Mapping the position of Socio.hu Social Science Review within the landscape of Hungarian social science journals

A bibliometric pilot study

Abstract

In recent decades, practices of bibliometric and scientometric research assessment have penetrated into every sector that is interlinked with academia and academic life, including the field of scholarly publishing. Today, the role of scholarly journals goes far beyond their traditional purpose as the vehicles of scientific communication. These publications now compete, on the market of scientific information, for ranking positions based on certain journal metrics as proxies for their quality, impact, or prestige, in order to keep and attract their primary resource, i.e., their subscribers and authors, who, in turn, are often evaluated through these very journals. In this context, the goal of the present study is to undertake a multifaceted mapping of the position and role of the Hungarian journal Socio.hu Social Science Review within the landscape of national social science journals in Hungary. Beyond this primary objective, it also serves as a pilot study providing a methodological experiment, based on the framework proposed by Haustein (2012) for “multidimensional journal evaluation”. The major challenge lies in adapting this framework to the measurable aspects of the ecosystem of Hungarian social science journals.