Pero Sipka

Publications

• Hot rhetorics and cool reality: A contribution to the testing of the general sociometric-scientometric hypothesis

  Sipka, Pero

  Socioloski pregled. 01/2010; 44:283-308.

  The background of the extremely hostile rhetoric of a small group of local ethnologist in their alleged criticism of using scientometrics in research evaluation in Serbia was studied using publicly available data. Assuming absurdity of the 'criticism' is self-evident, the study was focused a... [more] The background of the extremely hostile rhetoric of a small group of local ethnologist in their alleged criticism of using scientometrics in research evaluation in Serbia was studied using publicly available data. Assuming absurdity of the 'criticism' is self-evident, the study was focused around their latent motivation, rather than manifest content of the accusations. Taking as starting point the position of person who was recognized as the inspirer of 'criticism', the citation network of sociocognitively related authors was identified and mapped by using multidimensional scaling. Network partitioning based on successive introduction of various criteria resulted in four groups with centrally positioned Core, containing Hard Core in the middle. Citation rate and citation habits of the Hard Core, were analyzed in comparison with other network groups and suitable controls. To complete the Core portrait, methodological character of the papers appearing in a journal they mainly publish in, as well as the content of the university methodological syllabi they are responsible for, was analyzed, also comparatively. The results revealed the explosive growth of the citation rate of the group, particularly evident for the Hard Core. The growth is based on excessive (instrumental, manipulative) mutual citation exchange, taking mostly place in the two journals published by the group's affiliated institution. The two prominent group members making Hard Core and profiting most from overcitation, who are at the same time the 'critics' of scientometrics, are found to be indulged also in other forms of misconduct, characteristic of social climbers inflating their research performance. Based on the results, a few hypothetical explanations for their fabricated criticism were offered. Regardless of the viability of these explanations the results suggest that citation behavior can be motivated by social group reasons, supporting general scientometric-sociometric hypothesis, and jeopardizing citation rate as an indicator. On the other hand, the methods used show that such misbehaviors are detectable, while their ill consequences are manageable.

• Integrating information resources intended for evaluation of research performance

  P. Sipka

  Proceedings of SNTPI '09 Sistem naucno-tehnoloskih i poslovnih informacija, June 19-20th, Belgrade; 01/2009

  Integration of S&T information, understood as a social process, was situated in the theoretical context. Its role in creation of e-government is pointed out. Barriers to integrations, as viewed by authors of some novel theoretical contributions, are taxonomized and discussed. Then, the results o... [more] Integration of S&T information, understood as a social process, was situated in the theoretical context. Its role in creation of e-government is pointed out. Barriers to integrations, as viewed by authors of some novel theoretical contributions, are taxonomized and discussed. Then, the results of integration of domestic information resources are shortly described. It was estimated that at the national level the integration is not accomplished, nor contemplated in governmental plans. An explanation for the lack of integration is found in boundaries within academic community, developing industry, and governmental ministries responsible for higher education, science and technology. A thesis is offered that regardless of the location and origin of the barriers, they can be bridged in Serbia only by the Government.

• How to support informationally decision-making on journal collections subscription: From impact factor, through usage factor to the benefit factor

  B. Kosanovic, P. Sipka

  Proceedings of SNTPI '09 Sistem naucno-tehnickih i poslovnih informacija, 19-20 June, Belgrade; 01/2009

  Indicators of both citation rate as well as usage of all journal collections subscribed to in Serbia were generated and related among themselves and to the collection prices. Factor analysis of indicators points to two factors of about equal pregnancy, one of which is dominantly shaped by measures o... [more] Indicators of both citation rate as well as usage of all journal collections subscribed to in Serbia were generated and related among themselves and to the collection prices. Factor analysis of indicators points to two factors of about equal pregnancy, one of which is dominantly shaped by measures of local citation rate of collections. Thus, results call upon the use of a novel indicator, labeled here as Benefit Factor, that would be based on the ratio of local impact and journals prices. Implications of the findings for the subscription policy in the conditions of crisis of the science budget are discussed. The need is stressed for the development and use of a software decision system to support collection subscription process.

