Indicators in a research institute: A multi-level classification of scientific journals

Indicators in a research Institute ought to be readable at several decision levels, and particularly with different break-downs of the publication set chosen as reference. Citation transactions between journals have been widely used to structure scientific subfields in ISI databases. We tried a seed-free structuration of SCI/CMCI journals (a) to test convergence of pure citation-built specialties (roughly 150) on SCI/CMCI journals with existing classifications at the subfield level (b) to explore the interest and the limits of this approach for upper levels of aggregation (roughly 30 fields). PI few limits of journal-level classification are addressed. At the subfield level, the convergence is large with some discrepancies worth noticing. At the subdiscipline level, the method is not sufficient to achieve a satisfactory 30-level delineation, but gives a good basis for informed expert validation.