Use of the WoS index categories in scientific publication performance assessment of countries
SCIENTOMETRICS, 2026 (SCI-Expanded, SSCI, Scopus)
- Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
- Basım Tarihi: 2026
- Doi Numarası: 10.1007/s11192-026-05728-5
- Dergi Adı: SCIENTOMETRICS
- Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, Aerospace Database, Applied Science & Technology Source, BIOSIS, Index Islamicus, Information Science and Technology Abstracts, INSPEC, Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts (LISTA), RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, zbMATH, Information Science & Technology Abstracts (LISTA), Natural Science Collection (ProQuest), Biological Science Database (ProQuest), Earth, Atmospheric, & Aquatic Science Collection (ProQuest), Engineering Source (EBSCO), Materials Science & Engineering Collection (ProQuest), Sociology Source Ultimate (EBSCO), Technology Collection (ProQuest)
- Gazi Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet
Özet
National scientific publication performance plays a central role in evaluating research capacity, innovation potential, and global academic positioning. As bibliometric databases expand in scope and complexity, the differentiation of publication channels and index structures has become increasingly relevant for understanding how national research systems are represented in global metrics. This study analyzes the scientific publication characteristics of countries based on their publication counts across major Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection index categories, including the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE), the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), the Arts and Humanities Citation Index (AHCI), the Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), the Conference Proceedings Citation Index (CPCI), and the Book Citation Index (BKCI). Publication data from the WoS Core Collection for 2021-2023 are combined with key socioeconomic indicators, such as research and development (R&D) expenditure, researcher density, gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, and number of universities. Ward's hierarchical clustering method is applied to identify structurally similar groups of countries according to their publication configurations. The results indicate that countries exhibit distinct publication profiles across journal-, conference-, and book-oriented channels, and that these profiles are associated with differences in research investment and economic capacity. By leveraging the internal index structure of WoS as an analytical dimension, the study offers a multidimensional framework for examining national research systems and provides an additional basis for evidence-informed benchmarking of scientific performance.