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Outlining the scientific activity profile of researchers in the social sciences and humanities in Spain: The case of CSIC

Abstract:

Scientific activity of Social Sciences and Humanities researcher's comprises an assorted set of publication channels such as books, book chapters and national and international journal articles. Since knowledge dissemination in the field is characterised by a greater use of national journals and local languages, international bibliographic databases do not offer a suitable coverage. This work pursues to draw a comprehensive picture of the publication behaviour of CSIC researchers in the Social Sciences and Humanities from a micro-level perspective. For this purpose, Web of Science and an internal CSIC database called 'ConCiencia' were used along with a set of indicators describing the activity profile of researchers as well as the prestige of publication channels. Differences in the publication pattern of researchers in SSH were explored, and the relationship between their research performance and personal features such as age, gender and professional rank were analysed. In the Humanities, researchers with higher academic rank and age showed greater activity in books and non-WoS articles, whereas in the Social Sciences, higher rank was related to internationally-oriented scientific publications and a more collaborative activity. Considering only WoS articles would shrink meaningfully the visibility of CSIC researchers.