Integrating metrics to measure research performance in social sciences and humanities: The case of the Spanish CSIC

Knowledge dissemination in the social sciences and humanities (SSH) is characterized by an assorted set of publication channels and a more prevalent use of local languages, so international bibliographic databases do not provide a practical study source by themselves. This article aims at laying the foundations for a comprehensive study of the research performance of SSH Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) researchers from a micro-level perspective. Both the Web of Science (WoS) and an internal CSIC database ('ConCiencia') are used in combination with a set of indicators describing the activity profile of researchers and the prestige of publication channels. Differences between the publication patterns of researchers in both domains are examined and so is the relationship between their research performance and their personal features. For researchers in humanities, the higher their academic rank and age the greater their activity in books and non-WoS articles was found to be; whereas for those working in the social sciences fields, a higher academic rank does not prefigure whether a researcher's scientific activity is more likely to be national or international in scope. Finally, a series of recommendations to consider output beyond the boundaries of WoS articles, and develop more accurate indicators for assessing the prestige of publication channels is expounded.