The rivalry between Bernini and Borromini from a scientometric perspective

From a historical point of view, Rome and especially the University of La Sapienza, are closely linked to two geniuses of Baroque art: Bernini and Borromini. In this study, we analyze the rivalry between them from a scientometric perspective. This study also serves as a basis for exploring which data sources may be appropriate for broad impact assessment of individuals and/or celebrities. We pay special attention to encyclopaedias, library catalogues and other databases or types of publications that are not normally used for this purpose. The results show that some sources such as Wikipedia are not exploited according to the possibilities they offer, especially those related to different languages and cultures. Moreover, analyses are often reduced to a minimum number of data sources, which can distort the relevance of the outcome. Our results show that other sources normally not considered for this purpose, like JSTOR, PQDT, Google Scholar, Catalogue Holdings, etc. can provide more relevant or abundant information than the typically used Web of Science Core Collection and Scopus. Finally, we also contrast opportunities and limitation of old and new (YouTube, Twitter) data sources (particularly the aspects quality and accuracy of the search methods). Much room for improvement has been identified in order to use data sources more efficiently and with higher accuracy.