Abstract

In order to ascertain disciplinary differences in publication patterns that can help improve assessment of research performance in Korea, we analyzed the bibliometric data of six disciplines from Korea Citation Index. Results showed differences in research size, competitiveness, productivity, impact, and collaboration among disciplines. Disciplines in science were the largest in terms of author and institution followed by humanities and social science, but humanities produced the most publications per author, followed by social science and science disciplines. Sociology publications received most citation per paper but humanities received most citations per author, which was greatly influenced by the number of co-authors per paper. Distribution of author counts per paper varied widely across disciplines. Humanities were dominated by single-author publications, whereas the majority of publications in sciences were co-authored. The study also highlighted differences in citation lag time and illustrated differences in distribution and impact of core authors and institutions across disciplines.