Dimensions Analytics is a tool produced by Digital Science Ltd. for analysing and visualising record sets collected from the Dimensions database. It is integrated in the same view as the Dimensions search interface. The basic functionalities of Dimensions Analytics are also available in the free version of Dimensions, but the paid version adds more analysis subjects as well as their related data and methods for viewing the sets.
Figure 1. A screen capture from the user interface of the paid version of the Dimensions database. The same view shows both a list of the records found and the menu for the Dimensions Analytics functionalities on the right side.
Subjects of analysis
The starting point is always a set of publications, datasets, funding decisions, patents, clinical trials or policy documents. If the set is not first limited with the available search and filter options, the “analysis” will be carried out for all content in the Dimensions database. Many of the functionalities available in the Dimensions Analytics menu also act as filters that can be used to limit the size of the set being analysed.
The free version of the Dimensions Analytics tool includes the following analysis levels:
Research categories: shows how the set of records (such as all publications from last year by a certain university or grants decisions) resulting from the search is divided based on the ANZSRC classification or the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, both as a table and as a bar graph. The distribution also allows users to view the citations or media attention received by the set of records.
The paid version also includes field-normalised citation impact indicators, field-specific timeline graphs and cross tabulation of scientific fields in relation to other variables visualised as a heat map.
Overview: shows timelines of the publication numbers of the searched set, their citation impact and the media attention received.
Researchers: shows the authors of the publications in the searched set and the numbers and mean values of the citations and media attention received by their publications, as well as the network of these researchers, either based on their co-publications or citations.
The paid version also includes field-normalised citation impact indicators, researcher-specific timeline graphs and versatile cross tabulation of researchers in relation to other variables visualised as a heat map.
Figure 2. The view of the research network based on co-publications in a set of publications found using the search term ‘bibliometrics’, with Finland as the target country. With regard to the researchers, this network view is also available in the free version, but similar networks about publication channels and organisations are only available in the paid version.
Source titles: shows the publication channels of the searched set of publications and the amounts of publications and the amounts and averages of the citations or media attention they received.
The paid version also offers field-normalised citation impact indicators, timeline graphs of publication channels, comprehensive cross tabulation of publication channels in relation to other variables visualised as a heat map and a network formed by the publication channels based on their mutual citations.
Funders: shows the funders of the publications in the searched set and the number of publications funded by each, as well as the number and averages of the citations or media attention they received.
The paid version also includes field-normalised citation impact indicators, field-specific timeline graphs for comparing the funders and comprehensive cross tabulation in relation to other variables visualised as a heat map.
Research organisations: shows the research organisations in the searched set and the number of publications made with the organisation affiliation, as well as the quantity of citations or media attention they have received and the mean values.
The paid version also includes field-normalised indicators of citation impact, field-specific timeline graphs for comparing the organisation and cross tabulation in relation to other variables visualised as a heatmap, as well as the network of the organisations, either based on co-publications or citations.
Compare: allows for comparison of the publication volumes of two organisations in the searched set as a table and as a bar chart, specified by the field of science or the sustainable development goals.
The paid version of the Dimensions Analytics tool adds three more analysis levels:
Open Access: shows how the publications in the search results are divided in terms of openness, divided into closed, open in total and various levels of openness (bronze, gold, green, hybrid). The data for this comes from the Unpaywall service. The open access can also be viewed on a timeline graph and as a cross tabulation in relation to other variables, visualised as a heat map.
Publishers: shows the publishers of the publication channels in the publications in the search results as well as the publication counts, citation counts and citation impact or media attention they have received. The publishers can also be compared on a timeline graph and as a cross tabulation in relation to other variables, visualised as a heat map.
Places: shows the locations of the authors of the publications in the search results at a state, region or city level, as well as the publications grouped into these locations and the quantities and mean values of the citations, citation impacts or media attention received by them. Additionally, these locations can be compared on a timeline graph and as a cross tabulation in relation to other variables, visualised as a heat map. It also shows the network formed by the locations, either based on co-publications or citations. It can also show the number of publications visualised with colours on a map of the world, the USA, Canada or Australia, which allows for visualisation of the international research collaboration done by a person, research group, university or even country, such as Finland.
Presenting, sharing and saving options for results
The tables that open in the analysis views can be saved as CSV and XLSX tables and the graphics can be saved as images in JPEG, PNG and PDF formats. Additionally, the network views can be saved as the JSON data of VOSviewer.
Dimensions Search Language
The special strength of Dimensions is its powerful API: Dimensions Search Language (DSL) interface query. This is available to the subscribers of Dimensions Analytics tool.
The DSL interface query, for example, allows users to retrieve a list of all the articles presented in the reference lists of articles citing the subject article — with just one query (“find publications that cite this target article and return their reference lists”). Still, you can retrieve the information of up to 400 articles with just one query (“find all publications with DOI presented in this list”). Additionally, you can use the same query to search for not only publications, but also funding decisions, research organisation information, patents and author information related to them — or vice versa.
Users can learn to use queries even without prior programming skills using a feature available in the browser interface, and the DSL documentation is easy to understand and offers practical examples. Utilising the search results provided in JSON format on a larger scale requires some data processing, but tools are available for this even in Excel (Excel Power Query).
Figure 3. An example of a DSL interface query in Dimensions' browser view.
Limitations of the tool
As an exception to the most analysis tools presented in this guide, a large proportion of the analyses by the Dimensions Analytics tool is also available in its free version, but a few analysis levels as well as some indicator values and views at most levels are limited to the paid version.
Connecting researchers, organisations, funders and fields of science to the publications has been partly done with the help of machine learning, due to which these contain some errors. Self-citations cannot be removed from the results. The network view cannot be created for a set larger than 25,000 publications.
Sources
Digital Science (no date) Dimensions Analytics. Available: https://www.dimensions.ai/products/dimensions-analytics/ [Accessed 13.4.2022]
Digital Science (no date) Dimensions. Available: https://www.dimensions.ai/products/free/