Citation Count APIs

A couple of weeks ago Stuart Lewis disseminated to the repository community some work he had been doing on a citation count API for use in repositories. The API created by Stuart creates a plug-in to a repository item record showing the citation count for that item in the SCOPUS bibliographic index. The API works by matching the DOI included in the repository item record with the DOI in the SCOPUS record for the same item. Discussion within the mailing lists however, highlighted that it would be fairly easy to extend the API to match with an item’s title/ author/ year etc. if DOIs are not consistently present within repository item records. A blog post about the API and how to implement it within a repository can be found within Stuart’s blog. Further examples of how the citation count API can be used are available from the SCOPUS website.

An example of the SCOPUS citation count API in action within a repository record can be seen from The HKU (University of Hong Kong) Scholars Hub . This item record example also has citation counts for the item within Web of Science. Through some Google searching I hunted down the following blog post by Jonathan Rochkind at John Hopkins University highlighting the application of the “Link Article Match Retrieval Service” (described at the bottom of the webpage). If your institution has a subscription to WoS, this API will provide you with the citation counts for an item matched by DOI/ author/ title for use within a repository record.

The use of citation counts within repository item records can be extremely useful within the forthcoming REF as a way of demonstrating the level of ‘Impact’ an item has had. It can also be a way of enabling institutions to select the publications they wish to put forward for the REF, highlighting a well received piece of research.

The APIs described above will give you the total citation counts for the item within those specific bibliographic databases. For some institutional reporting the citation counts per year are necessary but specific subscriptions to WoS and SCOPUS services are necessary to access these.


If you would like more information about the use and implementation of citation count APIs within your repository please contact the WRN Team at wrnstaff@aber.ac.uk.

Statistics follow up

Following on from previous posts about statistics and how to use them there have been a few more ideas circulating the community which I thought we'd share with you:

Firstly, Jenny Delasalle from Warwick has posted some further thoughts on using Google Analytics on the WRAP Repository Blog . The idea of sending out monthly email communications to the authors of the top downloads from within the repository is an inspiring way of generating institutional awareness of your content.

Secondly, William Nixon of Enlighten has shared the methods he uses with Google Analytics to create a top 100 list of search terms and phrases which they then promote on their repository. Full details appeared on the UKCoRR mailing list.

Please contact us via wrnstaff@aber.ac.uk if you'd like to learn more about using Google Analytics with your repository.

News round up

A round up of a few news items for your attention ...

Welsh Repository Network - now on Wikipedia!
In order to increase our online presence and engage with Web 2.0 methods of communication we have now added a page all about the WRN to Wikipedia.

Study on links between repositories and OPACS
A new study has been published on the links between repositories and OPACS. The JISC-funded ‘Online catalogue and repository interoperability study’ carried out by the Centre for Digital Library Research at the University of Strathclyde suggests that although there is overlap between the types of information resources recorded in library catalogues and repositories, these overlaps are rarely apparent to the information seeker. This is because both types of system need to be searched separately as there is no interlinking. The study offers practical advice for universities looking to make improvements in this area.

Article on Open Access in the Times Higher
Learning to share
12 November 2009
By Zoë Corbyn, Matthew Reisz

This major and potentially significant article on the Open Access debate appeared in the Times Higher last week. (Link may need a subscription to the THE)

Buli's Crazy Tuesday

So Gee is @ home writing this because he love’s Buli to bit’s.

She don’t know that she is on here but, we as the Thesis Social Jam Sessions woul love to wish her a very blessed Happy Birthday. May she see many more.

Like we do… It’s was a crazy Tuesday down @ the concept store.

Happy Birthday Buli.

Jumble Rumble Round 7

News just in… Thesis will be involved at the Jumble Rumble round 7 taking place at the Nike Gallery on 4^th this Saturday the 7^thof November. What’s that?????

Jumble Rumble is the brainchild of Mome (Cream Cartel. Vuzu) and Mkay, who both work at the Gallery on 4^th. This event is like a flea market that is specifically aimed at showcasing street brands in JHB. This helps in brand awareness (awe ala dushie style) and gives people a chance to interact with their brands. Thesis is glad that it’s a part of this… Hope to see you there. The is an after party (Mome’s Birthday party). So you can shake that ass after buying that class_ic t-shirt from you local brand.

More information on the flier.

Shafiq Husayn_En' A-Free Kah

This is our first review… Musically that’s it.

Shafiq Husayn is 1/3 of the world renowned collective Sa-Ra creative. Just recently, Erykah Badu enlisted Shafiq to produce and guide her latest album New Amerykah: Part One (4th World War), which has garnered the singer the most critical praise since her debut. As the official song writer of Erykah Badu, Shafiq’s music is full of spiritual messages. Over the years Husayn has worked with Afrika Bambatta, Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, Jurassic 5 and many more. He was also a member of Ice T’s Rhyme Syndicate. This is his first album away from the collective. What he delivers is a highly acclaimed album that is highly recommended by most dj’s like Benji B and Lefto. There are more than 30 contributors on the record including Bilal, Count Bass D, Fatima, and Sonny Coates. The end result is the work of an artist at the top of his game. The track Nirvana also has a Mark de Clive lowe remix that should see the light of day soon.

If you are crazy about music and the whole funk, hip hop and soul vibe, then this is a must have album. It will calm you down… Oh we know that you like getting down.

Text Mining for Scholarly Communications and Repositories Joint Workshop

The Text Mining workshop was held in Manchester on 28-29th October 2009 and focused on the challenges and priorities associated with integrating text mining technologies in applications to support scholarly communication and repository initiatives. With the vast amounts of information now available on the internet, the benefits provided by text mining for discovering relevant documents have become increasingly significant.

Professor Tony Hey presented the keynote and he spoke about the need for more intelligent data discovery in a multi-disciplinary and collaborative way for Science to move from data and information towards knowledge (DIKW). These complex technologies have been applied successfully to the Science domains, particularly chemistry and medicine and are being adopted by BioMedCentral and Elsevier. Rafael Sidi from Elsevier again spoke of information overload and the importance of building applications on top of content using open Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). This would allow interoperability and collaboration between publishers' collections and the potential for free access to content with subscriptions for the added services.

Emma Tonkin's overview of the FixRep Project at UKOLN that is examining text mining techniques for automated metadata extraction was particularly relevant to the repository world. Presentations are now available online at The National Centre for Text Mining.