ON GENERALIZING SCIENTOMETRIC JOURNAL MAPPING BEYOND ISIS JOURNAL ANDCITATION DATABASES

This article presents results of a study on the applicability of journ al mapping of knowledge domains beyond the databases produced by the I nstitute for Scientific Information (ISI). The utility and validity of this generalisation is discussed with an emphasis on its added value in comparison to 'traditional' ISI-based journal maps, i.e. those rest ricted to (predominantly English-language) ISI-covered journals, and j ournal-to-journal citation data retrieved from ISI's Journal Citation Reports. The mapping methodology a as applied to Manufacturing technol ogy and management - a multidisciplinary domain situated on the interf ace of science and technology. The International Journal of Production Economics was singled out as a special case for the validation study of the maps. Results of this study, involving several subject experts, indicate that a journal content-based map was not only far superior t o the journal citation map, but also outperformed the map derived from the combination of both types of data. The selection of periodicals f rom other databases such as COMPENDEX produced a substantial number of additional titles of which only half were also covered by ISI.