Revisiting Relative Indicators and Provisional Truths

Abstract: Following discussions in 2010 and 2011, scientometric evaluators have increasingly abandoned relative indicators in favor of comparing observed with expected citation ratios. The latter method provides parameters with error values allowing for the statistical testing of differences in citation scores. A further step would be to proceed to non-parametric statistics (e.g., the top-10%) given the extreme skewness (non-normality) of the citation distributions. In response to a plea for returning to relative indicators in the previous issue of this newsletter, we argue in favor of further progress in the development of citation impact indicators.