INFORUM 2010

Bibliometric practices and activities at the University of Vienna

Author

Juan Gorraiz, University of Vienna - Library and archive services - Bibliometrics Department, Austria

Co-authors

Christian Gumpenberger, Wolfgang Mayer, University of Vienna, Library and archive services, Bibliometrics Department, Austria

Documents to download

• Presentation

Abstract

A short overview of bibliometric practices at the University of Vienna – especially of the goals and activities of the Bibliometrics Department (like regular bibliometric analyses and services; structuring, enrichment and coordination of high-quality data; consulting for academic management and staff; development partnerships; product analyses; national and international cooperation; etc.) – is given.

Embedding a bibliometrics unit in the organisation of an academic library is a showcase for the importance of this new discipline and for the remarkable uptake in Vienna to respond to this challenge in modern librarianship. One of the new department’s first activities was the development of a service-oriented website (http://bibliometrie.univie.ac.at/). The goal of this website is to inform university staff about the field of bibliometrics in general and about the services provided by the department in particular.

Responding to the lack of a pertinent scientometrics education (especially in Central Europe) and to the increasing demand (particularly of research quality managers), the University of Vienna (A), the Humboldt University of Berlin (D), the Institute for Research Information and Quality Assurance – iFQ – (D) and the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (B) joined cooperatively to launch the European Summer School for Scientometrics (esss) in June 2010 in Berlin.

Author's professional CV

Juan Gorraiz studied physics at the University of Madrid and at the University of Vienna, where he obtained his Doctor’s degree. He is Head of the Document Delivery Services of the Central Library for Physics and of the Bibliometrics Department of the Library and Archive Services, University of Vienna. He is working on bibliometric analysis and studies since 1992 and is furthermore teaching at the university course „Library and Information Studies“. He has been organizer and programme chair of the „10th International Conference on Science & Technical Indicators“ 2008 in Vienna, and is steering committee member of esss (European Summer School for Scientometrics).