Essential Science Indicators® provides Internet access to a unique and comprehensive compilation of essential science performance statistics and science trends. The chief indicators of output, or productivity, are journal article publication counts. For influence and impact measures, Essential Science Indicators employs both total citation counts and cites per paper scores. The former reveals gross influence while the latter shows weighted influence, also called impact.
It is important to recognize that the data in Essential Science Indicators are limited to Thomson Scientific-indexed journal articles only. No books, book chapters, or articles published in journals not indexed by Thomson Scientific are taken into account here, either in terms of publication or citation counts.
Types of Data
Types of data featured in Essential Science Indicators include most cited scientist rankings, institutional (university, corporate, government research lab) rankings, national rankings, and journal rankings. Brief editorial discussions that provide guidance on data analysis and interpretation enhance the tables, charts, and other data sets presented in the product. Another unique feature is the listing of research areas called Research Fronts, algorithmically derived topics reflecting research intensive and breakthrough areas of current science. An editorial feature called Special Topics gives special attention to selected areas of research.
Highly cited papers and hot papers have been selected based on percentile rankings specific to fields of science and specific time periods. While highly cited papers are chosen from the most recent 10 years of data, hot papers focus on very recent papers (from the past 2 years) that show an unusual rate of citation in the current period. Both highly cited and hot papers are searchable by a variety of attributes.
Data is updated every two to four months.
Links to Web of Science
At the level of individual research papers, you will find links to Web of Science® where more detailed information on papers is found, including abstracts, if available. These links appear, for example, in the listings of most cited papers in specific fields.
The connection Essential Science Indicators has with Web of Science is further enhanced by the presentation in the product of baseline citation data (citation count norms, averages, and percentiles by field and journal) to aid in the interpretation of absolute, or raw, citation counts obtained from Web of Science. To further this type of analysis, Thomson Scientific also supplies a guide to undertaking publication and citation analysis.
Access to Web of Science® is available only to users at institutions with subscriptions to Web of Science.
Editorial Content
Editorial content from archived issues (more than one year old) of Science Watch® is also available in Essential Science Indicators, as well as commentaries on most cited scientists, papers, institutions, and journals, and on research trends from the scientific community itself. Of special note are the citation classic commentaries, brief autobiographic vignettes on the background of breakthrough research papers that went on to be highly cited in their fields. This entire section, called in-cites, offers readers entry into a virtual community of scientists engaged in writing what is, in effect, the history of current and recent science.
Special Topics
Special Topics provides citation analyses and expert commentary for selected scientific research areas that have experienced notable recent advances as indicated in the product. The data presented include citation rankings for scientists, institutions, nations, and journals as well as interviews and commentary by prominent scientists.
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Essential Science Indicators covers a multidisciplinary selection of over 8,500 journals from around the world.