Bibliometric analyses on repository contents as a library service for the evaluation of research

Since the last two decennia, the library of Wageningen University and Research (or Wageningen UR) has been involved in several bibliometric analyses for the evaluation of scientific output of staff, chair groups, research institutes and graduate schools. In these bibliometric analyses several indicator scores, such as the number of publications, number of citations and citation impacts, are calculated. However, since publication and citation habits differ considerably per scientific discipline, indicator scores need to be standardized in order to make comparison of scientific outputs from staff, chair groups, research institutes or graduate schools, that belong to different scientific disciplines, possible. It is for this reason that Wageningen UR Library bases its bibliometric analyses on indicator scores that are standardized against average trend (or baseline) scores per research field. For the collection of scientific output that is subjected to bibliometric analyses the repository Wageningen Yield (WaY) is used. This repository contains metadata and links to scientific output of the staff, research groups, chair groups and institutes of Wageningen UR and is developed and managed by Wageningen UR Library. By the application of a link between the metadata of publications in WaY and citation scores in Thomson Reuters’ Web of Science, custom-made analyses can be performed efficiently. Usings the repository WaY as a source for Wageningen UR’s scientific output enables optimal use of meta data (e.g. affiliations of authors), improvement of completeness and data quality as well as awareness of library services. Moreover, the bibliometric analyses give insights in steps that can be taken to improve publication strategies for Wageningen UR staff, chair groups, research institutes and graduate schools.