Social Sciences Citation Index

Social Sciences Citation Index
Title	Social Sciences Citation Index
Developer	Eugene Garfield
Producer	Clarivate
Disciplines	Social science
Coverage	1900–present
Format	Bibliographic database
Website	https://clarivate.com/products/scientific-and-academic-research/research-discovery-and-workflow-solutions/web-of-science-core-collection/social-sciences-citation-index/

Social Sciences Citation Index. It is a multidisciplinary citation index for the social sciences, part of the Web of Science platform owned by Clarivate. The index provides bibliographic data, abstracts, and cited references for articles from thousands of the world's leading scholarly journals. It is a core tool for bibliometrics and citation analysis, enabling researchers to track the influence and interconnectedness of academic literature across disciplines such as economics, psychology, and political science.

Overview

The index functions as a curated database, indexing high-impact journals selected through a rigorous evaluation process. It allows users to perform forward and backward citation searching, tracing how ideas develop and are referenced across the scholarly landscape. This capability is integral to constructing citation networks and understanding the flow of knowledge. The data from the index is also the source for the Journal Impact Factor and other bibliometric indicators calculated by Clarivate. Access to the database is typically provided through institutional subscriptions to the Web of Science platform, which also hosts the Science Citation Index Expanded and the Arts & Humanities Citation Index.

History and development

The origins of the index trace back to the work of Eugene Garfield and his company, the Institute for Scientific Information, founded in Philadelphia. Garfield pioneered the concept of the Science Citation Index, which launched in 1964. Building on this model, the Social Sciences Citation Index was introduced in 1973 to address the growing need for systematic tracking of literature in fields beyond the natural sciences. Following the acquisition of the Institute for Scientific Information by Thomson Reuters in 1992, the index became a central component of the Web of Science. In 2016, the Scientific and business intelligence assets of Thomson Reuters, including the index, were acquired by Onex Corporation and Baring Private Equity Asia, forming the new company Clarivate.

Coverage and selection criteria

The index covers over 3,400 journals across more than 50 social science disciplines, including sociology, anthropology, education, law, and geography. Journal selection is governed by the Clarivate editorial team, which employs a set of criteria including peer review integrity, editorial conventions, timeliness of publication, and the international diversity of editors and authors. A key quantitative measure in the evaluation is the journal's citation impact, analyzed using data from the Web of Science. This selective process aims to include only the most influential and consistently high-quality publications, as outlined in the company's official editorial policy.

Impact and use in academia

The index is extensively used by researchers, librarians, and administrators for literature discovery and research assessment. Universities and funding bodies, such as the National Institutes of Health and the European Research Council, often use metrics derived from its data to evaluate scholarly output and influence. The h-index and other author-level metrics frequently rely on its citation counts. Furthermore, it is a foundational resource for studies in the sociology of science and the mapping of scientific fields, enabling analyses of collaboration patterns and emerging research trends documented in publications like Scientometrics.

Related citation indices

It exists within a family of citation databases curated by Clarivate. The most directly related is the Science Citation Index Expanded, which covers the natural sciences, and the Arts & Humanities Citation Index. Together, these form the core collection of the Web of Science. Other related products from the same provider include Emerging Sources Citation Index, which covers newer journals, and Journal Citation Reports, which publishes the annual Journal Impact Factor rankings. Competitor platforms offering similar citation tracking services include Scopus, owned by Elsevier, and Google Scholar.

Criticism and limitations

Critics, including scholars from the University of Washington and Leiden University, argue that the index exhibits a strong Anglophone and Western world bias in its journal coverage, potentially marginalizing research from the Global South. The reliance on the Journal Impact Factor for evaluation has been widely criticized by initiatives like the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment and the Hong Kong Principles. Limitations also include the exclusion of influential books, conferences, and non-English publications, which can skew bibliometric analyses. Furthermore, the commercial control by Clarivate raises concerns about access costs and the privatization of knowledge infrastructure, topics frequently discussed in forums like the International Society for Scientometrics and Informetrics.

Category:Bibliographic databases Category:Citation indices Category:Social science literature