Why with bibliometrics the Humanities does not need to be the weakest link

Abstract

In this study an attempt is made to establish new bibliometric indicators for the assessment of research in the Humanities. Data from a Dutch Faculty of Humanities was used to provide the investigation a sound empirical basis. For several reasons (particularly related to coverage) the standard citation indicators, developed for the sciences, are unsatisfactory. Target expanded citation analysis and the use of oeuvre (lifetime) citation data, as well as the addition of library holdings and productivity indicators enable a more representative and fair assessment. Given the skew distribution of population data, individual rankings can best be determined based on log transformed data. For group rankings this is less urgent because of the central limit theorem. Lifetime citation data is corrected for professional age by means of exponential regression. © 2009 Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, Hungary.