scientometrie

Scientometrie is the interdisciplinary field that studies science and technology using quantitative methods to measure, map, and analyze the production, dissemination, and impact of scholarly work. It combines bibliometrics, network analysis, and information science to quantify patterns such as publication output, citation flows, collaboration, and the diffusion of ideas. In practice, scientometrie overlaps with bibliometrics; some scholars distinguish the broader study of science from the narrower use of metrics, while others treat the two terms as closely related.

Historically, scientometrie evolved from bibliometrics and information science. Derek J. de Solla Price's work in the 1960s laid the foundations for the quantitative study of science. Eugene Garfield's citation-indexing and the development of citation databases further popularized the approach. The field expanded in the following decades to include co-citation analysis, bibliographic coupling, and later, network and text-based methods. The Hirsch index (h-index), introduced in 2005, became one of the most widely used single indicators of individual scientific impact.

Methods and indicators: Core tools include bibliometrics (publication counts, citations, impact factor, h-index, eigenfactor), altmetrics (social media mentions, policy citations), and network analyses (co-authorship, co-citation, bibliographic coupling). Normalization across disciplines and time is common to compare fields with different citation practices.

Data sources: Major bibliographic databases such as Web of Science, Scopus, Dimensions; PubMed for life sciences; Crossref; OpenAlex; patents databases for technology diffusion.

Applications: Evaluation of research performance, science policy, strategic planning, benchmarking of institutions and researchers, and mapping of scientific fields and collaboration patterns. Scientometrie informs funding decisions, research priorities, and the assessment of interdisciplinarity and knowledge diffusion.

Limitations and criticisms: Citations are imperfect proxies of quality; field and age effects confound comparisons; coverage biases across languages and disciplines; and potential for manipulation or gaming. Ethical considerations include privacy and fairness in evaluation.