• Role and position of the locally published journals in an evaluation-oriented CRIS

  P. Sipka

  Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Current Research Information Systems, Institute for Information Science, Maribor, June. 01/2008;

  A program of monitoring, evaluation and promotion of the locally published journals (LPJs) has been chosen in Serbia to be the first step in strategic efforts to raise the quality and impact of the national research. The rationales of the program, as well as its outputs and outcomes are here describ... [more] A program of monitoring, evaluation and promotion of the locally published journals (LPJs) has been chosen in Serbia to be the first step in strategic efforts to raise the quality and impact of the national research. The rationales of the program, as well as its outputs and outcomes are here described. The position of LPJs as an entity within CRIS-CERIF architecture is shortly discussed and some arguments in favor to the treatment of LPJs as a separate entity of the highest level are outlined. According to the results so far, such a solution is effective, and might be plausible for policy-makers and developers in other countries of similar socioeconomic status, particularly so in nations of so-called small languages.

• The national citation index as a platform to achieve interoperability of a national journals repository

  P. Sipka, B. Kosanovic

  Third International Conference on Open Repositories 2008, 1-4 April, Southampton; 01/2008

  In Serbia, there is a specific organizational framework for disseminating S&T information. The central position in the system is given to SCIndeks, the national citation index. SCIndeks is supported by OAI PMH and Dublin Core to ensure its Internet-wide interoperability. Recently, SCIndeks was i... [more] In Serbia, there is a specific organizational framework for disseminating S&T information. The central position in the system is given to SCIndeks, the national citation index. SCIndeks is supported by OAI PMH and Dublin Core to ensure its Internet-wide interoperability. Recently, SCIndeks was integrated with a newly established national journals repository, making the repository interoperable in an alternative, indirect way, dissimilar to the way generally recommended within OR community.

• Integrating sistem of researach information at the national level: Cross-linking citation index and a cris-compliant database

  P. Sipka

  SNTPI '06 Sistem naucno-tehnickih i poslovnih informacija, 12-14.10., Fruska Gora; 01/2006

  Rationales for building national citation index in Serbia and its integration with institutional repositories of a standard (CRIS/CERIF) format are described. It was assumed that evaluatonal and promotional functions are the two essential components of a research information system, and that both ar... [more] Rationales for building national citation index in Serbia and its integration with institutional repositories of a standard (CRIS/CERIF) format are described. It was assumed that evaluatonal and promotional functions are the two essential components of a research information system, and that both are directly related to certain "natural" priorities of science in small developing countries such as Serbia. National citation index is considered to be the central part of the system, intended primarily to serve evaluation needs. Being restricted in performing promotional role, especially as an instrument to facilitate international cooperation, it is going to be integrated with a CERIF-compliant database, presently under development. Both resources should benefit from the integration, most particularly in terms of visibility, usability, quality of data, and maintenance expenses.

• Utilization of citation information of national and regional level in evaluating research performance

  P. Sipka

  Organizacija i znanje. 01/2006; 11(4):164-169.

  The rationales for building SCIndeks: Serbian Citation Index are described. It was built as a hybrid product designed to meet the two 'natural' priorities of science in a small developing country such as Serbia: promoting national research results internationally and supporting non-arbitrary... [more] The rationales for building SCIndeks: Serbian Citation Index are described. It was built as a hybrid product designed to meet the two 'natural' priorities of science in a small developing country such as Serbia: promoting national research results internationally and supporting non-arbitrary, quantitative evaluation of academic entities. Basic technical features of SCIndeks are specified and economic justification for its development and maintenance are shortly discussed. Finally, reasons for building a similar regional database as the joint venture are outlined.

• Social sciences in Serbia, with Momirovic and without him: A bibliometric portrait

  P. Sipka

  Psihologija. 01/2005; 38(3):345-360.

  Research performance of Konstantin Momirović (1932-2004), a prominent Serbian psychologist and statistician was analyzed, based on one domestic (SocioFakt) and one international citation database (SSCI). His productivity was described in terms of number of papers published in various local journals,... [more] Research performance of Konstantin Momirović (1932-2004), a prominent Serbian psychologist and statistician was analyzed, based on one domestic (SocioFakt) and one international citation database (SSCI). His productivity was described in terms of number of papers published in various local journals, while his typical research interests were revealed by applying frequency analysis of his keywords, abstract terms, and international authors he had cited. In order to evaluate his impact in various research fields, his citations and heterocitations was cross-tabulated against all citing disciplinary journals. Finally, latent influence of his contribution on the structure of national social sciences was tested by deriving two co citation maps of local journals: one produced with, and the other without his papers and citations. The results show Momirović'es exceptional output and its substantial influence on the structure of social factual sciences, particularly on the position of psychology as a discipline. His output turned out to be also specific one asking for careful treatment of leaders of hidden colleges in practical evaluation. Incidentally, results also revealed his intellectual relatedness with Hans Eysenck, a hidden finding which was possible to corroborate by perceived personalities of both, accompanied with some critical details from their biographies.

