AUTHOR=Szomszor Martin , Adams Jonathan , Fry Ryan , Gebert Chris , Pendlebury David A. , Potter Ross W. K. , Rogers Gordon TITLE=Interpreting Bibliometric Data JOURNAL=Frontiers in Research Metrics and Analytics VOLUME=5 YEAR=2021 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/research-metrics-and-analytics/articles/10.3389/frma.2020.628703 DOI=10.3389/frma.2020.628703 ISSN=2504-0537 ABSTRACT=

Many academic analyses of good practice in the use of bibliometric data address only technical aspects and fail to account for and appreciate user requirements, expectations, and actual practice. Bibliometric indicators are rarely the only evidence put before any user group. In the present state of knowledge, it is more important to consider how quantitative evaluation can be made simple, transparent, and readily understood than it is to focus unduly on precision, accuracy, or scholarly notions of purity. We discuss how the interpretation of ‘performance’ from a presentation using accurate but summary bibliometrics can change when iterative deconstruction and visualization of the same dataset is applied. From the perspective of a research manager with limited resources, investment decisions can easily go awry at governmental, funding program, and institutional levels. By exploring select real-life data samples we also show how the specific composition of each dataset can influence interpretive outcomes.