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Library Philosophy and Practice 2008

ISSN 1522-0222

Citation Analysis of Theses in Library and Information Science Submitted to University of Pune: A Pilot Study

R. V. Chikate
Jr. Library Assistant

Dr. S. K. Patil
Librarian & Head
Dept. of Library and Information Science

Jayakar Library
University of Pune
Ganeshkhind Road, Pune, Maharashtra, India

 

Introduction

Citation analysis is a worthwhile area of research. "Citation analysis" refers to references in one text to another text, with information on where that text can be found. Citation analysis is useful for understanding subject relationships, author effectiveness, publication trends, and so on. The first recorded citation analysis was Gross and Gross (1927) who looked at citation patterns to determine the journals to be subscribed to and back volumes to be acquired for the library of Pomona College. They studied the citation frequency in the references given in theJournal of the American Chemical Society (Amudhavalli 1997). With citation analysis one can evaluate and interpret citations received by articles, authors, institutions, and other indications of scientific activity (Ravichandra Rao 1993).

Citation analysis is also a way to understand users. Studying references cited by your faculty's publications or your students' papers shows you the types of sources most commonly used and valued locally in their disciplines (Curtis 2005). It makes use of bibliographic references, which are an essential part of scientific communication (Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science, 1998). Citation analysis is a major area of bibliometric research, which uses various methods of citation analysis to establish relationships between authors or their work (Ane's Encyclopedic Dictionary of Library and Information Science, 2006).

Objectives of the Study

The study objectives are:

  • To determine the principal forms of literature used in dissertations by LIS doctoral students
  • To prepare a ranked list of periodicals based on frequency of use by doctoral students.
  • To determine country-wise distribution of literature used by doctoral students.
  • To determine the age distribution of literature used by doctoral students.
  • To study authorship patterns in citations.
  • To determine language-wise distribution of citations
  • To determine subject-wise distribution of citations.
  • To determine publisher-wise distribution of citations.

Methodology

Twenty-seven LIS dissertations submitted to the University of Pune between 1982 and 2005 were selected a source of data. A total of 6,257 citations were found in all 27 dissertations. Data compiled includes year of publication of articles, and journal subject, language of journal, publication status, place of publication, and publisher of the journal taken from the online version of Ulrich's International Periodical Directory (http://www.ulrichsweb.com).

All references (bibliographies) were photocopied and each reference was categorized according to format or genre, i.e., book, journal, report, conference proceedings, newspaper, thesis/dissertation, and reference book. A list of periodicals was compiled and data was entered in SPSS.

Hypotheses

PhD students prefer periodical literature as a source of information.

PhD students give less importance to non-periodical forms of literature.

PhD students prefer journals published in developed countries.

Data

Distribution of Physical Forms of Publication

Table 1 summarizes the forms of publication cited.

Table 1 : Forms of Publication used by Doctoral Students
Forms of Publication Cumulative
  Citations Percent Citations Percent
Journal 2639 42.2 2639 42.2
Book 1950 31.2 4589 73.3
Web 357 5.7 4946 79.0
Reference book 352 5.6 5298 84.7
Proceedings 337 5.4 5635 90.1
Reports 292 4.7 5927 94.7
Thesis/Diss. 257 4.1 6184 98.8
Newspaper 22 .4 6206 99.2
Interviews 21 .3 6227 99.5
Pamphlets 9 .1 6245 99.8
Manuscripts 3 .0 6254 100.0
Not Identified 18 .3 6257 100.0
Total 6257 100.0    

 

Table 1 shows that 2,639 (42.2%) citations out of 6,257 were from journals, followed by books with 1,950 (31.2%).

Ranked List of Journals

Journals are essential for research but their increasing cost demands that librarians study their quality, usefulness, and suitability to a particular group of users. The ranking list is a practical tool to help select journals of maximum utility in relation to their coverage of new and important literature in a particular subject area. The ranked list of journals in the field of LIS is presented in Table No 2. Journals cited more than twice appear in the table. Titles are arranged in their decreasing order.

