  This paper presents a first approach to analyzing the factors that determine
the citation characteristics of books. For this we use the Thomson Reuters'
Book Citation Index, a novel multidisciplinary database launched in 2010 which
offers bibliometric data of books. We analyze three possible factors which are
considered to affect the citation impact of books: the presence of editors, the
inclusion in series and the type of publisher. Also, we focus on highly cited
books to see if these factors may affect them as well. We considered as highly
cited books, those in the top 5% of the most highly cited ones of the database.
We define these three aspects and we present the results for four major
scientific areas in order to identify field-based differences (Science,
Engineering & Technology, Social Sciences and Arts & Humanities). Finally we
conclude observing that differences were noted for edited books and types of
publishers. Although books included in series showed higher impact in two
areas.
