Sciencebased research published in SCI journals

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Science-based research published in SCI journals

• Ng Seik Weng
• Department of Chemistry
• University of Malaya
• Kuala Lumpur
• Malaysia

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The publication should give compact, useful and
timely information.
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Doomsday machine or benefactor? A vindication.
L.M. Jones (1974). Journal of Irreproducible
Results, 20, 2-14.

• Date Thick Weight Width Length Area Density
• June 1959 7.73 402.15 17.33 25.34 439.1 1.185
• August 1961 7.02 370.28 17.49 25.39 444.1 1.188
• May 1962 7.70 408.72 17.51 25.35 443.9 1.196
• October 1962 7.27 388.50 17.48 25.44 444.7 1.202
  
• May 1963 7.58 396.15 17.43 25.32 441.3 1.184
• April 1966 7.99 422.60 17.55 25.35 444.9 1.190
• July 1971 6.52 342.72 17.36 25.31 439.4 1.196
• Nov 1971 6.95 371.49 17.54 25.48 446.5 1.196
• Nov 1971 7.05 373.71 17.51 25.50 446.5 1.187
• January 1973 6.05 324.75 17.49 25.38 443.9 1.209
• The time it would take to accumulate a thickness
  of National Geographic sufficient to depress the
  crust 100 feet would be 24.92 x 109 years.

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Cash is not in this machine!

• ATM robbers steal check deposit machine from
  bank in Bukit Mertajam
• (9 August 2006)

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The African speed trap
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300-year da Vinci vs. 6-week Nagyvary Blind test
at Texas AM (2003)
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One reason reviewers reject papers
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Ig Nobel prizes

• to reward those research projects that first
  make people laugh, and then make them think..
  (Nature)

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The Web of Science search engine

• is a search engine for scientific information.
• UMs subscription covers 2001 present

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The Science Citation Index

• The 6400 (science) journals are ranked by Impact
  Factors.
• The Impact Factors are published in Journal
  Citation Reports.

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Impact Factors vary with time
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Types of publications
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Subject variation of impact factors
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Impact Factors (2006) of American journals are
higher.

• Inorg. Chem. 3.91
• Eur. J. Inorg. Chem. 2.70
• Chin. J. Inorg. Chem. 0.58
• Russ. J. Inorg. Chem. 0.18
• J. Org. Chem. 3.79
• Eur. J. Org. Chem. 2.77
• Chin. J. Org. Chem. 0.74
• Russ. J. Org. Chem. 0.49

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Age of citation for articles published in 2003
for four fields
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The Impact Factor refers to the journal, not the
paper itself.

• Significance of a paper is judged by the number
  of citations
• Reputation of the author is judged by the
  citationspapers ratio

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Our Malaysian journals

• J. Trop. For. Sci.
• Malays. J. Comput. Sci.
• Malays. J. Libr. Inf. Sci.

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Impact Factors and Carats

• 0.5 carat 1,000
• 1.0 carat 5,000
• 2.0 carats 15,000
• 3.0 carats 50,000

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The core of research is in biomedical sciences

• Research on the auto immune system will always
  dominate science.
• Some research topics will always be at the
  periphery
• tin is a less common metal,
• allergies are not life-threatening, ..
• and there will be a market for cook books.

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Citations (to a paper)

• An authors first paper will have zero citation.
• The citations/author ratio

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Hot fields
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The cold fusion paper 500 citations

• M. Fleischmann, S. Pons M. Hawkins (1989). J.
  Electroanal. Chem. Interface, 261, 301-308.

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Citations vary among fields

• Mathematics 1 (normalized)
• Engineering/technology 5
• Biology 8
• Earth/space sciences 9
• Chemistry 15
• Physics 19
• Biomedical Research 78
• Clinical Medicine 78

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Impact factors do not take into account
self-citations (about one third).

• P.O. Seglen (1997). Citation and journal
  impact factors questionable indicators of
  research quality. Allergy, 52, 1050-1056.

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Some assessors exclude self-citations

• Some reviewers request authors to reduce the
  number of self-citations.
• Authors should be discouraged from self-citation.

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Citations are a matter of life and death to some
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Citations-per-faculty indicator(20 of QS World
Ranking score)

• Web of Science
• Scorpus
• Scholar Google

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Online articles are more cited.
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Generalized citation curve
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An example of a paper that has not been cited

• Refinement of disordered crystal structure

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• What is the number of citations for an
  researcher?