Table 2: Ranked List of Cited Journals
Sr. No Name of Journals Rank Citations Percent Cumulative
Citations Percent
1 College and Research Libraries 1 141 5.3 141 5.3
2 Scientometrics 2 129 4.9 270 10.2
3 Journal of American Society for Information Science 3 113 4.3 383 14.5
4 Journal of Documentation 4 99 3.8 482 18.3
5 Aslib Proceedings 5 82 3.1 564 21.4
6 Library Quarterly 6 78 3.0 642 24.3
7 Library Trends 7 62 2.3 704 26.7
8 ILA Bulletin 8 61 2.3 765 29.0
9 Library Science With a slant to Documentation 9 54 2.0 819 31.0
10 Herald of Library Science 10 50 1.9 869 32.9
11 Information Development 11 48 1.8 917 34.7
12 Vayu Mandal 12 46 1.7 963 36.5
13 Library and Information Science Abstracts 13 43 1.6 1006 38.1
14 Bulletin of Medical Library Associtation 14 41 1.6 1047 39.7
15 Library Journal 14 41 1.6 1088 41.2
16 Special Libraries 15 38 1.4 1126 42.7
17 Library Herald 16 37 1.4 1163 44.1
18 International Library Review 17 32 1.2 1195 45.3
19 Information Processing and Management 18 31 1.2 1226 46.5
20 Libri 19 30 1.1 1256 47.6
21 Sahitya Shakar (Marathi) 20 29 1.1 1285 48.7
22 Resource Sharing and Information Networks 21 28 1.1 1313 49.8
23 Journal of Academic Librarianship 22 27 1.0 1340 50.8
24 Computers in Libraries 22 27 1.0 1367 51.8
25 University News 22 27 1.0 1394 52.8
26 Journal of Library and Information Science 23 26 1.0 1420 53.8
27 IASLIC Bulletin 24 25 .9 1445 54.8
28 Library Resources and Technical Services 25 23 .9 1468 55.6
29 UNESCO Bulletin for Libraries 26 22 .8 1490 56.5
30 American Libraries 26 22 .8 1512 57.3
31 Machine Translation 26 22 .8 1534 58.1
32 Journal of Librarianship and Information Science 27 21 .8 1555 58.9
33 International Cataloguing and Bibliographic Control 27 21 .8 1576 59.7
34 Science 27 21 .8 1597 60.5
35 Journal of Information Science 28 20 .8 1617 61.3
36 Indian Librarian 28 20 .8 1637 62.0
37 Program 29 17 .6 1654 62.7
38 Information Today 29 17 .6 1671 63.3
39 Library Hi Technology 30 16 .6 1687 63.9
40 Social Studies of Science 30 16 .6 1703 64.5
41 IFLA 31 15 .6 1718 65.1
42 Journal of Librarianship 31 15 .6 1733 65.7
43 Journal of Education for Libarianship 31 15 .6 1748 66.2
44 Library Association Record 31 15 .6 1763 66.8
45 Journal of Medical Systems 32 14 .5 1777 67.3
46 Library and Information Science Research 32 14 .5 1791 67.9
47 Interlending and Document Supply 32 14 .5 1805 68.4
48 Library Review 33 13 .5 1818 68.9
49 Drexel Library Quarterly 33 13 .5 1831 69.4
50 Indian Economic Journal 33 13 .5 1844 69.9
51 Wilson Library Bulletin 33 13 .5 1857 70.4
52 Collection Management 34 12 .5 1869 70.8
53 Science and Technology Library 34 12 .5 1881 71.3
54 Daedalus 34 12 .5 1893 71.7
55 International Information and Library Review 35 10 .4 1903 72.1
56 Wis-meb. Journal 35 10 .4 1913 72.5
57 Online 35 10 .4 1923 72.9
58 IEEE Expert 35 10 .4 1933 73.2
59 American Documentation 35 10 .4 1943 73.6
60 Journal of American Society for Information Science and Tech 36 9 .3 1952 74.0
61 Cataloguing and Classification Quarterly 36 9 .3 1961 74.3
62 Centre for Library and Information Studies 36 9 .3 1970 74.6
63 Administrative Science Quarterly 36 9 .3 1979 75.0
64 Medical Reference Services 37 8 .3 1987 75.3
65 E-content (Formarly Database) 37 8 .3 1995 75.6
66 Advanced Technology Libraries 37 8 .3 2003 75.9
67 Canadian Library Journal 37 8 .3 2011 76.2
68 Journal of Education for Library and Information Science 37 8 .3 2019 76.5
69 Online Review 37 8 .3 2027 76.8
70 Journal of Higher Education 37 8 .3 2035 77.1
71 Annals of Library and Information Studies 38 7 .3 2042 77.4
72 Satyakatha 38 7 .3 2049 77.6
