Sub-field Normalization within the IEEE Publication Galaxy

A recent paper by Canavero et al. (IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 2012) performed a bibliometric analysis of a number of scientific journals within the Engineering field, published by IEEE. The goal of this work is to deepen and complement the prior analysis, investigating on the different citation cultures of these journals, depending on the sub-field/specialty of interest. To perform this evaluation it is proposed a novel technique, which takes into account the connections between journals and some highly specialized communities of scientists, known as IEEE Technical Societies and Councils. After showing significant differences in terms of citation propensity, it is presented a simplified technique for a sub-field normalization of the results of the prior study. The main contribution of this work is (1) providing an empirical confirmation of the complexity of the problem of field normalization – even for journals within the same field but different sub-fields/specialties – and (2) showing how the use of highly specialised information on a journal reference sub-field(s) may be helpful for improving the estimation of citation propensity.