Analysis of the Webometric Indicators of the Main Websites that Aggregate Multithematic Scientific Information

Abstract

A rationale is provided for the importance of assessing the availability, volumes, and relevance of scientific and technical information (STI) on content-aggregator websites. It is suggested that STI be classified into two groups: scientific information and engineering/technical information. Based on certain categorization principles described in this article, content-aggregator websites are divided into 33 categories. A discussion is given of the possibilities and drawbacks of the webometrics methodology that is used in Russia to evaluate websites with scientific content. A new methodology is proposed for evaluating the volumes and relevance of information on aggregator websites of scientific content. The proposed methodology has been tested on the websites of several leading foreign and Russian organizations aggregating multithematic scientific information. A discussion is given about the place of these websites in the global and Russian scientific infospace, the composition and sources of the scientific information aggregated on the websites, the terms of access to this information, and whether and how these websites use systems for calculating scientometric indicators. The webometric indicators are presented and discussed for all the websites included in the study.