73 Timeless Fellowship 38 7 .3 2056 77.9
74 ALA Bulletin 38 7 .3 2063 78.2
75 Vachanalaya 38 7 .3 2070 78.4
76 Information Technology and Libraries 38 7 .3 2077 78.7
77 Lucknow Librarian 38 7 .3 2084 79.0
78 American Society for Information Science Bulletin 38 7 .3 2091 79.2
79 Journal of Political Economy 38 7 .3 2098 79.5
80 DESIDOC Bulletin of Information Technology 38 7 .3 2105 79.8
81 OCLC Syatems and Services 39 6 .2 2111 80.0
82 Library Management 39 6 .2 2117 80.2
83 Int. Inf. Comm. and edu. 39 6 .2 2123 80.4
84 Manohar 39 6 .2 2129 80.7
85 Maharashtra Sahitya Patrika 39 6 .2 2135 80.9
86 Alochana 39 6 .2 2141 81.1
87 Education for Information 39 6 .2 2147 81.4
88 Nature 39 6 .2 2153 81.6
89 American Sociological Review 39 6 .2 2159 81.8
90 Health Libraries Review 40 5 .2 2164 82.0
91 Asian Libraries 40 5 .2 2169 82.2
92 Annals of Library Science 40 5 .2 2174 82.4
93 Journal of Indian Library Association 40 5 .2 2179 82.6
94 Maitra 40 5 .2 2184 82.8
95 Communication of the ACM 40 5 .2 2189 82.9
96 American Economic Review 40 5 .2 2194 83.1
97 Biometrika 40 5 .2 2199 83.3
98 Economic Journal 40 5 .2 2204 83.5
99 DELNET Newsletter 40 5 .2 2209 83.7
100 IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management 40 5 .2 2214 83.9
101 Indian Journal of Physical Anthropology and Human Genetics 40 5 .2 2219 84.1
102 Academic Medicine 41 4 .2 2223 84.2
103 Lib Software 41 4 .2 2227 84.4
104 Information Services and Use 41 4 .2 2231 84.5
105 Samikshak 41 4 .2 2235 84.7
106 Prabhuprabhat 41 4 .2 2239 84.8
107 Library Miscellany 41 4 .2 2243 85.0
108 Library Science 41 4 .2 2247 85.1
109 Scientific American 41 4 .2 2251 85.3
110 Journal of Advanced Nursing 41 4 .2 2255 85.4
111 Catalogue and Indiex 41 4 .2 2259 85.6
112 Knowledge Organization 41 4 .2 2263 85.8
113 Knowledge Quest 41 4 .2 2267 85.9
114 Library Collections, Acquisitions, and Technical Services 41 4 .2 2271 86.1
115 Microcompute 41 4 .2 2275 86.2
116 Technical Services Quarterly 41 4 .2 2279 86.4
117 Mezhdunarodnyi Forum Po Informatli 41 4 .2 2283 86.5
118 American Journal os Sociology 41 4 .2 2287 86.7
119 Chemical Abstracts 41 4 .2 2291 86.8
120 Canadian Journal of Information and Lib. Sci. 41 4 .2 2295 87.0
121 Energy Abstracts 41 4 .2 2299 87.1
122 Journal of Economic Issues 41 4 .2 2303 87.3
123 Journal of Economic Literature 41 4 .2 2307 87.4
124 Research Policy 41 4 .2 2311 87.6
125 Science International 41 4 .2 2315 87.7
126 The Electronic Library 42 3 .1 2318 87.8
127 Journal of Library administration 42 3 .1 2321 87.9
128 Navbharat 42 3 .1 2324 88.1
129 Public Library Journal 42 3 .1 2327 88.2
130 Samaj Probhobahn Patrika 42 3 .1 2330 88.3
131 British Journal of Academic Librarianship 42 3 .1 2333 88.4
132 Catholic Library World 42 3 .1 2336 88.5
133 Computer Networks 42 3 .1 2339 88.6
134 Information Studies 42 3 .1 2342 88.7
135 OCLC News Letter 42 3 .1 2345 88.9
136 Reference and User Services Quarterly 42 3 .1 2348 89.0
137 Sesame Bulletin 42 3 .1 2351 89.1
138 American Journal of Small Business 42 3 .1 2354 89.2
139 Forestry Abstracts 42 3 .1 2357 89.3
140 Journal of Human Resources 42 3 .1 2360 89.4
141 Libraries and Cultural Record 42 3 .1 2363 89.5
142 Science Reporter 42 3 .1 2366 89.7
143 Social Science Information 42 3 .1 2369 89.8
144 Sociology 42 3 .1 2372 89.9
145 Span 42 3 .1 2375 90.0
146 Mini Foxie Newletter 42 3 .1 2378 90.1
147 Souh African Journal of Library and Information Science 42 3 .1 2381 90.2
201 54 Journals have Two Citations 43 54x2=108 5.2 2435 95.5
351 150 Journals have one Citations 44 150x1=150 4.5 2639 100
  Total   2639 100.0    

