Edited Volumes, Monographs, and Book Chapters in the Book Citation Index (BKCI) and Science Citation Index (SCI, SoSCI, A&HCI)

TL;DR

This paper analyzes citation patterns and indexing practices for books and book chapters in the Book Citation Index and Science Citation Index, highlighting differences in citation impact and categorization.

Contribution

It provides a detailed exploration of how books and chapters are indexed and cited in major citation databases, and discusses implications for scientometric evaluations.

Findings

Book chapters in edited volumes are highly cited.

Books are less cited than chapters, possibly due to slower circulation.

Monographs can be distinguished from edited volumes using scientometric methods.

Abstract

In 2011, Thomson-Reuters introduced the Book Citation Index (BKCI) as part of the Science Citation Index (SCI). The interface of the Web of Science version 5 enables users to search for both "Books" and "Book Chapters" as new categories. Books and book chapters, however, were always among the cited references, and book chapters have been included in the database since 2005. We explore the two categories with both BKCI and SCI, and in the sister social sciences (SoSCI) and the arts & humanities (A&HCI) databases. Book chapters in edited volumes can be highly cited. Books contain many citing references but are relatively less cited. This may find its origin in the slower circulation of books than of journal articles. It is possible to distinguish between monographs and edited volumes among the "Books" scientometrically. Monographs may be underrated in terms of citation impact or overrated using publication performance indicators because individual chapters are counted as contributions separately in terms of articles, reviews, and/or book chapters.