Book Bibliometrics - A New Perspective and Challenge in Indicator Building Based on the Book Citation Index

This study aims to gain a better understanding of communication patterns in different publication types and the applicability of the Book Citation Index (BKCI) for building indicators for use in both informetrics studies and research evaluation. The authors investigate the differences not only in citation impact between journal and book literature, but also in citation patterns between edited books and their monographic authored counterparts. The complete 2005 volume of the Web of Science Core collection database including the three journal databases and the BKCI has been processed as source documents. Annual cumulative citation rates in a three-year (x3) and a nine-year (x9) citation window are applied to compute the citation impact of different types of publications. The ratio x3/x9 is utilized as a kind of prospective Price index to examine the extent of ageing. The results of this study show that books are more heterogeneous information sources and addressed to more heterogeneous target groups than journals. Comparatively, the differences between edited and authored books in terme: s of the citation impact are not so impressive as books vs. journals. Humanities have the most different citation impact between books and journals, whereas life sciences have the most similar impact between two groups.