Having got past the stage in my academic career where I'm worried about getting published, I'm now worried about whether anyone is actually reading anything I've written. Which is where Google Scholar comes in.
I set up my own citation tracking account a while ago now, something which many other academics seem to be doing as well (see picture below, including nice cheesy headshot). It can be quite helpful: it lets you see who is citing your work, what debates you are actually contributing to, who is writing in what topics, etc. It does, however, lead to a pernicious self-disciplining attitude to scholarship – as I have mentioned before – or maybe it’s just me. Worryingly I find myself judging both my own worth and that of others on the basis of my and their citations – which are now all too easily accessible. The latter is, of course, the most egregious of these activities. I routinely, for example, Google Scholar (to use a non-existent verb) people I meet in order to see how I measure up against them; am I ahead or behind? That sort of thing.
But what has motivated my confession now?
Well, I received an email (see picture below) from the academic publisher SAGE
following the publication of an article (shameless self-promotion
alert!).
Now, in order to try and come to some sort
of rationale for this post – rather than a simple ramble through my psyche – I
want to come back to how all of this might still be useful. For me, it is when
we consider the influence of our work – e.g. who reads it, what debates does it
contribute to, etc.? Even though I think that scholars must do and write
relevant research, I still do not know whether any of my work is actually
relevant. This is where Google Scholar comes in, even if it is a very blunt
tool. It enables me to look at my research and to see whether anyone has found
it useful – that is, has it been cited. What citation data reveals in stark
numbers is the difference between my own judgements of my work and the
judgements of others.
In order to make sense of what I'm talking
about, I am going to go through my journal articles and highlight the
difference between my expectations and actual citation counts. I've classified
them according to their 'performance', for want of a better word, and make a
comment on a range rather than going through them individually.
Done well:
- MacKinnon, D., Cumbers, A., Pike, A., Birch, K. and McMaster, R. (2009) Economic Geography 85(2): 129-150 [Symposium, Evolutionary Economic Geography].
This article has been cited more than any
other of my publications, largely because it is the work of several more senior
scholars and myself as a very junior contributor. A lot of early career
academics seem to have something like this – i.e. a publication that is done
with supervisors, bosses, etc. that receives a significant citation count (total
and yearly) because it is associated with more senior scholars. It’s a very
helpful way to get noticed and a reason why it is important for supervisors,
bosses, etc. to co-author with early career academics.
Done reasonably well:
- Birch, K., MacKinnon, D. and Cumbers, A. (2010) Regional Studies 44(1): 35-53.
- Birch, K. and Mykhnenko, V. (2009) Journal of Economic Geography 9(3): 355-380.
- Birch, K. and Whittam, G. (2008) Regional Studies 42(3): 437-450.
- Birch, K. (2008) Economic Geography 84(1): 83-103.
- Birch, K. (2006) Genomics, Society and Policy 2(3): 1-15.
- Birch, K. (2005) Bioethics 19(1): 12-28.
These
articles have garnered modest citations of between 3-15 per year, although not
every year. In my book this represents a reasonable ‘return’ for the work of an
early-career social scientist. This post, for example, reveals that even
for senior social scientists, the modal average citation count is 0. This
refers to total citations and NOT citations per year. So, anything better than
0 per year is fine by me! What is revealing is checking more senior scholars on
Google Scholar because it shows that many of their papers are actually only
cited about 10 times a year. However, over a lifetime this adds up.
Done
poorly (understandable):
1. Recent
- Birch, K. and Tyfield, D. (2013) Science, Technology and Human Values 38(3): 299-327.
- Levidow, L., Birch, K. and Papaioannou, T. (2013) Science, Technology and Human Values 38(1): 94-125.
- Birch, K. (2012) Science as Culture 21(3): 415-419.
- The SIGJ2 Writing Collective (2012) Antipode 44(4): 1055-1058.
- Birch, K. (2012) New Genetics and Society 31(2): 183-201.
- Levidow, L., Birch, K. and Papaioannou, T. (2012) Critical Policy Studies 6(1): 40-66.
- Birch, K., Levidow, L. and Papaioannou, T. (2010) Sustainability 2(9): 2898-2918.
- Birch, K. (2009) Area 41(3): 273–284.
- Birch, K. (2008) Genomics, Society and Policy 4(2): 1-10.
- Birch, K. (2007) Distinktion 8(1): 83-99.
- Birch, K. (2007) Geography Compass 1(5): 1097-1117.
- Birch, K. and Cumbers, A. (2007) Scottish Affairs 58: 36-56.
- Birch, K. (2007) Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions 8(1): 153-161.
- Birch, K. (2006) Science as Culture 15(3): 173-181 [Guest editor, Biofutures/Biopresents].
This is by far the largest category, as it
probably is for most scholars when you look at citation patterns. Most of these
have not garnered many (if any) citations and this is for two reasons: (1) They
are fairly recent (e.g. 2012-2013) and have not been “picked up” yet, if they
ever will; and (2) they are published in less well-known journals and when I was
less well-known. It is therefore not surprising that they have received only
between 1-10 citations each in total (and many of these are self-citations).
One suggestion to improve the dissemination of research is publishing in open
access forums, which is probably going to become more prevalent over the next
few years. I’ve had mixed experience with this, in terms of citations, but
think it is a great way to reach a wider audience.
Done poorly (disappointing):
- Birch, K. (2011) Growth and Change 42(1): 71-96.
- Birch, K. and Cumbers, A. (2010) Environment and Planning A 42(11): 2581-2601.
The
final category is probably the most perplexing for people. It’s those articles
that you are proud of but have just not been read or cited. For me this
includes two articles from an ESRC-funded project which I thought produced some
really interesting empirical findings that pushed forward theoretical debates
in the area. Neither has been cited more than once by anyone other than myself
(and self-citations don’t count!). I really can’t tell why though. At best
guess it’s because I’ve not tied into any specific debates in the field and so
they don’t make sense to anyone out there.
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