TRANSFER

Trans­fer
Skills trans­fer
Services and consult­ing offers
Monitor­ing
Standard report

SKILLS TRANSFER

As the opera­tor of a research-relat­ed infra­struc­ture, the KB also sees itself as an actor in knowl­edge and technol­o­gy trans­fer in the field of biblio­met­rics and research evalu­a­tion. In addition to provid­ing and contin­u­ous­ly optimiz­ing the infra­struc­ture in line with relevant techni­cal and content-relat­ed devel­op­ments, we support researchers within the KB through various formats for knowl­edge and skills trans­fer – such as expert presen­ta­tions at our network meetings, oppor­tu­ni­ties for exchange and partic­i­pa­tion in working groups, the provi­sion of infor­ma­tion and documen­ta­tion in a wiki, and also individ­ual consul­ta­tions when needed. For members as well as those inter­est­ed outside the KB, we offer the series of Open Research Seminars; through our partners DZHW and Humboldt Univer­si­ty, the KB is involved in organiz­ing the esss Summer School, and from a project of the Working Group on Skills Trans­fer, an innov­a­tive, freely acces­si­ble infor­ma­tion resource on key topics in biblio­met­rics has emerged – the Biblio­met­rics Quick Notes. Through our blog, we provide timely updates on small­er and larger analy­ses, partic­u­lar­ly on data quali­ty aspects of OpenAlex, the freely avail­able data source we now also host.

KB contributes to biblio­met­rics teach­ing, for example, in the Master’s program in Infor­ma­tion Science at the Depart­ment of Library and Infor­ma­tion Science, Humboldt University.

With the shift towards open biblio­met­ric data and the imple­men­ta­tion of OpenAlex – includ­ing the proven KB address coding and further curation – biblio­met­rics is becom­ing more acces­si­ble to a wide range of users as licens­ing restric­tions are lifted. We there­fore aim to place an even stronger focus on skills trans­fer in the future and to devel­op formats that enable users at univer­si­ties and non-univer­si­ty insti­tu­tions to compe­tent­ly work with biblio­met­ric sources such as OpenAlex or with datasets they have compiled themselves, for example within the frame­work of the Core Data Set on Research.

SERVICES AND CONSULTING OFFERS

Offers from network partners

The Compe­tence Network for Biblio­met­rics (KB) and its partic­i­pat­ing partner insti­tu­tions offer services and consul­tan­cy for third parties. Univer­si­ties, research insti­tu­tions, funding organi­za­tions, and decision-makers can commis­sion, in partic­u­lar, the follow­ing services:

  • Compre­hen­sive analy­sis of the perfor­mance of scien­tif­ic insti­tu­tions or sub-units
  • Provi­sion of key figures and perfor­mance indica­tors for evalu­a­tion processes
  • Collab­o­ra­tion and network analyses
  • Consult­ing on the inter­pre­ta­tion, use, and further devel­op­ment of indica­tor-based evalu­a­tion systems

These commis­sions are usual­ly handled not by the Compe­tence Network for Biblio­met­rics itself, but by the individ­ual insti­tu­tions within the network. If inter­est­ed, you may contact these insti­tu­tions direct­ly or reach out to the KB office.

Other services and consul­tan­cy, usual­ly for members of universities/research institutions

In some cases, freely acces­si­ble infor­ma­tion services are also available.

From KB Network Partners

  • The Biblio­met­rics Working Group at Biele­feld Univer­si­ty, respon­si­ble for address coding in the KB databas­es, regards its research as a reflec­tion on science using biblio­met­ric methods, with a partic­u­lar focus on trans­for­ma­tion process­es towards Open Access and Open Science. Its biblio­met­ric services and consul­tan­cy aim to support members of Biele­feld Univer­si­ty in present­ing their research profile in third-party funding propos­als and include advice as well as the prepa­ra­tion of analy­ses, e.g., on publi­ca­tion output, collab­o­ra­tions, citations, and Open Access.
  • The Infor­ma­tion Services Unit of the (chemi­cal-physi­cal) CPT section offers consult­ing and services for biblio­met­ric evalu­a­tion as well as complex infor­ma­tion retrieval.