• The Serbian Citation Index: Context and Content

  P. Sipka

  Proceedings of the 10th Conference of the International Society for Scientometrics and Informetrics, Stockholm; 01/2005

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• Structure of personality psychology based on cocitation analysis of prominent authors

  Jevremov, Tanja, Pajic, Dejan, Sipka, Pero

  Psihologija. 01/2005; 40:329-343.

  Traditional Author Cocitation Analysis was applied in order to map the personality psychology as a research field. A group of 25 authors were selected from the Haggbloom (1999, 2002) lists of the most cited and prominent psychologists, judged to be the main contributors to the field. All of their co... [more] Traditional Author Cocitation Analysis was applied in order to map the personality psychology as a research field. A group of 25 authors were selected from the Haggbloom (1999, 2002) lists of the most cited and prominent psychologists, judged to be the main contributors to the field. All of their cocitations identified in the three year volumes of SSCI were downloaded to be analyzed by cluster analysis and MDS. The analysis resulted in four clusters comprising (1) theorists of individual differences amalgamated with authors of biological orientation with R. Cattell positioned centrally, (2) behaviorists joined by socio-cognitive theorists led by M.E.P. Seligman and A. Bandura, and (3) the group of psychoanalytic (dynamic) theorists with A. Adler in the middle. In fourth cluster G. Allport, H. Murray, K. Lewin, W. Mischel, and D. Buss were found mixed together to make a rather heterogeneous group. In two-axes representation one of the dimensions was understood as reflecting methodological and the other one content-specific differences among the authors, although this interpretation is not univocal. The same procedure was repeated on citations given to the same authors in SocioFakt - the Serbian Citation Index for Social Sciences, revealing a reduced picture of the domain. At this portrait, some important authors are missing as a result of their low citation rate, suggesting that in the Serbian personality psychology entire research fields don't exist.

• Skriptor: Bibliographic information parsing program

  D. Pajic, P. Sipka, B. Kosanovic

  Infoteka. 01/2002; 3(1-2):13-21.

  Skriptor - a program developed for the use in maintaining SocioFact and designed for parsing journals' contents and references is described. By making use of auxiliary databases (e.g. lists containing authors and publishers' names) and simple algorithms for processing Serbian as natural lang... [more] Skriptor - a program developed for the use in maintaining SocioFact and designed for parsing journals' contents and references is described. By making use of auxiliary databases (e.g. lists containing authors and publishers' names) and simple algorithms for processing Serbian as natural language, the program recognizes the elements of the journals' contents and articles' references (e.g. author name, book title, journal title, page numbers) and assigns a standardized label to each of those elements providing automatic transfer of information into the respective database field. Apart from basic parsing module, the program provides subroutines for conversions of various character sets, word (de)capitalization according to orthographic rules, inversion of author's name and surname position, filling up the missing data, as well as interactive control and correction of the parsed information. Skriptor comes with an installation program and detailed help file which contains specific instructions for the operators explaining ways to effectively use program itself, and defining bibliographic standards used in the process SocioFact maintenance. Skriptor is written in Visual Basic for Applications as an Microsoft Word template.

• Nauka u Srbiji: u susret evaluativnoj državi

  P. Sipka

  Centar za evaluaciju uobrazovanju i nauci, Internet dokument: http://ceon. rs/pdf/eRDl. pdf. 01/2001;

• BiSA: A program for evaluation of research performance on the basis of bibliographic database SocioFakt

  Kosanovic Biljana P., Sipka, Pero

  Info Science. 01/1998; 6:35-38.

  National bibliographic database are necessary in small countries such as Yugoslavia, especially in the domain of social sciences. Among others, they are only legitimate basis for research evaluation, since evaluation of scientific subjects based on international sources of the kind (SCI, SSCI, etc.)... [more] National bibliographic database are necessary in small countries such as Yugoslavia, especially in the domain of social sciences. Among others, they are only legitimate basis for research evaluation, since evaluation of scientific subjects based on international sources of the kind (SCI, SSCI, etc.) is incomplete, or even impossible. The SocioFakt is such an already developed database, referring domestic journal articles from social factual sciences. A separate module named BiSA is now attached to SocioFakt as statistical tool for bibliometric and scientometric analysis. The program generate various basic indices for evaluation of three kinds of scientific subjects: individual authors, institutions and journals. Its convenience is tested in a series of scientometric studies of Yugoslav psychology. Transformation of and combining basic indices into various composite measures that can be used in practical evaluation is in BiSA also supported.

