Webometrics
Encyclopedia
The science of webometrics (also cybermetrics) tries to measure the World Wide Web
to get knowledge about the number and types of hyperlink
s, structure of the World Wide Web
and usage patterns. According to Björneborn and Ingwersen (2004), the definition of webometrics is "the study of the quantitative aspects of the construction and use of information resources, structures and technologies on the Web drawing on bibliometric
and informetric
approaches." The term webometrics was first coined by Almind and Ingwersen (1997). A second definition of webometrics has also been introduced, "the study of web-based content with primarily quantitative methods for social science research goals using techniques that are not specific to one field of study" (Thelwall, 2009), which emphasises the development of applied methods for use in the wider social sciences. The purpose of this alternative definition was to help publicise appropriate methods outside of the information science discipline rather than to replace the original definition within information science.
Similar scientific fields are Bibliometrics
, Informetrics
, Scientometrics
, Virtual ethnography
, and Web mining
.
One relatively straightforward measure is the "Web Impact Factor" (WIF) introduced by Ingwersen (1998). The WIF measure may be defined as the number of web pages in a web site receiving links from other web sites, divided by the number of web pages published in the site that are accessible to the crawler. However the use of WIF has been disregarded due to the mathematical artifacts derived from power law distributions of these variables. Other similar indicators using size of the institution instead of number of webpages have been proved more useful.
There is one electronic journal, Cybermetricshttp://www.cindoc.csic.es/cybermetrics/ published since 1997 by the Spanish National Research Council, that is devoted entirely to this discipline.
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
to get knowledge about the number and types of hyperlink
Hyperlink
In computing, a hyperlink is a reference to data that the reader can directly follow, or that is followed automatically. A hyperlink points to a whole document or to a specific element within a document. Hypertext is text with hyperlinks...
s, structure of the World Wide Web
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
and usage patterns. According to Björneborn and Ingwersen (2004), the definition of webometrics is "the study of the quantitative aspects of the construction and use of information resources, structures and technologies on the Web drawing on bibliometric
Bibliometrics
Bibliometrics is a set of methods to quantitatively analyze scientific and technological literature. Citation analysis and content analysis are commonly used bibliometric methods...
and informetric
Informetrics
Informetrics is the study of quantitative aspects of information. This includes the production, dissemination and use of all forms of information, regardless of its form or origin...
approaches." The term webometrics was first coined by Almind and Ingwersen (1997). A second definition of webometrics has also been introduced, "the study of web-based content with primarily quantitative methods for social science research goals using techniques that are not specific to one field of study" (Thelwall, 2009), which emphasises the development of applied methods for use in the wider social sciences. The purpose of this alternative definition was to help publicise appropriate methods outside of the information science discipline rather than to replace the original definition within information science.
Similar scientific fields are Bibliometrics
Bibliometrics
Bibliometrics is a set of methods to quantitatively analyze scientific and technological literature. Citation analysis and content analysis are commonly used bibliometric methods...
, Informetrics
Informetrics
Informetrics is the study of quantitative aspects of information. This includes the production, dissemination and use of all forms of information, regardless of its form or origin...
, Scientometrics
Scientometrics
Scientometrics is the science of measuring and analysing science. In practice, scientometrics is often done using bibliometrics which is a measurement of the impact of publications. Modern scientometrics is mostly based on the work of Derek J. de Solla Price and Eugene Garfield...
, Virtual ethnography
Virtual ethnography
Online ethnography refers to a number of related online research methods that adapt ethnographic methods to the study of the communities and cultures created through computer-mediated social interaction...
, and Web mining
Web mining
Web mining - is the application of data mining techniques to discover patterns from the Web.According to analysis targets, web mining can be divided into three different types, which are Web usage mining, Web content mining and Web structure mining.-Web usage mining:Web usage mining is the process...
.
One relatively straightforward measure is the "Web Impact Factor" (WIF) introduced by Ingwersen (1998). The WIF measure may be defined as the number of web pages in a web site receiving links from other web sites, divided by the number of web pages published in the site that are accessible to the crawler. However the use of WIF has been disregarded due to the mathematical artifacts derived from power law distributions of these variables. Other similar indicators using size of the institution instead of number of webpages have been proved more useful.
There is one electronic journal, Cybermetricshttp://www.cindoc.csic.es/cybermetrics/ published since 1997 by the Spanish National Research Council, that is devoted entirely to this discipline.
See also
- Impact factorImpact factorThe impact factor, often abbreviated IF, is a measure reflecting the average number of citations to articles published in science and social science journals. It is frequently used as a proxy for the relative importance of a journal within its field, with journals with higher impact factors deemed...
- PageRankPageRankPageRank is a link analysis algorithm, named after Larry Page and used by the Google Internet search engine, that assigns a numerical weighting to each element of a hyperlinked set of documents, such as the World Wide Web, with the purpose of "measuring" its relative importance within the set...
- Graph theoryGraph theoryIn mathematics and computer science, graph theory is the study of graphs, mathematical structures used to model pairwise relations between objects from a certain collection. A "graph" in this context refers to a collection of vertices or 'nodes' and a collection of edges that connect pairs of...
- Network mappingNetwork MappingNetwork mapping is the study of the physical connectivity of networks. Internet mapping is the study of the physical connectivity of the Internet. Network mapping often attempts to determine the servers and operating systems run on networks...
- Search engineSearch engineA search engine is an information retrieval system designed to help find information stored on a computer system. The search results are usually presented in a list and are commonly called hits. Search engines help to minimize the time required to find information and the amount of information...
- World Wide WebWorld Wide WebThe World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
- Webometrics Ranking of World UniversitiesWebometrics Ranking of World UniversitiesThe Webometrics Ranking of World Universities, also known as Ranking Web of World Universities, is ranking system for the world's universities based on a composite indicator that takes into account both the volume of the Web contents and the visibility and impact of these web publications...