ABOUT KB

THE COMPETENCE NETWORK FOR BIBLIOMETRICS

Gover­nance forms in science have changed marked­ly in recent years. Increased competive­ness, inter­na­tion­al­iza­tion, output-orient­ed control mecha­nisms, evalu­a­tion, growth of grant-based funding, public account­abil­i­ty, quali­ty manage­ment, insti­tu­tion­al profil­ing and strate­gic planning of research are some of the keywords of what is often summa­rized as new public management.

Such a steer­ing system not only needs valid infor­ma­tion on input, output and process parame­ters on differ­ent levels but also requires a careful analy­sis of the condi­tions of the produc­tion of knowl­edge, changes in them and the results of inter­ven­tions. Given this, not only science policy but also actors such as funding agencies, journal publish­ers, the econo­my, members of civil society and the gener­al public are reliant on scien­to­met­ric infor­ma­tion that is subject to regular verification.

One of the central sources of infor­ma­tion is the system of scien­tif­ic commu­ni­ca­tion through which the dissem­i­na­tion and valida­tion of schol­ar­ly knowl­edge is organized. Biblio­met­rics uses the data on authors, journals, insti­tu­tions, funding organi­za­tions and topics that arise from the commu­ni­ca­tion process and trans­forms them into indica­tors, struc­tur­al displays and indexes.

The KB for German Science funded since late 2008 by the Feder­al Ministry for Educa­tion and Research (BMBF) has construct­ed a quali­ty controlled in-house data infra­struc­ture, based on the databas­es Scopus (Elsevi­er), Web of Science (Clari­vate), and newly OpenAlex (OurRe­search), for these purpos­es and uses it for the devel­op­ment and advance­ment of analyt­i­cal methods and indicators.

The objec­tives of the KB are

• creation, devel­op­ment and curation of a quali­ty-assured data infra­struc­ture for biblio­met­ric applications
• research into appro­pri­ate biblio­met­ric methods and indicators
• inves­ti­ga­tions on effects and meaning­ful­ness of biblio­met­ric results
• to support of young biblio­met­ric researchers
• to offer services, mainly biblio­met­ric analy­ses, and counselling for the appli­ca­tion and inter­pre­ta­tions of biblio­met­ric information.

The activ­i­ties of the KB are coordi­nat­ed and support­ed by its admin­is­tra­tive office, which is run by DZHW.

This project is funded by BMBF (Feder­al Ministry of Educa­tion and Research, Germany). Grant number 16WIK2101A.

Organi­za­tion

Repre­sen­ta­tives of the member organizations:

• Deutsches Zentrum für Hochschul- und Wissenschafts­forschung (DZHW):
  Dr. Stephan Stahlschmidt | Marion Schmidt
• Fraun­hofer-Insti­tut für System- und Innova­tions­forschung (ISI):
  Dr. Rainer Frietsch | Dr. Henning Kroll
• Insti­tute for Inter­dis­ci­pli­nary Studies of Science (I²SoS), Univer­sität Bielefeld:
  Dr. Niels Taubert | Christo­pher Lenke
• Leibniz-Insti­tut für Infor­ma­tion­sin­fra­struk­tur FIZ Karlsruhe (FIZ):
  Dr. Thomas Bausen­wein | Prof. Dr. Wolfram Horstmann | Chris­tine Rimmert
• Forschungszen­trum Jülich GmbH (FZJ):
  Dr. Bernhard Mitter­maier | Andreas Meier
• Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, vertreten durch die Max-Planck-Digital Library (MPDL), München:
  Margit Palzen­berg­er | Katja Heidbach
• GESIS – Leibniz-Insti­tut für Sozial­wis­senschaften, Mannheim/Köln:
  Dr. Philipp Mayr-Schlegel | Fakhri Momeni
• ZBW Leibniz-Infor­ma­tion­szen­trum Wirtschaft:
  Prof. Dr. Isabel­la Peters | Steffen Lemke
• ZEW – Leibniz-Zentrum für Europäis­che Wirtschafts­forschung GmbH:
  Prof. Dr. Hanna Hotten­rott | Dr. Bastian Krieger
• Chris­t­ian-Albrechts-Univer­sität zu Kiel:
  Prof. Dr. Carsten Schulz | Tetyana Melnychuk
• Univer­sität Kassel, Inter­na­tion­al Center for Higher Educa­tion Research (INCHER):
  Prof. Dr. Guido Bünstorf | Dr. Johannes König
• Humboldt-Univer­sität zu Berlin, Insti­tut für Biblio­theks- und Informationswissenschaft:
  Prof. Dr. Martin Reinhart | Dr. Stephan Gauch
• RWTH Aachen, Human Technol­o­gy Center (HumTech):
  Prof. Dr. Stefan Böschen
• Gottfried Wilhelm-Leibniz-Univer­sität Hannover, Leibniz Forschungszen­trum Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft:
  Prof. Dr. Anna Kosmützky
• Technis­che Univer­sität Berlin, Fachge­bi­et Sozial­wis­senschaftliche Wissenschafts- und Technikforschung:
  Prof. Dr. Jochen Gläser
• Georg-August-Univer­sität Göttin­gen, Nieder­säch­sis­che Staats- und Univer­sitäts­bib­lio­thek Göttingen:
  Naiko Jahn
• Fraun­hofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung (IRB):
  Eric Retzlaff
• Fraun­hofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung (INT):
  Dr. Miloš Jovanović | Dr. Marcus John
• Friedrich-Schiller-Univer­sität Jena:
  Prof. Dr. Uwe Cantner | Dr. Nils Grashof
• Technis­che Univer­sität Ilmenau, Insti­tut für Volkswirtschaftslehre:
  Prof. Dr. Thomas Grebel | Xijie Zhang
• Technis­che Univer­sität München:
  Prof. Dr. Hanna Hotten­rott | Dr. Thomas Schaper
• Geschäftsstelle der Expertenkom­mis­sion Forschung und Innova­tion (EFI):
  Dr. Johannes Stiller | Dr. Helge Dauchert

