Concepción S. Wilson

The literature of bibliometrics, scientometrics, and informetrics

Since Vassily V. Nalimov coined the term ‘scientometrics’ in the 1960s, this term has grown in popularity and is used to describe the study of science: growth, structure, interrelationships and productivity. Scientometrics is related to and has overlapping interests with bibliometrics and informetrics. The terms bibliometrics, scientometrics, and informetrics refer to component fields related to the study of the dynamics of disciplines as reflected in the production of their literature. Areas of study range from charting changes in the output of a scholarly field through time and across countries, to the library collection problem of maintaining control of the output, and to the low publication productivity of most researchers. These terms are used to describe similar and overlapping methodologies. The origins and historical survey of the development of each of these terms are presented. Profiles of the usage of each of these terms over time are presented, using an appropriate subject category of databases on the DIALOG information service. Various definitions of each of the terms are provided from an examination of the literature. The size of the overall literature of these fields is determined and the growth and stabilisation of both the dissertation and non-dissertation literature are shown. A listing of the top journals in the three fields are given, as well as a list of the major reviews and bibliographies that have been published over the years.

Informetric studies using databases: Opportunities and challenges

Since their arrival in the 1960s, electronic databases have been an invaluable tool for informetricians. Databases and their delivery mechanism have provided both the source of raw data, as well as the analytical tools for many informetric studies. In particular, the citation databases produced by the Institute for Scientific Information have been the key source of data for a whole range of citation-based research. However, there are also many problems and challenges associated with the use of online databases. Most of the problems arise because databases are designed primarily for information retrieval purposes, and informetric studies represent only a secondary use of the systems. The sorts of problems encountered by informetricians include: errors or inconsistency in the data itself; problems with the coverage, overlap and changeability of the databases; as well as problems and limitations in the tools provided by the database hosts such as DIALOG. For some informetric studies, the only viable solution to these problems is to download the data and perform offline correction and data analysis.

The scatter of documents over databases in different subject domains: how many databases are needed?

The distribution of bibliographic records in on-line bibliographic databases is examined using 14 different search topics. These topics were searched using the DIALOG database host, and using as many suitable databases as possible. The presence of duplicate records in the searches was taken into consideration in the analysis, and the problem with lexical ambiguity in at least one search topic is discussed. The study answers questions such as how many databases are needed in a multifile search for particular topics, and what coverage will be achieved using a certain number of databases. The distribution of the percentages of records retrieved over a number of databases for 13 of the 14 search topics roughly fell into three groups: (1) high concentration of records in one database with about 80% coverage in five to eight databases; (2) moderate concentration in one database with about 80% coverage in seven to 10 databases; and (3) low concentration in one database with about 80% coverage in 16 to 19 databases. The study does conform with earlier results, but shows that the number of databases needed for searches with varying complexities of search strategies, is much more topic dependent than previous studies would indicate.

Changing workplace demands: what job ads tell us

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse job ads as relatively accessible indicators of the knowledge, skills and competencies required of librarians by employers. It then uses a framework provided by the literature on professional jurisdiction to examine what may be trends and shaping factors for the Library and Information Studies (LIS) profession with regard to jurisdiction in a changing information landscape.Design/methodology/approach – Job ads were examined in two separate studies; one comparing job ads in Australia and the USA over eight weeks in 2004, and the other looking at one month snapshots of Australian job ads in 1974, 1984, 1994 and 2004. The text from the job ads was analysed using a content analysis software package. The literature on professional jurisdiction provided an interpretive framework.Findings – The Australian snapshots over time showed that there is an increasing lack of clarity about the skills and competencies required of librarians. The American job ads seemed to r...

Changes in the scientific output of Russia from 1980 to 2000, as reflected in the Science Citation Index, in relation to national politico-economic changes

Three features of the output of scientific papers from Russia which are covered by SCI are reported for the period 1980 to 2000. Changes are related to the major politico-economic developments in the USSR and Russia, and contrasted with similar data from France, Canada and Italy. The problems of isolating Russian papers in the output of the USSR and of estimating the proportion of Russian papers without stated addresses are treated. The Russian annual output grew from 1980 to 1990, but fell by 20-24% after the dissolution of the USSR in late 1991; from 1994 there has been an inconsistent partial recovery, and by 2000 the annual output had approximately regained its 1980 value. The reduced output in the 1990s derives mainly from low government funding for science. The proportion of Russian papers produced in collaboration with other nations has grown from six percent in the early 1980s to 31% in 2000, while the principal regions of collaboration shifted rapidly after 1990 from other republics in the USSR and East Europe to Western Europe and North America. These changes were initiated by glasnost and the end of the Cold War, and more recently have been driven in part by a need for foreign support. Russias annual output in the physical sciences in the 1980s was approximately twice, and from 1995 to 2000, approximately four times, that in the life sciences. This continuing dominance, which contrasts with the comparison countries, derives from the high priority given by the central governments to defense spending and related prestige projects.

