STEDEX '09THE CITATION-INDEXING MYTHIn this section, we will first describe the background of the arts and humanities indexes before explaining the faculty’s strategy. The Office of the Deputy Dean of Research was instructed by the Dean to prepare some strategies to overcome the publication problem prior to the 5th December 2008 workshop. Many internet searches by staff about indexing in environmental design studies strongly pointed to several indexes involving arts and humanities. Among the prominent ones are the Arts and Humanities Index (AHI) in SCOPUS and the Arts and Humanities Citation Index (A&HCI) under the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI). The ISI is now called Thomson Reuters Scientific. More in-depth searches—limited by what were available at UPM’s library on both indexes and other open sources—had given us insights on how different these indexes were from the norm Sciences Citation Index (SCI) or the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI). Indeed, our most profound finding and most welcoming was to know that the A&HCI is at par as one of the three major indexes of Thomson Reuter Scientific’s Web of Science (WoS). It has now become our targeted opportunity to publish to be counted as a citation-indexed article. We quote Testa (2006) who did an analysis of the WoS index to provide a view about the A&HCI for readers below: “Art and Humanities Citation Index. The A&HCI covers 1123 journals. Although they all meet Thomson Scientific selection criteria, citations in the Arts and Humanities do not necessarily follow the same pattern as citations to social sciences and natural sciences articles. In addition, arts and humanities journal articles frequently reference non-journal sources (e.g., books, musical compositions, works of art and literature).Consequently, citation data, while sometimes useful, are frequently much less important in journal evaluations in the arts and the humanities.” - Testa (2006, p. 137)
From our neighbouring Chulalongkorn University in Thailand, we quote from its database’s website on one prominent indexed database to allow readers another glimpse of the breadth of the arts and humanities indexes. “Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals. AIAP… the only comprehensive American guide to the current literature of architectural and design, surveys more than 2,500 U.S. foreign journals. Three-fourth of these is not indexed in any other source. This database covers the international scholarly and popular periodical literature, including the publications of professional associations, U.S. state and regional periodicals, and major serial publications in the architecture and design of Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Australia….approximately 400 current and over 1000 retrospective architectural and related periodicals with primary emphasis on architectural design and history but coverage as well of archaeology, landscape architecture, interior design, furniture and decorative arts, garden history, historic preservation, city planning, urban design, real estate development and environmental studies….” - www.car.chula.ac.th/curef-do/
It was indeed a totally different worldview these arts and humanities indexes had given us and their contents shamed us for not giving enough credit to their very existences. It is very unfortunate that UPM does not fully subscribe to the A&HCI, thereby not giving similar accord to journals and databases in arts and humanities for counterchecking in Thomson Reuters’s listing. On the other hand, perhaps design academicians are so naïve about design research that we had historically saw our path being set up by other dominant scientists and researchers in the university. Discussions with peers in other local and foreign universities also confirm that our faculty is not alone in facing similar problem. It is going to be a nightmare to design academicians trying surviving in a research university establishment. We will never admit that we are experts on information sciences, but we now do have some knowledge on how to utilise these newfound indexes to our advantages which we believe will facilitate faculty to support UPM’s research university’s status. The late Robert L. Hayne, ISI’s Chief Editor, had asked Eugene Garfield in 1977 to never forget to mention that “the history of science is replete with great scientists who combined both art and science to produce the quintessence of both”. Eugene Garfield is the Founder and Chairman Emeritus of ISI, now Thomson Reuters. He gave the example of Leonardo da Vinci (combining mathematics and arts) and Isaac Newton (combining philosophy and science). In an article about establishing the A&HCI in ISI in 1977, Garfield ponders whether it would revolutionise scholarship. The A&HCI was eventually introduced in 1978 by ISI then after a two-year intensive marketing research program to determine its needs. Garfield describes a worldwide survey ISI had undertaken and found that “the arts and humanities, no less than the sciences, need a large-scale index that provides multi-disciplinary coverage; an up-to-date service issued on a current basis and cumulated annually would be welcomed; and there was widespread belief in the potential effectiveness of citation and title-word indexing in arts and humanities information retrieval”. In fact, he also commented that the A&HCI “will index “implicit” citations, which occur when an article refers to and substantially discusses a specific work but does not formally cite it. Even reproduced works of art and music scores will be picked up as implicit citations,with a code indicating that the “cited” work is an illustration”. However, due to the ambiguity surrounding “implicit” citations, Garfield acknowledges the challenge of defining the arts and humanities. The A&HCI needs to consider the wide variety of items in the form of articles, book reviews, review articles, bibliographies, letters, record and performance reviews, literary criticisms and works of fiction such as stories, plays and poems. Therefore, it is pertinent that design schools or faculties must convince and direct their universities to confer similar recognitions as their scientists and social science researchers. «« BACK |
