The Publish or Perish Book: Citation analysis for academics and administrators

Full information about the paperback version of the Publish or Perish Book, part 2

The Publish or Perish Book, part 2

© 2011 Anne-Wil Harzing. Published by Tarma Software Research Pty Ltd, Melbourne, Australia, 104 pp. ISBN 978-0-9808485-4-0 (pbk, b&w)

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(This is the second part of the full book; together with part 1 & part 3 it covers the same material as the full paperback edition.)

Other editions of The Publish or Perish Book...

The Publish or Perish book is a companion to the Publish or Perish software program, which retrieves and analyzes academic citations.

Part 2 of the book (featured on this page) provides a detailed discussion of the most common day-to-day uses of the software, such as preparing for tenure and promotion, evaluating other academics, deciding on journal submission, and doing a literature review.

The first chapter provides a brief introduction to citation analysis as well as an overview of the most popular data sources and metrics in use. An introduction to the main features of the software is provided in Chapter 2.

Chapter 3 provides tips and tricks for academics that need to make their case for tenure or promotion. I discuss the importance of reference groups as well as several ways to show your citation record to its best advantage.

In Chapter 4, I discuss how to evaluate other academics. The examples in this chapter vary from a 5-minute preparation before meeting someone you don’t know, to evaluating editorial board members or prospective PhD supervisors, from writing up tributes (or laudations) and eulogies to deciding on publication awards and preparing for a job interview.

Chapter 5 turns the tables and looks at citation analysis for Deans and other academic administrators. It includes four topics: the need to accept Google Scholar as an alternative data source, the myths about self-citation, the inappropriateness of citation analysis at early career stages, and the differences in citation impact across disciplines.

In Chapter 6, I show how Publish or Perish can be used to assist you when you are uncertain which journal to submit it to. It can be used to get ideas of the types of journals that publish articles on the topic you are writing on and to compare a set of journals in terms of their citation impact. Finally, once you have decided on the target journal, it can also help you to double-check that you haven’t missed any prior work from the journal in question.

Chapter 7 shows you how Publish or Perish can be used to do a quick literature review to identify the most cited articles and/or scholars in a particular field. It can also be employed to identify whether any research has been done in a particular area at all (useful for grant applications). Other applications are to evaluate the development of the literature in a particular topic over time.

See also:

Audience

The Publish or Perish Book is intended for all academic and non-academic readers who want to make better use of the Publish or Perish software and the Google Scholar database in general:

  • Anyone interested in making better use of the Publish or Perish software
  • Academics applying for a job, promotion, or tenure
  • Deans and other academic administrators
  • Academics doing literature research or writing papers or books
  • Bibliometric researchers and librarians
  • Editors and publishers of academic journals
  • Anyone interested in the strengths and weaknesses of Google Scholar and the ISI Web of Knowledge

Table of contents

Preface

Chapter 1: Introduction to citation analysis

1.1 Introduction
1.2 Why citation analysis?
1.3 Data sources for citation analysis
1.4 Citation metrics
1.5 Overview of the book
References

Chapter 2: Introduction to Publish or Perish

2.1 Introduction to Publish or Perish
2.2 Citation metrics
2.3 Exporting the data
2.4 Trouble shooting problems
References

Chapter 3: Making your case for tenure or promotion

3.1 Create your own reference group
3.2 Pick your metrics wisely
3.3 Single out individual papers
3.4 Compare your best papers to the journal average
3.5 Present comprehensive citations for edited volumes
3.6 What to do if you have very few citations overall?
3.7 Norm scores for different disciplines

Chapter 4: How to evaluate other academics

4.1 Getting a quick impression of someone you are meeting
4.2 Evaluating academics for specific functions
4.3 Writing tributes, laudations or eulogies
4.4 Publication awards
4.5 Preparing for a job interview
References

Chapter 5: Tips for Deans and other academic administrators

5.1 Treat Google Scholar as a serious alternative data source
5.2 Excluding self-citations is normally not worthwhile
5.3 Don’t expect significant citations for early career academics
5.4 Citation impact can differ substantially by discipline
5.5 Conclusion: What sensible administrators should do
References

Chapter 6: Where to submit your paper?

6.1 Step 1: Examining which journals publish on your topic
6.2 Step 2: Comparing journals for impact
6.3 Step 3: Before submission: Have you missed any papers?
References

Chapter 7: Conducting a literature review

7.1 How to conduct a literature review search
7.2 Identify key authors/journals/publications in a field
7.3 Development of the literature over time
7.4 Further examples of literature review applications
References