1996-2007) a grand matrix of aggregated journal-journal citations was constructed. This matrix can be compared in terms of the network structures with the matrix contained in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) of the Institute of Scientific Information (ISI). Since the Scopus database contains a larger number of journals and covers also the humanities, one would expect richer maps. However, the matrix is in this case sparser than in the case of the ISI data. This is due to (i) the larger number of journals covered by Scopus and (ii) the historical record of citations older than ten years contained in the ISI database. When the data is highly structured, as in the case of large journals, the maps are comparable, although one may have to vary a threshold (because of the differences in densities). In the case of interdisciplinary journals and journals in the social sciences and humanities, the new database does not add a lot to what is possible with the ISI databases.