Bibliometrics at Karolinska Institutet and Stockholm County Council
In the fall of 2005 the management of Karolinska Institutet decided to use bibliometrics as a tool to become the leading medical university in Europe by 2010. The decision was part of the KI-05 strategy.
The bibliometric activities at KI started as a project by the end of 2005. In 2008 the project was continued as a regular activity, financed by the Board of Research.
- KI bibliometric verification toolkit
The main purpose of the bibliometric activities at KI is to offer bibliometric analyses of Karolinska Institutet/Stockholm County Council (SLL) research to the management, departments, clinics, and other staff at Karolinska Institutet and SLL. The analyses aim to give an overview of the research at KI and SLL, and also be an instrument for comparing it to research in the rest of the world.
Since 2009, Karolinska Institutet and SLL have a joint model for allocating direct research funds to departments and clinics based on performance. Bibliometrics is one of four weights used for calculating an activity score for each department, hospital, and clinic.
About the bibliometric database
The bibliometric database contains information about international scientific publications from the year 1995 and onwards. It is is based on data from the three databases that are part of Web of Science, created and maintained by Thomson Reuters:
- Science Citation Index
- Social Science Citation Index Expanded
- Arts and Humanities Citation index
Additionally to Web of Science data, the bibliometric system incorporates data from a local copy of Medline. Publications from Medline and other databases are today only included if they are also present in the Web of Science.
The data from Medline contains medical subject headings (MeSH terms) for the individual articles. Analyses based on the MeSH vocabulary are more adapted to the individual article level than the bibliometrics subject classification method normally used. Today’s standard is based on the classification of journals made by Thomson Reuters.
In August 2010 the bibliometric databased contained complete bibliographic records for more than 21 million publications. That includes:
- Almost 47 million author addresses.
- Over 73 million author names
The database also contains almost 440 million citation connections between reference lists in articles and corresponding articles in the database.
The access to all this data ensures many possible analyses of Karolinska Institutet and SLL research.
The database is updated every week. The bibliometric database is developed in the PostgreSQL open source environment.
Bibliometrics: outreach and cooperation
The members of the Bibliometrics Group at Karolinska Institutet participate in meetings, lectures, and courses to disseminate and share knowledge about bibliometrics. The group wants to promote the discussion on how to use bibliometrics, and the advantages and disandvantages of different bibliometric methods.
Discussion and cooperation in the academic sector can lead to the improvement of bibliometric methods and standards. This can improve and refine the use of bibliometrics, both within the participating organizations, and at the national level.
KI-avhandling om bibliometri
Jonas Lundberg has written a doctoral thesis with the title “Bibliometrics as a research assessment tool - impact beyond the impact factor”. He received his PhD from Karolinska Institutet in November 2006.
More information about bibliometrics
The use of bibliometrics as an instrument for activity assessment and decision support is a relatively new phenomenon. Bibliometrics has previously mostly been practised within a bibliometric research environment. This means that the different indicators have not yet been standardized.
The bibliometric group have written a “Bibliometrics Handbook for Karolinska Institutet”. This contains information about how different indicators are calculated, and their advantages and disadvantages. The handbook also contains some information on how to interpret bibliometric indicators, and evaluating the results of bibliometric reports.
The group has also produced an information leaflet with more extensive information on bibliometrics and how it is used within Karolinska Institutet and the Stockholm County Council.
At the bottom of this page you will find the following documents attached:
- Introduktion till bibliometri (in Swedish)
- Bibliometric Handbook for Karolinska Institutet
- Bibliometric indicators - definitions and usage at KI
- Beskrivning av bibliometri som delparameter för tilldelning av forskningsmedel vid KI och SLL (in Swedish)
- The Bibliometrics Group's publishing recommendations for research scientists at Karolinska Institutet
Contact persons
For more information about the bibliometric activities at KI and SLL, please contact:
- Agne.M.Larsson (at) ki.se, phone: 08-524 84 023
- Catharina.Rehn (at) ki.se, phone: 08-524 84 054 (Coordinator)
- Daniel.Wadskog (at) ki.se, phone: 08-524 841 59
The University Library also offers verification support:
- Call us: 08-524 84 000
- Send e-mail: ub@ki.se
The medical libraries at Karolinska University Hospital, Danderyd Hospital, and Södersjukhuset (biblioteket@sodersjukhuset.se) can also be of help.
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