From Other Institutions

Univer­si­ties in Germany offer various services:

Monitor­ing

The data processed and hosted by the KB have been and contin­ue to be used as the basis for a number of evalu­a­tion and monitor­ing projects of signif­i­cance for the German science system. These include:

On behalf of the Alliance of German Science Organ­i­sa­tions and under the auspices of the German Rectors’ Confer­ence, Project DEAL negoti­ates trans­for­ma­tive “publish and read” agree­ments for scien­tif­ic journals with the largest commer­cial publish­ers for German scien­tif­ic insti­tu­tions. The aim is to make all publi­ca­tions by authors from German insti­tu­tions automat­i­cal­ly avail­able in Open Access, to provide DEAL partic­i­pant insti­tu­tions with perma­nent full-text access to the entire portfo­lio of e‑journals from the select­ed publish­ers, and to achieve appro­pri­ate pricing accord­ing to a simple, forward-looking calcu­la­tion model based on the volume of publi­ca­tions by DEAL partic­i­pant insti­tu­tions (“publish and read model”). So far, DEAL contracts have been conclud­ed with the publish­ers Wiley and Springer Nature. The agree­ment with Springer Nature is consid­ered the world’s largest OA trans­for­ma­tion contract to date. In order to be able to deter­mine the expect­ed publi­ca­tion volume under the DEAL contracts and to devel­op the “publish and read model”, the quali­ty-assured data infra­struc­ture operat­ed by the Compe­tence Centre for Biblio­met­rics was used in the run-up to the contract negotiations.

With the “OAM – Open Access Monitor­ing” project (FKZ 16OAMO001), the Feder­al Ministry of Educa­tion and Research (BMBF) is funding the further devel­op­ment and opera­tion of the Open Access Monitor for Germany (OAM) by the Central Library of Forschungszen­trum Jülich from 1 Septem­ber 2020 until 31 August 2023. The Open Access Monitor was initial­ly estab­lished and funded within the scope of a BMBF ideas compe­ti­tion in support of the free flow of infor­ma­tion within the scien­tif­ic commu­ni­ty in the “Syner­gies for open access – open access monitor­ing – SynOA” project (FKZ 16OA018).

The Open Access Monitor records the publi­ca­tion output of German acade­m­ic insti­tu­tions in scien­tif­ic journals. Through analy­ses of subscrip­tion fees and (open access) publi­ca­tion fees, the transi­tion of the publish­ing system towards an open access system is monitored and support­ed. For this purpose, data from exist­ing projects are collat­ed within expand­ed databas­es, made avail­able to users in a hierar­chi­cal inter­face, and dissem­i­nat­ed by means of scien­tif­ic publi­ca­tions. OAM is freely acces­si­ble under https://open-access-monitor.de/ (user inter­face in English language will be imple­ment­ed in 2021).

OAM contains publi­ca­tion data from Clari­vate (Web of Science), among others. Although the data are held local­ly, the legal and finan­cial basis for this is the member­ship of Forschungszen­trum Jülich in the Compe­tence Centre for Bibliometrics.

Centrum für Hochschu­len­twick­lung (Center for Higher Educa­tion Devel­op­ment) regular­ly conducts a wide range of studies on disci­plines of German univer­si­ties for the newspa­per Die ZEIT. The result­ing univer­si­ty ranking (CHE RANKING 2021/22) provides prospec­tive students with a wealth of charac­ter­is­tics about the subjects and univer­si­ties they want to study, which can help them to choose a subject and place to study.

The charac­ter­is­tics include, among others, the scien­tif­ic output and its percep­tion, i.e. publi­ca­tions of the disci­plines and the citations received on them. The Central library of Forschungszen­trum Jülich collects this data on the basis of the KB database infra­struc­ture for the follow­ing disci­plines (status 2021): electri­cal engineer­ing and infor­ma­tion technol­o­gy, geogra­phy, earth sciences, medicine, dentistry and psychol­o­gy. The basis for deter­min­ing the respec­tive univer­si­ty publi­ca­tions is the insti­tu­tion coding of the Compe­tence Centre for Biblio­met­rics, which is avail­able for the publi­ca­tions of German insti­tu­tions from the Web of Science and Scopus databases.