Measuring the citation impact of research journals in clinical neurology: A structural equation modelling analysis

This study develops and tests an integrated conceptual model of journal evaluation from varying perspectives of citation analysis. The main objective is to obtain a more complete understanding of the external factors affecting journal citation impact; that is, a theoretical construct measured by a number of citation indicators. Structural equation modelling (SEM) with partial least squares (PLS) is used to test the conceptual model with empirical data from journals in clinical neurology. Interrelationships among journal citation impact and four external factors (journal characteristics, journal accessibility, journal visibility and journal internationality) have been successfully explored, and the conceptual model of journal evaluation has been examined.

What Do They Want?: A Study of Changing Employer Expectations of Information Professionals

ABSTRACTThis paper reports the findings of an exploratory study of position vacant announcements appropriate for library and information studies (LIS) graduates appearing in the Sydney Morning Herald over a four week period in each of the following years: 2004, 1994, 1984 and 1974. The period studied witnessed change-demanding developments in information technologies as well as changes in workplace conditions and client expectations. The study collected data on the demands of employers as expressed through job advertisements that included data on work status (full-time, part-time, contract, casual), qualifications and the experience required of the information professional during the periods selected. To investigate similarities and differences between periods a content analysis and co-word analysis of the job advertisements was undertaken. The advertisements indicated a movement from simple advertisements in 1974 inviting applications for reference or technical services librarians, to complex and special...

Collaboration in Iranian Scientific Publications

This study looks at international collaboration in Iranian scientific publications through the ISI Science Citation Index® (SCI) for the years 1995–1999, inclusive. These results are compared to and contrasted with the earlier findings for the periods covering 1985–1994 (Osareh & Wilson 2000). The results of Irans increasing productivity over a 15-year period are presented. Iran doubled its output in the first two five-year periods and increased 2.8-fold from the second to the third five-year period. The rise in Irans scientific publication output is due mainly to factors such as the ending of the war, better economic conditions, recent changes in the Iranian governments policy, basic changes in the political environment brought about by the Reformers, expansion of the Iranian presses for national publications, and the recent return of a large number of students trained overseas through government scholarships. External changes also account for the increased productivity, e.g., the acceptance of three Iranian source journals by the SCI, increased access to international databases through the Internet and better electronic communication facilities for international collaboration. One of the most important and significant factors that caused this dramatic rise seems to be the governments research policies in the last few years. Since 1999, the Iran Science, Research and Technology Ministry, has encouraged researchers to publish their non-Farsi language articles in highly ranked international scientific journals, for example, by giving prizes to researchers who publish their articles in ISI-ranked journals.

Research contributions in ophthalmology: Australia's productivity

Background: In 2000, the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Ophthalmology (ANZJO) changed title to Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology. At this time, a review of Australias contributions to the literature over the previous 21 years appears timely. Bibliometric indicators are used extensively to assess research performance as they offer views of a field that might not otherwise be apparent. The aim of this study was to explore publication output data to construct a picture of ophthalmology that may be of benefit to researchers and ophthalmologists.

Overlap in bibliographic databases

Bibliographic databases contain surrogates to a particular subset of the complete set of literature; some databases are very narrow in their scope, while others are multidisciplinary. These databases overlap in their coverage of the literature to a greater or lesser extent. The topic of Fuzzy Set Theory is examined to determine the overlap of coverage in the databases that index this topic. It was found that about 63% of records in the data set are unique to only one database, and the remaining 37% are duplicated in from two to 12 different databases. The overlap distribution is found to conform to a Lotka-type plot. The records with maximum overlap are identified; however, further work is needed to determine the significance of the high level of overlap in these records. The unique records are plotted using a Bradford-type form of data presentation and are found to conform (visually) to a hyperbolic distribution. The extent and causes of intra-database duplication (records duplicated in the one database) are also examined. Finally, the overlap in the top databases in the dataset were examined, and a high correlation was found between overlapping records, and overlapping DIALOG OneSearch categories.