How can bibliometrics support open science and research integrity?

1 What is open science?

Open science is a movement that promotes the accessibility, transparency, and reproducibility of research outputs and processes. It aims to make research more inclusive, collaborative, and accountable, as well as to increase its societal impact and relevance. Open science encompasses various aspects, such as open access, open data, open peer review, open source, open education, and open innovation.

2 What is research integrity?

Research integrity is the adherence to ethical principles and professional standards in conducting and reporting research. It involves honesty, accuracy, objectivity, fairness, and accountability in all aspects of the research cycle, from design to dissemination. Research integrity also requires respect for the rights and interests of research participants, colleagues, funders, and the public.

3 How can bibliometrics support open science?

Bibliometrics can support open science by providing metrics and indicators that measure and monitor the openness of research outputs and processes. For example, bibliometrics can track the adoption and impact of open access policies and practices, such as the number and proportion of publications that are freely available online, the citation advantage of open access articles, and the diversity and quality of open access journals and platforms. Bibliometrics can also assess the availability and reuse of research data, the transparency and quality of peer review, the collaboration and participation of researchers across disciplines and regions, and the engagement and influence of research on society and policy.

4 How can bibliometrics support research integrity?

Bibliometrics can support research integrity by providing tools and methods that detect and prevent misconduct and malpractice in research. For example, bibliometrics can identify and expose plagiarism, duplication, fabrication, falsification, and manipulation of data and citations, as well as predatory publishing and citation gaming. Bibliometrics can also help to improve the quality and reliability of research by enabling replication, verification, and validation of results, as well as by facilitating peer feedback and recognition.

5 What are the challenges and limitations of bibliometrics?

Bibliometrics is not a perfect or neutral science, and it has some inherent challenges and limitations that need to be addressed. Data quality and coverage can vary in scope, accuracy, timeliness, and interoperability, potentially reflecting biases or gaps in representation. Methodological complexity and diversity also exist, with indicators, algorithms, models, and visualizations having advantages and disadvantages depending on the purpose of the analysis. Additionally, bibliometric results may have unintended or undesired consequences on researchers, institutions, funders, and publishers. It is important to consider the ethical and social implications of bibliometric outputs such as rankings, scores, ratings, and maps as they may create or reinforce inequalities in the research system.

6 How to use bibliometrics responsibly and effectively?

Bibliometrics can be a valuable and powerful tool for supporting open science and research integrity, but should be used with caution and transparency. To ensure quality, reliability, and reproducibility of the bibliometric data and methods, one should use multiple sources, methods, and indicators to capture complexity and diversity of research outputs and processes. It is also important to select metrics and indicators that match the goals, questions, and criteria of the analysis. Contextual information should be used to interpret the bibliometric results. Furthermore, ethical principles and guidelines should be followed to protect the rights of research stakeholders. Finally, transparent and open practices should be used to share the bibliometric data, methods, results, and outputs.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?