Getting cited

A major criterion used by Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) is the number of citations researchers in a university get in scholarly journals and books.

This is the way the process works. A scholar writes a book or journal article. Another scholar refers to that book or article. The citation by the second scholar is listed by Thomson ISI, Scopus, and similar databases. The more citations by the second and succeeding scholars a book or article receives, the higher the score is for the university of the original scholar.

Since ISI or Scopus cannot cover all the books and journals being published every year (not even Google Scholar does), there are a number of journals that are considered major. These are the only ones actually covered by the databases. (There is a theory justifying the choice of only a few journals. Early this year, I argued in Canada against this outdated theory.) These journals are known as ISI or Scopus journals.

Libraries around the world, not having enough money to subscribe to the more than 36,000 journals, limit their subscriptions to the ISI or Scopus-listed journals. This means that scholars cite only articles in these journals, not those in non-listed journals. There is, then, a Catch-22 situation here for us: in order for Philippine journals to be listed, they must be read by foreign scholars, but foreign scholars cannot read them unless they are already listed.

One way to break this impasse is to send complimentary copies to libraries around the world. This is extremely expensive, and our universities cannot afford to do this while waiting to be cited.

An easier and less expensive way is to go online. There are a number of Philippine journals online (those published by Ateneo, IRRI, UP, to cite a few), but with the billions of websites online, there is little chance for these journals to be included by Google Scholar on its first few search pages.

One solution is something that I am currently trying to push. There is an NGO in London called International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP). It puts journals from underread countries on their website, thus ensuring greater visibility on the Web. I have already obtained the commitment of INASP to include our journals on its site.

The INASP Philippine representative is Lourdes David of Ateneo’s Rizal Library. David and I have written to most Philippine universities to have their journals included in a project I have called Philippine Journals Online.

Asia-Pacific College has offered to host the journals on its IBM and SM-funded state-of-the-art computers. C&E Publishing has offered to translate the articles in the journals to a form readable by Open Journal Systems, the open-source software developed by Canada and used by INASP.

Once our journals are online and retrievable via London and Google Scholar, we can expect scholars around the world to read us and eventually to cite us. If citation is the name of the game, this is the way to compete.

Another THES criterion is the number or percentage of international teachers in a university. Having taught in various universities abroad, I know how important it is for “locals” to interact with visiting professors. Inbreeding or having only locals teaching locals is the worst thing that can happen to a university, since it is the equivalent of marrying only within one’s clan. There are many ways, not all of them expensive, to get foreigners to teach in our universities.

The last THES criterion is the number or percentage of international students in a university. This is one way to solve two problems at the same time. The first is income. International students bring in foreign currency. The second is the use of English. The simplest way to encourage Filipino students to practice speaking English on campus is to let them have international students as classmates.

“WORDS OF THE DAY” (English/Filipino) for next week’s elementary school classes: Dec. 17 Monday: 1. hair/abak, 2. rod/abaaw, 3. thumb/abalone, 4. fertile/abraso, 5. engine/abwang, 6. argue/abnormal; Dec. 18 Tuesday: 1. comb/beach, 2. soap/benta, 3. tight/belo, 4. frequent/bibingka, 5. berry/binat, 6. chemical/beautician; Dec. 19 Wednesday: 1. dark/bibe, 2. sock/biik, 3. tired/biyolin, 4. fiesta/bilog, 5. comfort/bentilador, 6. destruction/besobeso; Dec. 20 Thursday: 1. long/bihag, 2. sign/bibo, 3. to/bigkas, 4. balance/bigkis, 5. current/bigatin, 6. harmony/beke; Dec. 21 Friday: 1. look/bibig, 2. taste/bilang, 3. tray/biko, 4. hollow/bihon, 5. between/betis, 6. representative/berso. The numbers after the dates indicate grade level. The dates refer to the official calendar for public elementary schools. For definitions of the words in Filipino, consult UP Diksiyonaryong Filipino.