Database source coverage: hypes, vital signs and reality checks
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/14684520911001963 |
| Published date | 25 September 2009 |
| Pages | 997-1007 |
| Date | 25 September 2009 |
| Author | Péter Jacsó |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
SAVVY SEARCHING
Database source coverage: hypes,
vital signs and reality checks
Pe
´ter Jacso
´
University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to show that the extent of journal coverage, size and
retrospectivity are three of the most commonly advertised features of database content. However,
these data by themselves rarely provide a good enough sense of the real breadth of database coverage.
Design/methodology/approach – Some easy-to-calculate measures can provide vital signs of
database coverage, which in turn may trigger in-depth analysis at the individual journal level. When
similar vital signs are produced from comparable databases and database segments, as is done for
Arts and Humanities (A&H) sources in Web of Science, Scopus, H.W. Wilson and CSA databases for
this paper, the real dimensions of the source coverage can be much better understood.
Findings – The decision to almost double the number of A&H journals reinforces the concept of
enhancing the breadth of source coverage, obviously at the expense of depth of coverage. It is like
those “If it is Tuesday, it must be Belgium” tours, where the emphasis is on beating the other tours by
advertising more comprehensive coverage of European countries by “virtue” of visiting more countries
in a single afternoon.
Originality/value – For scientometric searches so called “known item” searches are made, and the
more records that are missing from core journals, the more harm is done to the subjects of the search.
In subject searches a few good finds may be fine, but in “known item” searches that is not good
enough. Doubling the cited reference enhanced segment, and eliminating the gaps in, say, the
1975-2009 segment would have been much smarter policy for Scopus.
Keywords Databases, Serials,Indexing services, Abstractingservices
Paper type Viewpoint
The extent of journal coverage, size and retrospectivity are three of the most commonly
advertised features of database content. However, these data by themselves rarely
provide a good enough sense of the real breadth of database coverage. Some
easy-to-calculate measures, however, can provide vital signs of database coverage,
which in turn may trigger in-depth analysis at the individual journal level. When
similar vital signs are produced from comparable databases and database segments, as
was done for Arts and Humanities (A&H) sources in Web of Science, Scopus, H.W.
Wilson and CSA databases for this paper, the real dimensions of the source coverage
can be much better understood.
Introduction
The source coverage of databases has always been a critical aspect in the evaluation of
indexing and abstracting services, even in the print-only era. Many of the classic
evaluation criteria of abstracting journals originate from the print world. For example,
Martyn and Slater’s (1964) article on testing abstracting journals and Lancaster’s (1971)
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Database source
coverage
997
Online Information Review
Vol. 33 No. 5, 2009
pp. 997-1007
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
1468-4527
DOI 10.1108/14684520911001963
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