Table 2 reveals that the most cited journal by LIS researchers isCollege and Research Libraries, which was cited 141 times, more than 5.3% of the total percentage of citations, followed byScientometrics, at 129 (4.9%),Journal of American Society for Information Science, 113(4.3%),Journal of Documentation, 99 (3.8%),Aslib Proceedings, 82 (3.1%),Library Quarterly, 78 (3.0%), andLibrary Trends with 62 (2.3%).

Bradford's Law of Scattering

Bradford in 1934 described a scattering pattern in applied geophysics. He plotted the partial sum of references against the natural logarithm of the partial sums of number of journals and noticed that the resulting graph was a straight line. On the basis of this observation, he suggested the following linear relation to describe a scattering phenomenon: F(x)=a+b log X, where F(x) is the cumulative number of references contained in the first X-most productive journals. "a" and "b" are constants, Bradford, thus, based on a semi-logarithmic group argued that:

If scientific journals are arranged in order of decreasing productivity of articles on a given subject, they may be divided into a nucleus of periodicals more particularly devoted to the subject and several groups or zones containing the same number of articles as the nucleus when zones will be 1:n:n2. where 1 represents the number of journals in the nucleus and 'n' is a multiplier.

In the present study, 11 journals covered 917 articles, the next 55 journals covered 914 articles, and the next 300 journals covered 770 articles. That is, 11 journals covered one-third of the total citations, the next 41 journals accounted for another one-third, and the final 300 covered the remaining third. Thus, the first zone or 'nucleus' contains 11 journals, followed by the second zone with 55, and the third with 300 journals. The zones form an approximately geometric series in the form. 11:55:300

Here, 55= 11x5 and 300= 11x25=11x5x5

i.e. 11:11 x5:11x5x5

or 11:11 x 5:11 x52

Substituting 5= n

11:11n"11n 2

i.e. 1:n:n 2

Where 11 represents the number of journals in the nucleus and n=5 is a multiplier.

Bradford's Law of Scattering is confirmed by this data

Geographic Distribution

Geographical analysis of citations provides information about the countries active in a subject field and their relative contribution. Table 3 shows the geographical distribution of 351 ranked journals covering 2,639 citations.

