Bibliometric measures in social sciences and humanities from different sources based on Brazilian data

Abstract

The objective of this paper was to determine what type of information is available for journal article production from different sources, especially for Brazilian researchers in the areas of humanities (H) and social sciences (SS), and Letters, Literature and Arts (LLA). This paper looks at the various dimensions of the SS, H, and LLA impact using data from four databases (InCites based on Web of Science/Carivate Analytics, SciVal based on Scopus/Elsevier, Scielo and Redalyc). The four databases show low overlap. A large proportion of Brazilian papers in Incites and Scival are published in a low percentage of journals in these databases, with a high percentage of journals having a few papers each. SS, H and LLA have fewer papers per journal, fewer authors per paper and LLA cite fewer papers than the other areas of knowledge. They also take longer to accumulate citations, and the behaviour of citations in Scielo differs from those in Incites and SciVal. The largest number of downloads of Brazilian papers from Redalyc is from the USA. Different databases show different citation patterns and impacts. The quantity and quality of production of Brazilian science in SSH areas are improving and can show high-impact research and prominence worldwide. Nevertheless, relevant themes for Brazil may not have the same importance internationally. Therefore, evaluation in these areas should not be limited to international databases. Recognising these differences does not imply negative conclusions regarding the international insertion of Brazilian human and social sciences.