Possible Pitfalls of Quantitative Metrics

This post presents critical view on practical use of bibliometric methods. There are listed difficulties and limitation which cause lower value of information got by metrics and which increase a risk of misinterpretation. Discussion about possible solution is provided and general recommendation is suggested for accurate use of bibliometry. There is also described issue of research area scheming which is necessary for objective use if citation indicators. But which schema use and how does this influence the results could be quite difficult question. Bibliometric indicators itself include quite wide range of circumstances, which are important to take into consideration (e. g. size dependent and independent indicators, average distortion, minimum threshold of documents). Use of whole or fractional counting could be an interesting question.\