Quo vadis, publication database?

Abstract

The article is a revised version of the first author’s thesis. The authors investigate the reasons for the stagnation in the development of databases of research publications in Hungary. The study covers a sample of five Hungarian databases, and looks at some international ventures as well. After a brief overview of their creation, the databases are compared based on a number of criteria. Subsequently, the problems to be solved as prerequisites of development are listed. The findings show that the reasons behind inadequate operation lie mostly in the practice of planning: it is not exactly defined how the database is to be used for scientometric analyses, and the resources required for maintaining a high standard of operation are not taken into account either.