Is the Emerging Source Citation Index an aid to assess the citation impact in social science and humanities?

This paper aims to analyze the implications of the Emerging Source Citation Index (ESCI), from Clarivate Analytics, as an assessment tool. Based on the evidence that the ESCI has expanded publication coverage, primarily in the social science and humanities, this study poses the following questions. How much has coverage been expanded by field and subject category? What effect has inclusion had on impact factors? Have they risen significantly in any discipline? Is subscribing to this product worthwhile? Should it be taken into consideration for assessment purposes? The results obtained show that sub-fields such as Ethics, Poetry, Cultural Studies or Asian Studies improve their visibility with the inclusion of journals in ESCI. Although at the scientific level, CSEC does not seem to improve the evaluation of impact measurement, this new citation index can provide relevant information for evaluation at the micro and meso level. Since it includes widely cited documents (in both the top 1% and top 10%), in many disciplines not indexed in the core collection the use of this source can improve the completeness and quality of the analysis of citations from individual groups or institutions in subfields such as Poetry, Cultural studies or Asian studies. It is advisable to carry out periodic studies to analyse the evolution of the impact since, in disciplines with a reduced production and a low number of citations, the data are very sensitive to variations (especially if they are recent publications). (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.