The publi­ca­tions of the univer­si­ties are assigned to the disci­plines to be examined in a manual proce­dure with the help of the author address­es. The result in the CHE ranking contains figures relative to the number of scien­tists (or profes­sors) and is present­ed in three groups (cf. https://methodik.che-ranking.de/datenerhebung/bibliometrische-analyse/).

Along­side Europe and North Ameri­ca, the Asia-Pacif­ic area is the third leading world region in knowl­edge produc­tion and innova­tion. For years, we have been observ­ing an increas­ing region­al integra­tion of research among these countries. The growing cooper­a­tion within the Asia-Pacif­ic region reduces the impor­tance of cooper­a­tion with the USA or European countries. It is there­fore crucial for the German knowl­edge-based econo­my to be well informed about research and innova­tion trends in other parts of the world.
To this end, the German Feder­al Ministry of Educa­tion and Research (BMBF) has commis­sioned a monitor­ing of the Asia-Pacif­ic Research Area with a focus on China. After the release of a first report in May 2019, this new publi­ca­tion offers a second compre­hen­sive inven­to­ry. The editors are the DLR Project Manage­ment Agency, the Fraun­hofer Insti­tute for Systems and Innova­tion Research ISI, the Leibniz Insti­tute for Global and Region­al Studies (GIGA) and the German Acade­m­ic Exchange Service (DAAD). In addition to the document, the DLR Project Manage­ment Agency provides an exten­sive biblio­met­ric and paten­to­met­ric data set.
The publi­ca­tion contains evalu­a­tions of various research and educa­tion indica­tors – includ­ing expen­di­ture, (co-)publications and (co-)patents – in select­ed countries that are relevant for research and innova­tion cooper­a­tion with Germany. The focus of this year’s report is on life sciences, materi­als research and tertiary educa­tion hubs. In this year’s report on the devel­op­ment of the Chinese research and educa­tion system, the focus is on Chinese-European cooperation.
A follow-up report with a partic­u­lar focus on India, inter­na­tion­al Kooper­a­tion and the China’s regions is in the process of being complet­ed and will soon be published.
Current publi­ca­tion: 4th report (2023).

Inter­na­tion­al­i­sa­tion is neces­sary for the success­ful devel­op­ment of teach­ing and research at univer­si­ties. There­fore, empir­i­cal surveys are regular­ly carried out to assess the inter­na­tion­al nature of the German higher educa­tion system and keep policy­mak­ers and society fully informed. In this context, the Wissenschaft Weltof­fen (Science Open to the World) is a joint study series conduct­ed annual­ly since 2014 by the German Acade­m­ic Exchange Service (DAAD) and German Centre for Higher Educa­tion Research and Science Studies (DZHW) using the Compe­tence Centre’s database infra­struc­ture. The central topic of the study each year is statis­ti­cal indica­tors of inter­na­tion­al mobil­i­ty of students, acade­mics, and researchers, with a special spotlight on a promi­nent topic. The Wissenschaft Weltof­fen series has estab­lished itself as a central source of infor­ma­tion on student and researcher mobility.

The reports are avail­able in English and German at: http://www.wissenschaftweltoffen.de/.
Find the latest publi­ca­tion here.