• Polozaj Momirovicevih konativnih faktora u trodimenzionalnom prostoru viseg reda: da li gospodin po imenu Eysenck stanuje gore?

  P. Sipka

  Provera egzistencije psiholoskih konstrukata. 01/1998;

• Eysenck's contribution as measured bibliometrically

  Sipka, Pero

  Psihologija. 01/1998; 31:271-286.

  Previous studies demonstrated that Eysenck was one of the most cited authors in psychological literature. Studies in question were not concerned exclusively with Eysenck(s citations. All one can recognize from their results about Eysenck himself is his citation rate in various citing sources and var... [more] Previous studies demonstrated that Eysenck was one of the most cited authors in psychological literature. Studies in question were not concerned exclusively with Eysenck(s citations. All one can recognize from their results about Eysenck himself is his citation rate in various citing sources and various observed periods. The purpose of this study was to look beyond Eysenck(s citation figures. The intention was to describe his cited publications in terms of type and age and to rank his citing journals and co-cited authors, so as to disclose the nature of his impact in general, and in East Europe and Yugoslavia in particular. All references from articles citing H.J. Eysenck as first author and referred in Social Science Citation Index from 1992 to 1996 and in the SocioFakt, a Yugoslav bibliographic database, from 1981 to 1996, were submitted to citation and co-citation analysis. The results show that most cited Eysenck's works are those published in seventies. Half-life and variance of his citations (Mdn=18, rng=18) is far above those normally met in psychological journals, indicating vitality of his early findings and theories. Unlike other distinguished personality theorists who are also test-makers Eysenck is cited more by books and chapters (44.2%) than by manuals (27%), although the share of articles in his citation rate is also relatively high (27.8%). P. Costa, R. McCrae, M. Zuckerman, D. Watson, and R.B. Cattell are most often cited with Eysenck. This and other rank lists suggest that Eysenck is dominantly cited in articles dealing with personality and clinical psychology, though his influence reaches practically all broad fields of psychology, except sensation and perception. Finally the results indicate that Eysenck is cited relatively more outside USA, and by East European and Yugoslav authors then in general. In conclusion, results show that Eysenck's citation rate is polyvalent in terms of both his cited and citing sources. Consequently his impact is far reaching in both geographic and structural sense.

• Eysenck's contribution to psychology from (auto)biographic perspective

  Sipka, Pero

  Psihologija. 01/1998; 31:303-316.

  Eysenck's general approach and his contribution to psychology are shortly characterized on the basis of Eysenck's own descriptions and judgments. He discussed both his approach and contribution in many occasions, most explicitly in his autobiography. An attempt was made here to relate them t... [more] Eysenck's general approach and his contribution to psychology are shortly characterized on the basis of Eysenck's own descriptions and judgments. He discussed both his approach and contribution in many occasions, most explicitly in his autobiography. An attempt was made here to relate them to critical circumstances (conditions, events) he lived in, also evidenced by himself. Recognized as most important are his antiauthoritarian childhood in Germany, his studying psychology in England in the general climate of philosophical empiricism, the provocative atmosphere of pretentious academism in his early professional surrounding, as well as strong family support. It is suggested that these factors contributed most to his unique feature U the permanent confrontation with some taboo research topics and questionable but dominant epistemological patterns and psychological theories. Correlated with his exceptional abilities these factors are also responsible for Eysenck's extraordinary production and productivity that resulted in equally extraordinary impact in several broad areas of present-day psychology.

• The use of bibliographic databases in the evaluation of research performance

  P. Sipka

  Godisnjak Fakulteta za fizicku kulturu, Beograd. 01/1997;

• Sociofakt - Yugoslav database for social factual sciences

  Kosanovic Biljana, Sipka Pero

  01/1996: pages 85-95;

• Citation rate of Yugoslav psychologists in foreign periodicals

  Pero Sipka

  01/1996: pages 169-179;

• Citation of foreign and domestic journals in the Yugoslav psychological periodicals

  P. Milin, P. Sipka

  Empirijska istrazivanja u psihologiji (II); naucni skup, Beograd; 01/1996