The concordance of field-normalized scores based on Web of Science and Microsoft Academic data: A case study in computer sciences

Abstract

In order to assess Microsoft Academic as a useful data source for evaluative bibliometrics it is crucial to know, if citation counts from Microsoft Academic could be used in common normalization procedures and whether the normalized scores agree with the scores calculated on the basis of established databases. To this end, we calculate the field-normalized citation scores of the publications of a computer science institute based on Microsoft Academic and the Web of Science and estimate the statistical concordance of the scores. Our results suggest that field-normalized citation scores can be calculated with Microsoft Academic and that these scores are in good agreement with the corresponding scores from the Web of Science.