Table 3: Geographic Distribution
Country No. of Journal Percentage No. of Citations Percentage
USA 131 37 1076 40.8
India 88 25 651 24.7
UK 71 20 560 21.2
Hungary 1 0 129 4.9
Netherland 10 3 53 2.0
Germany 5 2 40 1.5
France 3 2 25 .9
Canada 9 3 22 .8
Portugal 1 0 20 .8
Australia 5 2 14 .5
South Africa 2 1 7 .3
Pakistan 2 1 5 .2
Jordan 2 1 5 .2
Russia 1 0 4 .2
Slovakia 2 1 3 .1
Belgium 2 0 3 .1
Romania 1 1 3 .1
Taiwan 2 1 3 .1
Malaysia 1 0 2 .1
Denmark 1 0 2 .1
Thailand 1 0 2 .1
Hong Kong 2 0 2 .1
Japan 1 0 1 .0
Iran 1 0 1 .0
Sri Lank 1 0 1 .0
Ireland 1 0 1 .0
Nigeria 1 0 1 .0
Yogoslavia 1 0 1 .0
Bulgarian 1 0 1 .0
Brazil 1 0 1 .0
Total 351 100.0 2639 100

One quarter, or 88 of the journals, covering 651 (24.7%) citations were from India. The US ranks first among foreign countries with 131 (37 %), while 71 (20%) journals, covering 560 (21.2%) citations are from the UK.

Age of Citations

The age distribution of journal citations is given in Table 4.

Table 4 : Age of Citations
Time Span No.of Citation Percentage Cumulative Citation Cumulative percentage
2005-1996 563 21 563 21
1995-1986 764 30 1327 51
1985-1976 615 23 1942 74
1975-1966 408 15 2350 89
1965-1956 170 6 2520 95
1955-1946 19 1 2539 96
1945-1936 57 2 2596 98
1935-1926 15 .7 2611 98.7
1925-1916 18 1 2629 99.7
1915-1906 9 .2 2638 99.9
1905-1902 1 .1 2639 100
Total 2639 100    

Out of 2,639 citations, 764 were cited during 1986-1995.

Authorship Patterns

The characteristics of subject literature consist of not only the basic publishing patterns but the authors. Authorship has been analyzed to determine the percentage of single and multiple authors. Table 5 shows the authorship pattern distribution of 351 ranked journals covering 2,639 articles.

Table 5: Authorship Patterns
No. of Authors No. of Articles Percent Cumulative Percent
One Authors 1911 72.4 72.4
Two Authors 480 18.2 90.6
Three Authors 104 3.9 94.5
More than Four 75 2.8 97.4
Not Mentioned 54 2.0 99.4
Four Authors 15 .6 100.0
Total 2639 100.0  

 

Most of the articles have one author: 72.4 percent.

Language distribution

Table 6 shows the language distribution of 2,639 citations.

Table 6 : Language Distribution
Sr. No Language Citations Percent
1 English 2485 94.2
2 Marathi 118 4.5
3 French 12 .5
4 Russian 6 .2
5 Dutch 5 .2
6 Chinese 3 .1
7 Hindi 2 .1
8 German 2 .1
9 Romanian 2 .1
10 Persian 1 .0
11 Urdu 1 .0
12 Bulgarian 1 .0
13 Portuguese 1 .0
  Total 2639 100

Nearly all citations are in English: 2,485 (94.2%), followed by Marathi with 118 (4.5%).

Subject Distribution of Citations

Subject distribution of core journals in LIS is presented in Table 7. The LIS literature is scattered among various subjects. LIS doctoral students used a multitude of disciplines, including science, medicine, economics, psychology, etc.

Table 7: Subject Distribution
Sr. No Subject No of Citation Percent
1 Library Science 1906 72.2
2 Science 191 7.2
3 Medical Science 73 2.8
4 General 64 2.4
5 Economics 61 2.3
6 Literature 60 2.3
7 Computer Science 53 2.0
8 Meteorology 52 2.0
9 Education 51 1.9
10 Sociology 29 1.1
11 Humanities 13 .5
12 Social Sciene 11 .4
13 Psychology 9 .3
14 Energy 8 .3
15 Engineering 8 .3
16 Anthropology 6 .2
17 Politics 5 .2
18 Biology 5 .2
19 Geology 5 .2
20 Chemistry 5 .2
21 Forests 3 .1
22 Mathematics 3 .1
23 Agricultural 3 .1
24 Publishing and Book Trade 3 .1
25 Agriculture 3 .1
26 Microbiology 1 .0
27 Communication 1 .0
28 Religions 1 .0
29 Geography 1 .0
30 Philosophy 1 .0
31 Military 1 .0
32 Architecture 1 .0
33 Pharmacy 1 .0
34 Marathi 1 .0
  Total 2639 100.0

Nearly three quarters of the citations are from LIS subjects, followed by 191 (7.2%) in science, 73 (2.8%) citations from medicine, and other 469 (17.8%) citations from 31 subjects.

