Positions and Perspectives on the Registration of Social Sciences Publications: Experiences from the Pilot Study for the Research Rating in Sociology

The article refers to GESIS' experiences from the publication survey within the context of the Pilot Study for the Research Rating in Sociology (Pilotstudie Forschungsrating Soziologie) on the quality & validity of information contained in SOLIS & sowiport, as well as the more general question as to how the Specialized Information for the Social Sciences (Fachinformation fur die Sozialwissenschaften) should meet the demands of the discipline as well as those of recurrent evaluations. The survey of publications belongs to the mutual areas of academic performance measurement. Sociology is characterized by a publication behavior which displays high interdisciplinarity & a broad spread with respect to the types & organs of publications, as well as their geographic distribution. This results in special challenges for the most comprehensive documentation & indexing. Thus, the research rating of the German Council of Science & Humanities (Wissenschaftsrat) was -- as a sort of side-effect -- also a self-test for GESIS' databases & integrated portal from which preliminary publication lists were generated. The participating scientists could read, correct & complete their publication lists online. The analysis of these lists & their amendments yields insights on diffusion effects, followed by questions on & suggestions for the efficient integration of information through utilization of technical possibilities. Adapted from the source document.