The Impact of Citations and Combined Metrics on the Performance Measurement of German Business Researchers

Point of Contact: Prof. Dr. Matthias Meyer

This study investigates the effects of going beyond publication counts on the relative performance measurement of German-speaking business administration scholars. Based on data from the Social Science Citation Index, Scopus, and Google Scholar it compares rankings based on publication, citation, and combined measures, such as the h-index. The results from 298 accounting and marketing scholars show that the move from publication to citation counts is a greater step than from citations to the h-indices. A similar observation can be made with respect to refinements of the h-index. We investigate several causes of these effects and show that citation counts and combined measures specify the information content of data sources. The results also suggest that data source coverage is a larger driver of differences than measures. Finally, we find that correlations between rankings based on different data sources can be improved by extending beyond publication measures.

Publications

Meyer, Matthias and Waldkirch, Rüdiger and Zaggl, Michael (2013). Beyond Publication Counts - The Impact of Citations and Combined Metrics on the Performance Measurement of German Business Researchers. Zeitschrift für Betriebswirtschaft. 83 (Special Issue 3), 61-86.