Publisher Distribution

The decision to acquire library resources is sometimes based on the type of organization publishing the materials. To learn more about the publishers cited in LIS dissertations, publishers were categorized as commercial, academic, association, societies, individuals, and government.

Table 8 shows the publisher distribution of 2,639 citations.

Table 8: Publisher Distribution
Sr. No Type of Publisher No. of Citation Percent
1 Commercial 1024 38.8
2 Academic 749 28.4
3 Association 531 20.1
4 Society 259 9.8
5 Individual 68 2.6
6 Government 8 .3
  Total 2639 100

 

Commercial publishers were the most frequently cited. They were closely followed by academic publishers, and then associations, societies, and individuals.

Findings and Conclusion

More than 6,000 citations from 27 doctoral dissertations were analyzed. The following conclusions are drawn:

  • Nearly half of the citations recorded are from journal articles: 2,639 (42.2%)
  • Nearly three quarters of the journal articles were from LIS journals, with the remainder from 33 other subject areas.
  • College and Research Libraries is the most cited journal, followed byScientometrics.
  • Most of the citations are from 55 journals out of the total number.

References

Amudhavalli, A. (1997). Impact of electronic publishing on collection development.DESIDOC Bulletin of Information Technology17(1): 7-10.

Curtis, D. (2005).E-Journals: A how-to-do-it-manual for building, managing, and supporting electronic journal collections. New York: Neal-Schuman.

Ravichandra Rao, I. K. (1973). Obsolescence and utility factors of periodical publications: A case study.Library Science with a Slant to Documentation 10(3): 297-307.

Selected Bibliometric and Citation Analysis Studies

Bandopadhyay, A. K. (1996). Citation analysis of doctoral dissertations in mathematics using dbase III +.Annals of Library Science and Documentation 43(3): 81-107.

Barooah, P. K.., Sharma, N. N., and Begum, D. (1999). Bibliometric study of doctoral dissertations in organic chemistry submitted by S and T workers of RRL, JORHAT to evaluate the utility factor of the library.Annals of Library Science and Documentation 46(1) : 1-8

Furgaullah, M. (1993). Contribution of Indian hydrologists inJournal of Hydrology: A Scientrometric Study.Annals of Library Science and Documentation 41(3): 81-94

Pilla Rajan, C. V., & Pillai Sudhier, K. G. (2007). Citation in the physics doctoral dissertation: An obsolescence study. IASLIC Bulletin 52(3): 168-179.

Popovich, C. J. (1978). The characteristics of a collection for research in business management.College and Research Libraries. 39(2): 110-117.

Prasad, G. S., Rao, K. V., & Jyothi, M. R. (2007). Citation analysis of doctoral studies in geology.Pearl 1(4): 11-21

Ramakrishna, N. V., & Pangannaya, N. B. (1999). Bibliometrics of animal cell culture technology literature: A study based on the animal cell biotechnology.Annals of Library Science and Documentation 46(3): 81-96

Ruppel, M., & Waugh, C. K. (2004). Citation analysis of dissertation, thesis, and research paper references in workforce education and development.Journal of Academic Librarianship 30(4): 276-284.

Satarkar, S. P., Dharmapurikar, R. G., & Jadhava, M. B. (2004). Citation analysis of Indian Library Association Proceedings Vol. Xxxvii.ILA Bulletin 38(4): 123-125

Sengupta, I. N. (1988).Bibliometric research: Growth of biomedical literature. Vol.1. Calcutta: SBA publications, p.48

Singh, S. P. ( 2004). Styles of bibliographical citation.Journal of Library and Information Science 29(1-2): 94-108.

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