“Pakt für Forschung und Innova­tion” (PFI) was launched in 2005 by the feder­al and state govern­ments to make the German science system more dynam­ic and compet­i­tive. It was last updat­ed in June 2019 for the years 2021 to 2030. The pact is valid for the German Research Founda­tion (DFG) as well as for the four large non-univer­si­ty research organi­za­tions Fraun­hofer Society (FHG), Helmholtz Associ­a­tion of German Research Centers (HGF), Max Planck Society (MPG) and Leibniz Associ­a­tion (WGL). Commis­sioned by the German Feder­al Ministry of Educa­tion and Research (BMBF), Central Library of Forschungszen­trum Jülich in cooper­a­tion with KU Leuven has been collect­ing a set of biblio­met­ric indica­tors since 2016 to document the devel­op­ment of scien­tif­ic activ­i­ty in Germany, by describ­ing and analysing the devel­op­ment of publi­ca­tion activ­i­ty in univer­si­ties and research organi­za­tions, and enabling compar­i­son with other countries. In this context, the database infra­struc­ture of the Compe­tence Centre for Biblio­met­rics has been used to produce the analy­ses for the Biblio­met­rics Report. Above all, the insti­tu­tion coding of the database is signif­i­cant for the analy­ses and is essen­tial in narrow­ing down the publi­ca­tions of the research organi­za­tions in the PFI. The reports can be viewed at this address: https://www.bmbf.de/de/pakt-fuer-forschung-und-innovation-546.html.
You can find the latest report here.

Since 2019, the German Centre for Higher Educa­tion Research and Science Studies (DZHW) has utilised the Compe­tence Centre’s database infra­struc­ture to produce an annual study for the Commis­sion of Experts for Research and Innova­tion (Expertenkom­mis­sion Forschung und Innova­tion, EFI). The studies analyse the perfor­mance and struc­tures of the German science system in an inter­na­tion­al compar­i­son with 22 countries over a time-series. Each study presents biblio­met­ric indica­tors of produc­tiv­i­ty, scien­tif­ic impact, and collab­o­ra­tion, with a chang­ing focus each year on a biblio­met­ric theme, such as analysing the effect of the data source on indica­tors or examin­ing the influ­ence of China’s rapid growth on the inter­na­tion­al science system. These studies contribute to the annual report produced by EFI to advise the German Feder­al Govern­ment on research, innova­tion, and techni­cal perfor­mance in Germany.

The studies are avail­able in English at: https://www.e‑fi.de/publikationen/studien.

Find the latest publi­ca­tion here.

The Research Rating of the Council of Science and Human­i­ties was the most ambitious evalu­a­tion exercise of research organi­za­tions on a nation­wide scale in Germany to date. The exercis­es, designed as disci­pline-specif­ic pilot studies that exper­i­men­tal­ly tested differ­ent modes of evalu­a­tion, assessed research units in four disci­plines by expert commit­tees on the basis of customized standards and proce­dures. In two exercis­es the commit­tees decid­ed to use biblio­met­ric data and exper­tise in an “informed peer review” model of evalu­a­tion, provid­ed by KB partner organi­za­tions and using KB infra­struc­ture and data. The Research Rating Chemistry charged the IWT of Biele­feld Univer­si­ty with supply­ing a publi­ca­tion and citation analy­sis of some 42,000 documents. The Electrical/Information Engineer­ing exercise was support­ed by biblio­met­ric indica­tors and data for some 3300 documents by iFQ.

The Fraun­hofer Insti­tute for Systems and Innova­tion Research ISI annual­ly creates tables on the number of scien­tif­ic publi­ca­tions per million inhab­i­tants for about 30 countries for the BMBF Data Portal.

You can find the latest report here.

STANDARD REPORT FOR UNIVERSITIES AND RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS

Biblio­met­ric data and analy­ses support evalu­a­tions, strate­gic research planning, quali­ty manage­ment, and report­ing require­ments of scien­tif­ic insti­tu­tions and univer­si­ties. The partners of KB create standard­ized analy­ses (“standard report”) for this purpose, which prompt­ly inform about the key biblio­met­ric indica­tors of an insti­tu­tion. Specif­ic individ­ual questions from the context of the respec­tive insti­tu­tion can be examined in a separate analy­sis if needed. All analy­ses are based on data from the Web of Science from the special­ly prepared, quali­ty-assured KB in-house data infra­struc­ture. This infra­struc­ture is based on the Web of Science (Clari­vate Analyt­ics) and Scopus (Elsevi­er) databas­es. The latter can be used for compar­i­son purpos­es in the analy­sis if needed.

