H Index of History journals published in Spain according to Google Scholar Metrics (2007-2011)

TL;DR

This study evaluates Google Scholar Metrics' effectiveness in measuring impact of Spanish history journals, revealing limitations in its current ranking system and proposing improvements for humanities fields.

Contribution

It analyzes GSM's coverage and ranking of Spanish history journals, highlighting its limitations and suggesting design modifications for better field-specific assessment.

Findings

GSM identified 69 journals, covering only 24% of Spanish history journals.

H index ranges are too narrow for effective discrimination.

Proposes redesigning GSM to better suit humanities citation patterns.

Abstract

Google Scholar Metrics (GSM), which was recently launched in April 2012, features new bibliometric systems for gauging scientific journals by counting the number of citations obtained in Google Scholar. This way, it opens new possibilities for measuring journal impacts in the field of Humanities. The present article intends to evaluate the scope of this tool through analysing GSM searches, from the 5th through 6th of December 2012, of History journals published in Spain. In sum, 69 journals were identified, accounting for only 24% of the History journals published in Spain. The ranges of H index values for this field are so small that the ranking can no longer be said to show a discriminating potential. In the light of this, we would like to propose a change in the way Google Scholar Metrics is designed so that it could also accommodate production and citation patterns in the particular field of History, and, in a broader scope, in the area of Humanities as well.