Abstract. This article reviews recent contributions addressing the following questions: Under what circumstances is monetary policy delegated to politically independent central banks? What effects do these politically independent institutions have, and how do they interact with their macroeconomic institutional environment? What explains the variation in their behavior? And finally, to what extent has the recent economic crisis altered the role of these institutions? In answering these questions, this article advances two arguments.

Abstract. One of the most striking facts of recent Spanish political debate has been the relatively little partisan and ideological conflict over the size of the welfare state. To explain this puzzle, we rely on the idea that support for the welfare state and support for redistribution are not necessarily the same thing.

Abstract. Bibliometric indicators are used to characterize the research activity of institutions worldwide with production in the period 2003–2013 in journals that are indexed in Scopus's Food Science thematic category. Basic, normalized indicators were used to compare the institutions' performances, together with highly cited papers (top-10% and top-1%).

Abstract. Food Science is an active discipline in scientific research. The improvements in Food Technology constitute a challenge for society to eradicate hunger, while achieving food safety. This work analyses the scientific production in Food Science of the 25 countries with the greatest output in this subject area in the period 2003 to 2013. The growth of China's production was striking, with the country becoming top-ranked by the end of the period.

Abstract. This study characterizes the volume and visibility of Latin American scientific output in the area of Public Health, through a combined analysis of bibliometric, socioeconomic and health indicators of the top 10 Latin American producers of documents. The information was obtained from the SCImago Institutions Rankings (SIR) portal, based on Scopus data, in the category Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health, of the area Medicine, for the period 2003–2011.

Abstract. Download indicators are of major potential interest because the great quantity of readily available download data means that any statistical inferences drawn from them will be of robust significance. We study the relationship between citation and downloads at the journal and paper levels, and the influence of language on that relationship. The data used were taken from the Scopus (citations) and ScienceDirect (downloads) databases.

Abstract. Subject classification arises as an important topic for bibliometrics and scientometrics, searching to develop reliable and consistent tools and outputs. Such objectives also call for a well delimited underlying subject classification scheme that adequately reflects scientific fields. Within the broad ensemble of classification techniques, clustering analysis is one of the most successful.

Abstract

Background
Models for the production of knowledge and systems of innovation and science are key elements for characterizing a country in view of its scientific thematic profile. With regard to scientific output and publication in journals of international visibility, the countries of the world may be classified into three main groups according to their thematic bias.

Abstract. In a reply to Jerome K. Vanclay’s manuscript “Impact Factor: outdated artefact or stepping-stone to journal certification?” we discuss the value of journal metrics for the assessment of scientific-scholarly journals from a general bibliometric perspective, and from the point of view of creators of new journal metrics, journal editors and publishers. We conclude that citation-based indicators of journal performance are appropriate tools in journal assessment provided that they are accurate, and used with care and competence.

Abstract. An overview is given of research in the major countries of Europe in the area of renewable energies. The analysis used the Scopus (Elsevier) database of scientific literature, calculating bibliometric indices (primary production, average citations per document, percentage variation, SJR, etc.) for the geographical domain of Europe during the period 2002–2007.