EBL
101
Research
Methods: Bibliometrics
Virginia
Wilson
Librarian,
Murray Library
University
of Saskatchewan
Saskatoon,
Saskatchewan, Canada
Email:
virginia.wilson@usask.ca
Received: 1 Aug. 2012 Accepted: 8 Aug. 2012
2012 Wilson. This is
an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons‐Attribution‐Noncommercial‐Share
Alike License 2.5 Canada (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ca/), which
permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is properly attributed, not used for commercial
purposes, and, if transformed, the resulting work is redistributed under the
same or similar license to this one.
Bibliometrics!
Metrics about biblios: A set of measurements about a book, or books, or text.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines bibliometrics as “The branch of
library science concerned with the application of mathematical and statistical
analysis to bibliography; the statistical analysis of books, articles, or other
publications” (2012). As a research method, Beck and Manuel state that
“essentially, if you can count something without too much debate over what it
is—and it has something to do with any type of recorded information source—it
could become the subject of a bibliometric study” (2008, p. 165). Bibliometrics
can also be referred to as informetrics, webometrics, scientometrics, and
cybermetrics. The different terms basically reflect the types of information to
which the analysis is applied.
Bibliometrics
involves the measurement of data not intrinsic to the text, i.e., the text does
not need to be read in order for analysis to be conducted. Instead, extrinsic
measures such as affiliation of author, word frequency, usage statistics, and,
most commonly citations are measured. There is a school of thought that
combines bibliometrics with content analysis (extrinsic and intrinsic)
but for the purposes of this column, I intend to focus on bibliometrics alone.
While
bibliometrics has been around for decades, and “is one of the oldest research
methods in library and information science,” it’s only since the advent of high
powered computer technology that bibliometrics has exploded (Beck & Manuel,
2008, p. 166). “Bibliographic databases, citation indexes, and statistical
programs” have added ease, depth, and breadth to bibliometric analysis (Powell &
Connaway, 2004, p. 63). Another major development for bibliometrics has been
the internet and the publishing of “an increasingly broad range of
research-related documents, from articles to email discussion lists, allowing
the creation of a range of new metrics relating to their access and use”
(Thelwell, 2008, p. 605).
A
quick scan of the articles returned on a search for “bibliometrics” and
“librarian research” in the Library and Information Science (LISA) database
shows a variety of ways that this research method has been used:
Sengupta, I.
N. (1990). Bibliometrics and the identification of core periodicals. Herald
of Library Science, 29 (3-4),
226-245.
Mancall, J.
C., & Drott, M. C. (1979). Materials used by high school students in
preparing independent study projects: A bibliometrics approach. Library
Research, 1(3), 223-236.
Houston, W.
(1983). The application of bibliometrics to veterinary science primary literature.
Quarterly Bulletin of the International Association of Agricultural
Librarians and Documentalists, 28(1), 6-13.
Hersberger,
J., & Demas, C. (2001). The current state of public library research in
select peer reviewed journals: 1996-2000. North Carolina Libraries, 59(1), 10-14.
Retrieved 20 Aug. 2012 from http://www.ncl.ecu.edu/index.php/NCL/article/viewFile/288/306
Powell
and Connaway pulled together applications of bibliographic research outlined by
a number of authors into the following list:
1.
Improving
the bibliographic control of a literature
2.
Identifying
a core literature, especially journals
3.
Classifying
a literature
4.
Tracing
the spread of ideas and growth of a literature
5.
Designing
more economic information systems and networks
6.
Improving
the efficiency of information handling services
7.
Predicting
publishing trends
8.
Describing
patterns of book use by patrons
9.
Developing
and evaluating library collections (2004, p. 63)
Bibliometrics
can also be embraced by librarians as a core service relating to the scholarly
communication process. By honing skills in bibliometric analysis, librarians
can develop expertise which “can be used to help [their] faculty prove their
scholarly contribution and achieve success in their tenure process” (Kear &
Colbert-Lewis, 2011, p. 470).
As
always, this column can only give a minimum overview of any research method,
and immersion into the method is necessary when undertaking the research. Here
are some resources that can get you started on your bibliometric journey:
Andrés, A.
(2009). Measuring academic research: How to undertake a bibliometric study.
Oxford: Chandos Publishing.
De Bellis, N.
(2009). Bibliometrics and citation
analysis: From the Science Citation Index to cybermetrics.
Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press.
Thelwall, M.
A. (2009). Introduction to webometrics:
Quantitative web research for the social sciences. San Rafael,
CA: Morgan & Claypool Publishers.
Wolfram, D.
(2003). Applied informetrics for
information retrieval research.
Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.
It
seems like a logical progression to go from the tried and true method of
bibliometrics to a newer and quicker type of analysis called altmetrics, so
that’s what I’ll look at next time. And if you have any comments, questions, or
suggestions for this column, please comment on this article by signing in to
the Open Journal System as a reader and joining in the conversation.
References
Beck, S. E.,
& Manuel, K. (2008). Practical research methods for librarians and information
professionals. New York, NY: Neal-Schuman.
Kear, R.,
& Colbert-Lewis, D. (2011) Citation searching and bibliometric measures:
Resources for ranking and tracking. College and Research Library News, 72(8),
470-474. Retrieved 21 Aug. 2012 from http://crln.acrl.org/content/72/8/470.full.pdf+html
Powell,
R. R., & Connaway, L. S. (2004). Basic research methods for librarians
(4th ed.).Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.
Thelwell, M. (2008).
Bibliometrics to webometrics. Journal of
Information Science, 34(4), 605-621.
doi:10.1177/0165551507087238
Bibliometrics. (2012). In Oxford English
Dictionary. Retrieved 21 Aug. 2012 from www.oed.com/view/Entry/241665.