Bibliometrics

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Bibliometrics is statistical analysis of written publications, such as books or articles.[1] Bibliometric methods are frequently used in the field of library and information science, including scientometrics. For instance, bibliometrics are used to provide quantitative analysis of academic literature.[2] Citation analysis and content analysis are commonly used bibliometric methods. Many research fields use bibliometric methods to explore the impact of their field,[3] the impact of a set of researchers, or the impact of a particular paper. Bibliometrics also has a wide range of other applications, such as in descriptive linguistics, the development of thesauri, and evaluation of reader usage.

Usage

Historically bibliometric methods have been used to trace relationships amongst academic journal citations. Citation analysis, which involves examining an item's referring documents, is used in searching for materials and analyzing their merit.[4] Citation indices, such as Institute for Scientific Information's Web of Science, allow users to search forward in time from a known article to more recent publications which cite the known item.

Data from citation indexes can be analyzed to determine the popularity and impact of specific articles, authors, and publications. Using citation analysis to gauge the importance of one's work, for example, is a significant part of the tenure review process.[5][6] Information scientists also use citation analysis to quantitatively assess the core journal titles and watershed publications in particular disciplines; interrelationships between authors from different institutions and schools of thought; and related data about the sociology of academia. Some more pragmatic applications of this information includes the planning of retrospective bibliographies, "giving some indication both of the age of material used in a discipline, and of the extent to which more recent publications supersede the older ones;" indicating through high frequency of citation which documents should be archived; comparing the coverage of secondary services which can help publishers gauge their achievements and competition, and can aid librarians in evaluating "the effectiveness of their stock".[7] There are also some limitations to the value of citation data. They are often incomplete or biased; data has been largely collected by hand (which is expensive), though citation indexes can also be used; incorrect citing of sources occurs continually; thus, further investigation is required to truly understand the rationale behind citing to allow it to be confidently applied.[8]

Bibliometrics are now used in quantitative research assessment exercises of academic output which is starting to threaten practice based research.[9] The UK government is considering using bibliometrics as a possible auxiliary tool in its Research Excellence Framework, a process which will assess the quality of the research output of UK universities and on the basis of the assessment results, allocate research funding.[10]

Other bibliometrics applications include: creating thesauri; measuring term frequencies; as metrics in scientometric analysis, exploring grammatical and syntactical structures of texts; measuring usage by readers; quantifying value of online media of communication.[11]

History

The term bibliometrics was coined by Alan Pritchard in a paper published in 1969, titled Statistical Bibliography or Bibliometrics?[12] He defined the term as "the application of mathematics and statistical methods to books and other media of communication".

Although citation analysis is not new (the Science Citation Index began publication in 1961), before it could be calculated by computers it was done manually and so was time-consuming. Automated algorithms are making it much more useful, versatile, and widespread. This led to the creation of the new field of computational bibliometrics. The first such algorithm for automated citation extraction and indexing was by CiteSeer. Google's PageRank is based on the principle of citation analysis. Patent citation maps are also based upon citation analysis (in this case, the citation of one patent by another).

See also

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Bibliometrics at Royal Holloway led by Dr Alan Pilkington, Ver 9.08. Accessed 24 April 2009.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Steve Kolowich. Tenure-o-meter in Inside Higher Ed, December 15, 2009. This article refers to the bibliometrics tool now known as Scholarometer
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Nicholas, David and Maureen Ritchie. Literature and Bibliometrics London: Clive Bingley: 1978. (12-28).
  8. ↑ Nicholas, David and Maureen Ritchie. Literature and Bibliometrics London: Clive Bingley: 1978. (28-29).
  9. ↑ Henderson, M., Shurville, S. and Fernstrom, K. (2009). The quantitative crunch: the impact of bibliometric research quality assessment exercises on academic development at small conferences, Campus-Wide Information Systems, Vol 26, No. 3, pp. 149–167
  10. ↑ Higher Education Funding Council for England, http://www.hefce.ac.uk/Research/ref/. Accessed 20 July 2009.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Pritchard, Alan, 'Statistical Bibliography or Bibliometrics?', Journal of Documentation, 25(4) Dec 1969, 348-349. https://www.academia.edu/598618/Statistical_bibliography_or_bibliometrics Accessed 6 January 2015

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