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Collaboration

• improves the quality of research.

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• Angew. Chem. 10.23
• Chem. Eur. J. 5.02
• Chem. Commun. 4.52
• Cryst. Growth Des. 4.34
• Inorg. Chem. 3.91
• CrystEngComm 3.72
• Dalton Trans. 3.01
• Eur. J. Inorg. Chem. 2.70
• J. Inorg. Biochem. 2.65
• J. Solid State Chem. 2.11
• Acta Cryst. E 0.57

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Highly cited papers

• As of February 2009
• Tong et al., Inorg. Chem. (1998) 226
• Tao et al., Chem. Commun. (2000) 231
• Ng et al., J. Organomet. Chem. (1988) 83
• Ng et al., J. Organomet. Chem. (1987) 56

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• Honorary professorships
• Central China Normal University, East China
  University of ST, Fuyang Normal College,
  Guangdong Ocean University, Guangxi Normal
  University, Guangzhou University, Harbin Normal
  University, Heilongjiang University, Jiangxi ST
  Normal University, Jilin Normal University,
  Luoyang Normal University, Northeast Normal
  University, Northwest University, Qingdao
  University of ST, Qufu Normal University,
  Shantou University, Shanxi Normal University,
  Shanxi University, Wenzhou University, Xianning
  College, Yangzhou University, Yunnan University,
  Zhejiang Normal University, Zhengzhou University
  

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The h-index

• for quantifying research output

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The Herfindahl index

• The Herfindahl index is a measure of the size of
  firms in relation to the industry.
• The h-index indicates the amount of competition.
  It gives more weight to larger firms.

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h-Index for a person, department, faculty,
university

• The back files of SCI go back to 2001 only.
• A five-year evaluation will not capture older
  publications.

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Hirshs h-index (2005)

• measures the cumulative impact of a researchers
  output by looking at the amount of citations
• is preferable to e.g., number of papers, number
  of citations and citations per paper.
• corrects for one hit wonders.
• However, a single number cannot describe a
  research completely, and an academic must publish
  a lot to get a high h-index.

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Measures of achievement

• Number of papers published
• Number of citations
• Mean number of citations
• Number of papers with h citations

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Publish or Perish

• Applying for a job or for promotion? 
• Show proof of impact of research?
• Show proof that work appears in non ISI
  journals?

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Last words from chairman emeritus of ISI

• Of the 4500 covered by SCI and SSCI, 3000 are
  biomedical journals.
• 500 journals account for 50 of what is published
  and 75 of what is cited.

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Conceptual design

• New thing?
• New construction?
• New system?
• Systems being compared with?
• Or only an idea?

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Know where to publish

• Is work suitable
• for the journal?
• Is level too high?
• Will review take too long?

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Too much to handle - robbers ditched RM2.7m as
getaway car was too small

• Robbers did not realize was that the money
  filled 15 sacks.
• NST 30 September 2008

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First example and when not to publish a
Communication

• 1st example can be published as communication.
• 2nd example will go to a lower level, and more
  work to be added.
• May not be worthwhile to publish full paper.

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J. Am. Chem. Soc.

• A journal of general chemistry found in most
  libraries

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Journal of Molecular Structure
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By the 1990s, the field of organotin chemistry
has become mature.

• Organotin chemicals were blamed for the
  deformation of oysters which led to less
  funding for research.

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Saccharin

• Although saccharin has been used for more than
  150 years, its exact chemical structure is
  unknown.

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Sodium valproate
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A quick guide to significance of your own draft

• The high impact-factor references in the
  discussion will underscore the importance.
• The year will show that the field is current.

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Glucosamine

• Glucosamine C6H12NO5 179.0
• Hydrochloride C6H13NO5HCl 215.6
• Sulfate C6H13NO5HSO4 277.3
• Sulfate NaCl C6H13NO5HSO4.NaCl 286.5
• Sulfate KCl C6H13NO5HSO4.KCl 302.6

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Hopefully, drugs can be encapsulated into
molecular bowls

• Curcubit-6-uril

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Mad scientists no more
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after all is said and done

• Size matters how height affects the health,
  happiness and success of boys
• (Stephen S. Hall Houghton Mifflin)

(Taller people are smarter than shorter ones.)
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Thank you