Debora Shaw

A cast of thousands: coauthorship and subauthorship collaboration in the 20th century as manifested in the scholarly journal literature of psychology and philosophy

We chronicle the use of acknowledgments in 20th-century scholarship by analyzing and classifying more than 4,500 specimens covering a 100-year period. Our results show that the intensity of acknowledgment varies by discipline, reflecting differences in prevailing sociocognitive structures and work practices. We demonstrate that the acknowledgment has gradually established itself as a constitutive element of academic writing, one that provides a revealing insight into the nature and extent of subauthorship collaboration. Complementary data on rates of coauthorship are also presented to highlight the growing importance of collaboration and the increasing division of labor in contemporary research and scholarship.

Bibliographic and Web citations: what is the difference?

Web citations have been proposed as comparable to, even replacements for, bibliographic citations, notably in assessing the academic impact of work in promotion and tenure decisions. We compared bibliographic and Web citations to articles in 46 journals in library and information science. For most journals (57%), Web citations correlated significantly with both bibliographic citations listed in the Social Sciences Citation Index and the ISIs Journal Impact Factor. Many of the Web citations represented intellectual impact, coming from other papers posted on the Web (30%) or from class readings lists (12%). Web citation counts were typically higher than bibliographic citation counts for the same article. Journals with more Web citations tended to have Web sites that provided tables of contents on the Web, while less cited journals did not have such publicity. The number of Web citations to journal articles increased from 1992 to 1997.

Web citation data for impact assessment: A comparison of four science disciplines

The number and type of Web citations to journal articles in four areas of science are examined: biology, genetics, medicine, and multidisciplinary sciences. For a sample of 5,972 articles published in 114 journals, the median Web citation counts per journal article range from 6.2 in medicine to 10.4 in genetics. About 30% of Web citations in each area indicate intellectual impact (citations from articles or class readings, in contrast to citations from bibliographic services or the authors or journals home page). Journals receiving more Web citations also have higher percentages of citations indicating intellectual impact. There is significant correlation between the number of citations reported in the databases from the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI, now Thomson Scientific) and the number of citations retrieved using the Google search engine (Web citations). The correlation is much weaker for journals published outside the United Kingdom or United States and for multidisciplinary journals. Web citation numbers are higher than ISI citation counts, suggesting that Web searches might be conducted for an earlier or a more fine-grained assessment of an articles impact. The Web-evident impact of non-UK/USA publications might provide a balance to the geographic or cultural biases observed in ISIs data, although the stability of Web citation counts is debatable.

Visible, less visible, and invisible work: patterns of collaboration in 20th century chemistry

We chronicle the use of acknowledgments in 20th century chemistry by analyzing and classifying over 2,000 specimens covering a 100-year period. Our results show that acknowledgment has gradually established itself as a constitutive element of academic writing--one that provides a revealing insight into the structural nature of subauthorship collaboration in science. Complementary data on rates of coauthorship are also presented to highlight the growing importance of teamwork and the increasing division of labor in contemporary chemistry. The results of this study are compared with the findings of a parallel study of collaboration in both the social sciences and the humanities.

A new look at evidence of scholarly citation in citation indexes and from web sources

A sample of 1,483 publications, representative of the scholarly production of LIS faculty, was searched in Web of Science (WoS), Google, and Google Scholar. The median number of citations found through WoS was zero for all types of publications except book chapters; the median for Google Scholar ranged from 1 for print/subscription journal articles to 3 for books and book chapters. For Google the median number of citations ranged from 9 for conference papers to 41 for books. A sample of the web citations was examined and classified as representing intellectual or non-intellectual impact. Almost 92% of the citations identified through Google Scholar represented intellectual impact — primarily citations from journal articles. Bibliographic services (non-intellectual impact) were the largest single contributor of citations identified through Google. Open access journal articles attracted more web citations but the citations to print/subscription journal articles more often represented intellectual impact. In spite of problems with Google Scholar, it has the potential to provide useful data for research evaluation, especially in a field where rapid and fine-grained analysis is desirable.

Brief communication: banking (on) different forms of symbolic capital

The accrual of symbolic capital is an important aspect of academic life. Successful capital formation is commonly signified by the trappings of scholarly distinction or acknowledged status as a public intellectual. We consider and compare three potential indices of symbolic capital: citation counts, Web hits, and media mentions. Our findings, which are domain specific, suggest that public intellectuals are notable by their absence within the information studies community.

Citation, funding acknowledgement and author nationality relationships in four information science journals

A bibliometric profile of four information science journals is developed. Data on acknowledgements to funding sources, authors‘ nationalities and the citedness of published articles are analysed. The relationships among these variables are explored. Citedness appears to be associated with journal of publication and an author’s nationality, but not with funding.

The Modern Language Association: electronic and paper surveys of computer-based tool use

Members of the Modern Language Association of America (MLA) were surveyed about their use of computer-based tools. A questionnaire was sent to 1,000 randomly-selected members in the U.S., with 500 sent via paper mail and 500 through electronic mail. Word processing, electronic mail, on-line catalogs, and the MLA International Bibliography were used heavily. Responses by the two subgroups differed significantly in several respects. Electronic full texts received substantially less use by both groups, especially those responding to the print survey. Major changes in research habits included greater reliance on word processing and more work outside of libraries. Problems reported focused on access to computer-based resources, learning to use them, the need for instruction, and inconsistent interfaces. Finally, evidence strongly suggests that reliance solely on electronic surveys may produce misleading results.

Peers and Spheres of Influence: Situating Rob Kling

In this article we employ a number of bibliometric techniques to capture Rob Klings intellectual impact and influences over the course of his varied career. We analyze his many publications in terms of type, topic, impact, and rate of co-authorship. We provide a detailed deconstruction of his citation identity (all those scholars whom he cited) and also his citation image makers (all those scholars who cited his work). In addition, we analyze acknowledgment data to gain deeper insights into the sociocognitive networks that sustained, and were sustained by Kling throughout his career.

Entropy and information: A multidisciplinary overview

The concept of entropy, from the second law of thermodynamics, has been used by numerous writers on information theory. Basic relationships between entropy, order, information, and meaning have been observed by writers in disciplines as diverse as biology, economics, information science, the arts, and religion. This article, while not attempting comprehensive treatment, cites representative extensions of the concept, including its use as metaphor.