Misuse of Bibliometric Indexes Published on International Portals for the Evaluation of Academic Staff at Universities in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract

Background: The scientific researchers have the role of interacting through published articles in scientific journals or presentations at scientific and professional conferences were they can affect the practices that can make achievements to society and country. or worldwide. For this reason, scientists are encouraged after completing the project and finalizing their research investigation to publish scientific work outcomes in professional and scientific journals. Objective: The aim of this article was to describe scientometric and bibliometric indexes and explaine its importance for its evaluation and measuring quality assessment of published papers in scientific journals deposited in scientific indexed databases. Also, author criticaly analized advantages and disadvantages of current bibliometric portals for creating the list of universities and its accademic staff by counts of deposited articles in databases and number of its citations. Methods: The author searched the most influential online databases and analyzed deposited papers by scientometric/bibliometric indexes, and used a descriptive method to review important facts about scientometrics experiences in scientific and academic practice. The author used facts deposited on the main international portals for analyzing number of citations of deposited scientific papers on Scopus and Google Scholar platform - h-Index and i10-Index and number of citations as basic data fot created top list of most citated scientists in almost of all countries in the world. . Results and Discussion: Bibliometric methods are used for quantitative analysis of written materials. Citation provides guidelines for scientific work because it stimulates scientists to deal with the most current research areas and organizes scientific articles at the world level or shapes and directs them. Citation is influenced by: article quality, understanding of the article, language in which the article is written, loyalty to a group of researchers, article type, etc. Some indicators used in evaluating scientific work are Impact factor (IF); Citation of the article; Journal citations; Number and order of authors, etc. The index factor of influence depends on the quality of the journal, the language in which it was printed, the area it covers, and the journal distribution system. Finaly, three portals and its plaforms (Webometrics, "AD Scientific Index" and Stanford Bibliometric List) are not fully relevant for measuring quality assessment of universities and its academic staff, even as potentialy members of academies of sciences, like it used in the past. They need to improve in the future. In this article, we pointed out that h-Index and Google Scholar indexes for present valuable measures to determine scientific excellence. These criteria should be necessary for quality assessment of the scientific curriculum of scientists and their published papers in journals when experts of indexed databases like Medline, PMC, Scopus, etc., do reviews during the evaluation of applied journals for potentially including indexed databases. Conclusion: Current academies and academicians can propose criteria how improve indexing scientific papers with the consultation of scientific bodies and experts at universities in one country, selected regions, or worldwide. Only quality research with exact results offers the scientific community new information about the examined problem and the researcher’s personal satisfaction, and opening opportunities to receive critical reviews of those who have insight into the research.