Abstract:   This paper reviews bibliometric studies of the social sciences and humanities. The premise of the chapter is that quantitative evaluation of research output in the social sciences and humanities faces severe methodological difficulties. Bibliometric evaluations are based on international journal literature indexed in the SSCI, but social scientists also publish books, and write for national journals and for the nonscholarly press. These literatures form distinct, yet partially overlapping worlds in which each literature serves a different purpose. For example, national journals and the non-scholarly press represent research in interaction with contexts of application. Each literature is more trans-disciplinary than its scientific counterpart, which itself poses methodological challenges. The nature and role of each of the literatures will be explored here, and the chapter will argue that by ignoring the three other literatures of social science bibliometric evaluation produces a distorted picture of social science fields.

Keywords:   Bibliometric studies, social sciences, humanities, quantitative evaluation

Publisher:   ILMA UNIVERSITY

Published:   31 May 2005

Issue:   Issue 1 : Volume 1

E-ISSN:   2409-6520

P-ISSN:   2414-8393