Honouring Canada’s leading physical anthropologists: A citation analysis Ferenc Toth, University of Southampton Introduction
Citation Metrics
Methods
h-Index
This research seeks to honour the leaders of Canadian physical anthropology through citation analysis. Citation analysis is a way to assess the value of publications by analysing the frequency with which a research paper or an author is cited. It can be used to explore how researchers are connected and the influence of their research geographically and across subject disciplines. This poster presents the top 10 Canadian physical anthropology academics through the following categories: number of career citations, number of citations of first-authored papers, h-index, and first-authored h-index. It also presents the 20 most highly cited first-authored publications. Through a constructive application of citation analysis this poster identifies the key Canadian producers of research in our discipline and recognizes their scholarly leadership.
Technology has allowed for advanced methods of citation metrics. Today, large databases actively create a web of citations that link references cited to the original publications (that are also in the database) through hyperlinks. This also allows for the maintenance of updated records to see the total number of times a publication is cited by other authors. Researchers are able to see how many times their publications are used by others and who is citing them.
Sample: Researchers holding primary academic appointments with the ranks of assistant professor, associate professor or professor from universities in Canada were included. A list of academics was gathered by visiting department homepages. The sample also includes recently retired or deceased individuals. The journal publication record was analyzed for 65 academics who are employed at 22 Canadian universities.
The h-Index (short for highly cited index) was developed in 2005 and is an index that is intended to measure productivity and impact of publications of scientists. The value of h is equal to the number of papers (N) that have N or more citations. For example, if an author has an h-index of 10 that means she has written 10 papers that have received 10 citations or more (Hirsch, 2005).
Data collection: The electronic database Scopus (www.scopus.com) was searched between September 23 and October 5, 2011, to obtain citation counts for every publication (contained in the database) of each full-time physical anthropology faculty member at a Canadian university.
Limitations
Table 1. Top 10 Canadian physical anthropology academics based on number of career citations for published journal papers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Name Hendrik Poinar Linda Marie Fedigan Mark Collard Shelley Saunders David Begun Biruté Galdikas Emoke Szathmáry Anne Katzenberg Bernard Chapais Susan Pfeiffer
Affiliation # of citations McMaster University 1905 University of Calgary 1060 Simon Fraser University 887 McMaster University 758 University of Toronto 607 Simon Fraser University 606 University of Manitoba 512 University of Calgary 495 Université de Montréal 421 University of Toronto 390
Table 2. Top 10 Canadian physical anthropology academics based on number of career citations for published firstauthored journal papers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Name Hendrik Poinar David Begun Bernard Chapais Linda Marie Fedigan Shelley Saunders Lisa Gould Anne Katzenberg Mark Collard Mark Skinner Paul Vasey
Institution # of citations McMaster University 730 University of Toronto 431 Université de Montréal 341 University of Calgary 322 McMaster University 283 University of Victoria 269 University of Calgary 265 Simon Fraser University 249 Simon Fraser University 236 University of Lethbridge 223
Analysis: Three types of analyses were performed for each individual: total citation count for all research papers indexed in Scopus, number of citations for each journal publication, and the Scopus h-index.
Table 3. Top 10 Canadian physical anthropology academics based on h-index for published journal papers Name 1 Hendrik Poinar 2 Linda Marie Fedigan 3 Shelley Saunders 4 Mark Collard 5 David Begun 6 Bernard Chapais 7 Anne Katzenberg 8 Mark Skinner 9 Susan Pfeiffer 10 Lisa Gould
Institution McMaster University University of Calgary McMaster University Simon Fraser University University of Toronto Université de Montréal University of Calgary Simon Fraser University University of Toronto University of Victoria
h-index 20 19 15 15 14 13 12 12 12 12
Table 4. Top 10 Canadian physical anthropology academics based on h-index for published first-authored journal papers Name 1 David Begun 2 Bernard Chapais 3 Linda Marie Fedigan 4 Shelley Saunders 5 Mark Skinner 6 Lisa Gould 7 Hendrik Poinar 8 Richard Lazenby 9 Paul Vasey 10 Shawn Lehman
Institution h-index 1st author University of Toronto 12 Université de Montréal 12 University of Calgary 11 McMaster University 11 Simon Fraser University 11 University of Victoria 10 McMaster University 9 University of Northern BC 9 University of Lethbridge 9 University of Toronto 7
This study used the Scopus database which is arguably the best available tool today to gather citation data. However, Scopus mainly indexes periodicals, and does not include most grey literature. Perhaps the biggest drawback for analysing physical anthropology citations through this database is that citations of books and book chapters are excluded. Admittedly, as a consequence some influential publications have unintentionally been excluded.
Table 5. Top 20 most highly cited papers first-authored by Canadian physical anthropology academic 1 2 3
Name Poinar et al., 1996 Poinar et al., 2006 Poinar et al., 1998
Title Amino acid racemization and the preservation of ancient DNA Metagenomics to paleogenomics: Large-scale sequencing of mammoth DNA Molecular coproscopy: Dung and diet of the extinct ground sloth Nothrotheriops shastensis
4
Chisholm et al., 1982
Stable-carbon isotope ratios as a measure of marine versus terrestrial protein in ancient diets
164
5 6 7 8
Collard & Wood, 2000 Katzenberg, 1996 Begun, 1992 Gould et al., 1999
How reliable are human phylogenetic hypotheses? Weaning and infant mortality: Evaluating the skeletal evidence Miocene fossil hominids and the chimp-human clade Natural disasters and primate populations: The effects of a 2-year drought on a naturally occurring population of ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta) in southwestern Madagascar
104 82 70 63
9
Fedigan, 1993
Sex differences and intersexual relations in adult white-faced capuchins (Cebus capucinus)
63
10 11 12 13 14
Lovell, 1997 Galdikas, 1988 Katzenberg & Weber, 1999 Pavelka & Fedigan, 1991 Begun, 1994
Trauma Analysis in Paleopathology Orangutan diet, range, and activity at Tanjung Puting, Central Borneo Stable isotope ecology and palaeodiet in the Lake Baikal region of Siberia Menopause: A comparative life history perspective Relations among the great apes and humans: New interpretations based on the fossil great ape Dryopithecus
63 61 61 58 57
15 Galdikas & Wood, 1990 16 Vasey, 1995 17 Saunders et al., 1992
Birth spacing patterns in humans and apes Homosexual behavior in primates: A review of evidence and theory A test of several methods of skeletal age estimation using a documented archaeologicl sample
56 55 53
18 Poinar & Stankiewicz, 1999 19 Saunders & Fitzgerald, 1993
Protein preservation and DNA retrieval from ancient tissues Age differences in stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios in a population of prehistoric maize horticulturists Ontogeny and homoplasy in the papionin monkey face
51 50
20 Collard & O'Higgins, 2001
References: Hirsch, J. (2005). An index to quantify an individual's scientific research output. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA. 102(46):16569–16572. Acknowledgements: Thank you to Dr. Nancy Lovell and Thane Chambers for their advice and help with this project.
# of citations 193 186 171
49
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