Chair­man­ship of the assem­bly of member organizations:

Head:
Profes­sor Dr. Wolfram Horstmann (Leibniz-Insti­tut für Infor­ma­tion­sin­fra­struk­tur FIZ Karlsruhe (FIZ)) | Repre­sen­ta­tive: Profes­sor Uwe Cantner (Univer­sität Jena)

Admin­is­tra­tive office:

Dr. Stephan Stahlschmidt; Marion Schmidt

German Centre for Higher Educa­tion Research and Science Studies (DZHW)
Research Area Research System and Science Dynamics
Schützen­straße 6a
10117 Berlin
kb(at)dzhw.eu

Project coordi­na­tion:

VDI/VDE Technik + Innova­tion GmbH
Stein­platz 1
10623 Berlin

Histo­ry of the KB

The KB has been funded by the feder­al ministry of educa­tion and research (BMBF) since the end of 2008. The goal of the first project phase was to create a quali­ty assured database infra­struc­ture and to make it usable for evalu­a­tion and monitor­ing. In partic­u­lar, the clean­ing and disam­bigua­tion of address data and the devel­op­ment of automat­ed proce­dures to carry out these tasks contin­u­ous­ly upon raw data deliv­ery was central.

Research projects in this phase also focussed on the exten­sion of the quali­ty assur­ance and on indica­tor devel­op­ment. Further­more, initial feasi­bil­i­ty and pilot studies were conduct­ed. Other prior­i­ties were the handling of errors and the improve­ment of the theory of biblio­met­ric measure­ment. The experi­ence and correc­tions that were gained through the appli­ca­tion of the devel­oped instru­ments were fed back into the databases.

Evalu­a­tion 2016

The project Compe­tence Centre for Biblio­met­rics was assessed by an indepen­dent expert commit­tee in 2016 on behalf the Feder­al Ministry for Educa­tion and Research. As a result the review commit­tee recom­mend­ed the contin­u­a­tion of the project in its main aspects, an exten­sion of the activ­i­ties and organi­za­tion­al changes in partic­u­lar areas.

Report of the review commit­tee (German)

Adviso­ry council

The scien­tif­ic adviso­ry council advis­es the consor­tium members in their activ­i­ties. It consists of up to five members with exper­tise in biblio­met­rics. The members are appoint­ed by the feder­al ministry of educa­tion and research (BMBF) for a period of three years.

Members

• Prof. Dr. Stefanie Haustein (Speak­er), Univer­si­ty of Ottawa
• Prof. Dr. Simone Fulda, Chris­t­ian-Albrechts-Univer­sität Kiel
• Dr. Matthias Kreysing, Univer­sität Hildesheim
• Dr. Jan-Hauke Plaßmann, Minis­teri­um für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kultur des Landes Brandenburg
• Dr. Lars Handrich, DIW Econ