- Author:
- Michael Thelwall
Webometrics is concerned with measuring aspects of the web: web sites, web pages, parts of web pages, words in web pages, hyperlinks, web search engine results. The importance of the web itself as a communication medium and for hosting an increasingly wide array of documents, from journal articles to holiday brochures, needs no introduction. Given this huge and easily accessible source of information, there are limitless possibilities for measuring or counting on a huge scale (e.g., the number of web sites, the number of web pages, the number of blogs) or on a smaller scale (e.g., the number of web sites in Ireland, the number of web pages in the CNN web site, the number of blogs mentioning Barack Obama before the 2008 presidential campaign). This book argues that it can be useful for social scientists to measure aspects of the web and explains how this can be achieved on both a small and large scale. The book is intended for social scientists with research topics that are wholly or partly online (e.g., social networks, news, political communication) and social scientists with offline research topics with an online reflection, even if this is not a core component (e.g., diaspora communities, consumer culture, linguistic change). The book is also intended for library and information science students in the belief that the knowledge and techniques described will be useful for them to guide and aid other social scientists in their research. In addition, the techniques and issues are all directly relevant to library and information science research problems. Table of Contents: Introduction / Web Impact Assessment / Link Analysis / Blog Searching / Automatic Search Engine Searches: LexiURL Searcher / Web Crawling: SocSciBot / Search Engines and Data Reliability / Tracking User Actions Online / Advaned Techniques / Summary and Future Directions
Cited By
- Chakravarty R (2019). National ETD Repository Evaluation Using Web Analyzer, International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies, 14:1, (54-68), Online publication date: 1-Jan-2019.
- Thelwall M and Stuart E (2019). She's Reddit, Information Processing and Management: an International Journal, 56:4, (1543-1558), Online publication date: 1-Jul-2019.
- Meseguer-Martinez A, Ros-Galvez A and Rosa-Garcia A (2019). Linking YouTube and university rankings, Telematics and Informatics, 43:C, Online publication date: 1-Oct-2019.
- Aguillo I (2018). Web Indicators for Research Evaluation, Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 69:3, (498-499), Online publication date: 1-Mar-2018.
- Ávila B and Lins R (2016). W-tree, ACM Transactions on the Web, 10:1, (1-36), Online publication date: 17-Feb-2016.
- Bosch A, Bogers T and Kunder M (2016). Estimating search engine index size variability, Scientometrics, 107:2, (839-856), Online publication date: 1-May-2016.
- Orduña-Malea E, Torres-Salinas D and Delgado López-Cózar E (2015). Hyperlinks embedded in twitter as a proxy for total external in-links to international university websites, Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 66:7, (1447-1462), Online publication date: 1-Jul-2015.
- Holmberg K and Hellsten I Analyzing the climate change debate on Twitter Proceedings of the 2014 ACM conference on Web science, (287-288)
- Rorissa A An initial exploration of hyperlinks of African government portal websites Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance, (456-457)
- Hsu C and Park H (2012). Korean and Chinese Webpage Content: Who Are Talking About What and How?, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 17:2, (202-215), Online publication date: 1-Jan-2012.
- Hyun Kim J (2012). A Hyperlink and Semantic Network Analysis of the Triple Helix (University-Government-Industry): The Interorganizational Communication Structure of Nanotechnology, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 17:2, (152-170), Online publication date: 1-Jan-2012.
- Khan G, Moon J and Park H (2011). Network of the core, Scientometrics, 89:3, (759-779), Online publication date: 1-Dec-2011.
- Bowler L, He D and Hong W Who is referring teens to health information on the web? Proceedings of the 2011 iConference, (238-243)
- Malinský R and Jelínek I Improvements of webometrics by using sentiment analysis for better accessibility of the web Proceedings of the 10th international conference on Current trends in web engineering, (581-586)
Index Terms
- Introduction to Webometrics: Quantitative Web Research for the Social Sciences
Reviews
Maria Bielikova
The amount of information on the Web and the way user activities are reflected in Web content are continuously evolving. The Web greatly affects our perception of real-world objects. Even though the Web manipulates virtual objects, these objects often represent real-world objects. Therefore, in the 1990s, the Web was identified as an important source for measuring various characteristics of real objects, such as impact assessment, based on their appearance on the Web. The book's introduction is concerned with presenting the basic principles of measuring selected aspects of the Web. As the title suggests, the book is solely an introduction to the topic. This book presents basic Webometrics techniques and examples of particular metrics. It also serves as a guide for realizing a particular metric with existing software tools. The author points out that the book is for social scientists, library and information scientists, and especially students. My background is in informatics and I study Webometrics in order to improve Web search and perform personalized recommendations; this book is not for readers like me. The book contains ten chapters, a glossary, and a list of references. After the introduction, chapters 2 to 4 present core Webometrics techniques: "Web Impact Assessment," "Link Analysis," and "Blog Searching." Each chapter includes examples and simple case studies. Several of the examples are based on the AltaVista search engine capabilities. Chapters 5 and 6 introduce two software tools for Web analysis. These are followed by chapters 7, 8, and 9: "Search Engines and Data Reliability," "Tracking User Actions Online," and "Advanced Techniques." The book ends with chapter 10, "Summary and Future Directions." The author clearly presents the rather complex technical issues related to Webometrics (algorithms). Even though some of the chapters are considerably oversimplified, the book as a whole serves its intended purpose. In summary, the book is an ideal resource for getting acquainted with the field of Webometrics at a user level. While it is too introductory and superficial for an in-depth understanding of particular metrics, its user-oriented approach makes it a suitable resource for undergraduate students in social and/or information sciences. Online Computing Reviews Service
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