An intro­duc­tion to the KB standard report and its use in libraries has been published in b.i.t. online [pdf].

The KB’s Standard Reporting

The standard report­ing of the Compe­tence Center for Biblio­met­rics provides infor­ma­tion on publi­ca­tions, subject areas, collab­o­ra­tions, and impact for any scien­tif­ic insti­tu­tion in Germany and compares the key figures to the respec­tive acade­m­ic sector. The report offers a quanti­ta­tive overview of the insti­tu­tion’s published research results over a multi-year period in an appro­pri­ate context.

The number of publi­ca­tions serves to estimate the knowl­edge produc­tion of an insti­tu­tion. The repre­sen­ta­tion is done in whole number and fraction­al count­ing. While whole number count­ing shows the number of publi­ca­tions an insti­tu­tion was involved in, fraction­al count­ing provides an estimate of the insti­tu­tion’s share in these works, consid­er­ing insti­tu­tion­al co-authorship.

Figure 1: Growth of Publi­ca­tions of the Sample Univer­si­ty over the Obser­va­tion Period.

In the standard report, publi­ca­tions are catego­rized into major scien­tif­ic fields (OECD Fields of Science). This allows for state­ments, for example, regard­ing field-specif­ic growth or the subject-based research profile of the respec­tive institution.

Figure 4: Relative Growth of Publi­ca­tion Numbers for the Sample Univer­si­ty Each Year.

Descrip­tive analy­ses of Open Access describe how many publi­ca­tions are fee-free and publicly acces­si­ble. The Open Access (OA) status is divid­ed into four groups: Gold OA, Green OA, Hybrid OA, and Closed. To deter­mine the OA status of individ­ual publi­ca­tions, the data is enriched with infor­ma­tion from the OA-special­ized Unpay­wall database. Compar­ing with the sector and peers demon­strates the OA transformation.

Figure 7: Open Access Devel­op­ment of the Sample Univer­si­ty (verti­cal line) by OA status compared to the peer group (dots), the annual approx­i­mate distri­b­u­tion curve is shaded in gray.

Cooper­a­tions are deter­mined using co-author­ships and provide insights into the network­ing of the respec­tive insti­tu­tion at the sectoral, nation­al, and inter­na­tion­al levels. Examin­ing an insti­tu­tion’s cooper­a­tions over time, for example, allows conclu­sions to be drawn regard­ing its inter­na­tion­al profile and classi­fi­ca­tion within the respec­tive compar­i­son group.

Figure 8: Distri­b­u­tion of Publi­ca­tions of the Sample Univer­si­ty by Type of Cooperation.

The intra-scien­tif­ic impact of a publi­ca­tion on subse­quent research is deter­mined through citation analy­ses, based on the assump­tion that relevant research contri­bu­tions are cited more frequent­ly than others. Thus, impact describes the percep­tion and reuse of scien­tif­ic work within the (inter­na­tion­al) scien­tif­ic community.

In the standard report, citations are count­ed within a three-year citation window and normal­ized for the respec­tive field and year to control for both subject-specif­ic and tempo­ral differ­ences, thus enabling a valid compar­i­son of hetero­ge­neous publications.

Figure 12: Field-normal­ized Citations of the Sample Univer­si­ty with Median and 90th Percentile. Outliers are not shown.

The standard report places the results of the analyzed insti­tu­tion in the context of the values of other compa­ra­ble-type insti­tu­tions. Upon request, an addition­al compar­i­son group of German scien­tif­ic insti­tu­tions can be flexi­bly defined, which will then be includ­ed as an addition­al compar­a­tive perspec­tive in the report (exten­sion module “Peers”).

Specif­ic infor­ma­tion needs of a German scien­tif­ic insti­tu­tion that go beyond the content of the standard report can be addressed in a separate analy­sis. The KB team is avail­able to provide adviso­ry support and create a customized offer outlin­ing the associ­at­ed costs accordingly.

Contact

If you are inter­est­ed or have any questions about standard report­ing, please contact:

or