The role of scientific publications in the life of a scientist
The status of a scientist is not just a beautiful word or a line in a biography. These are certain responsibilities and the need to maintain that way of professional life that indicates belonging to science. Each scientific publication of a specialist plays an important role in this matter. For example, this concerns articles in the Scopus database. This scientific journal is not only popular, but also respected in specialist circles. The same applies to the Web of Science publication.
A scientist's acquaintance with scientific publications
Despite the fact that a scientist is usually associated, first of all, directly with research activity and its reflection in a dissertation, each scientific publication is important. Firstly, publication in Scopus and Web of Science increases the chances of a successful defense of a dissertation. Secondly, for a scientist, a scientific publication in a respectable publication is a way of professional communication with the world, an opportunity to convey one's opinion to readers, and find like-minded people.
What privileges does a scientist get if he publishes in Scopus or Web of Science
Before considering the benefits that each scientific publication in Scopus or Web of Science gives to a researcher, it is worth getting to know these databases in more detail. So, let's get started.
Despite the fact that Scopus is the youngest database, this scientific journal has become the largest in the world during its existence. Scopus was founded in 2004. Its owner is a publishing house called Elsevier. A quarter of scientific publications published today belong to this publishing house. If we compare Scopus with the Web of Science database, Scopus contains almost a third more content. The founders of Scopus can be proud of the fact that it has no analogues in the world. Every year, the database is replenished with 2-3 million new scientific publications. That is why scientists from all over the world want their publications to be posted in this scientific journal.
Web of Science is the second largest scientometric database in the world. The number of scientific journals that are hosted in Web of Science reaches thousands. This platform was developed by Thomson Reuters specialists.
Scientific publications in Scopus and Web of Science are a privilege available to scientists, which provides a kind of pass into their professional environment and provides tools for communication.
What are the prospects for a scientist with a large number of publications?
It hardly needs much to be said that each publication in a scientific journal is a scientist’s contribution not only to science, but also to his professional reputation. But there are more specific benefits that researchers from all over the world strive for.
In order for a scientist to develop as a specialist, he often needs support, including financial support. But to receive grants for the development of his activities, he needs to withstand high competition, be able to authoritatively justify to financial donors the relevance of his research and the topicality of the chosen topics. In this case, scientific publications that are often cited, that is, are in demand, become the evidence base. When filling out an application for a grant, a scientist can show publications in scientific journals and justify their relevance with a high citation index.
What role does citation play in building a scientific career?
If we move away from complex explanations and pay attention to objective indicators of the need for a specialist in any profession, they consist of the relevance of his work and the extent to which it meets the needs of society. Similarly, with scientists - the timeliness of research is important and how many people they can serve, provide answers to important questions, and push them to important conclusions.
If a scientific publication really serves science and other people, this can be tracked by objective indicators. One of them is citation. When the object and subject of the study are chosen correctly, others will refer to the scientist in their materials. Scopus and Web of Science make it possible to track how often the works of a particular scientist are cited in scientific journals. It is scientometric databases that made it possible to study the citation index.
Hirsch index and how to calculate it
As an alternative to the above-mentioned indicator, the Hirsch index appeared. It is named after the physicist who proposed in 2005 to study the demand for scientific publications in a slightly different way than simply counting the total number of references to the researcher's publications in scientific journals.
The criterion is based on the ratio of the total number of scientific publications of a scientist and their citations. This approach has many grounds, since it makes it possible to take into account how effective the research activity of a particular person is in general. This is not only about how often others resort to citing his publications in scientific journals. It is also about individual effectiveness and how much the entire complex of the researcher's works reflects the demands of the time, relevance and needs of colleagues working in related topics. Thus, the Hirsch index has become a more complex indicator than just the frequency of citing scientific publications.
Let's consider the calculation of the Hirsch index using a specific example:
A scientist's activity receives an index h if h of his N scientific publications are cited at least once, when each remaining material (N – h) is cited less than once. In practice, this looks like this: for example, the Hirsch index for a particular scientist is 8. This means that he has at least 8 scientific publications, each of which has been cited at least 8 times. The number of works in scientific journals that are cited fewer times can vary greatly. The Hirsch index for a scientific journal is calculated similarly.
Thus, in the modern scientific world there are enough tools to track the relevance of a researcher's work.
