Web of Science Book Citation Indices and the Representation of Book <i>and</i> Journal Article Citation in Disciplines with Notable Book Scholarship

Abstract

The Book Citation indices in the Web of Science Core Collection of citation data could be of enormous importance for those scholarly disciplines for which books are major research products.&nbsp;&nbsp;If well constructed and implemented, these indices could better capture the full body of individual scholars’ work than the article citation indices alone do, as well as how that full body of work is recognized by citations from later publications. Individual scholars, their scholarly peers, and book publishers would all benefit from such indices.&nbsp;&nbsp;Yet there is no systematic evidence on how the Book Citation Indices are constructed&nbsp;or&nbsp;on how comprehensively they capture important scholarly work in books.&nbsp;&nbsp;We present original empirical evidence in a case study for the discipline of political science that indicates the Web of Science Book Citation Index is failing to meet its stated ambitions – because it is not well structured to achieve those ambitions&nbsp;and&nbsp;not well marketed to the essential actors in the publishing industry who are critical for it to function as intended.