College and Research Libraries Research Notes 129 Bibliometrics in Information Science: A Citation Analysis of Two Academic Library Journals Mary K. Sellen Bibliometrics has been applied in vary- ing degree and format to much of the liter- ature of information science. La Borie1 in- vestigated subject, form, and dates of a group of library science dissertations done between 1969 and 1972. Peritz2 analyzed the bibliometric data found in a core of in- formation science journals in numerous articles and her 1977 dissertation. Brace3 studied the frequency of citations of spe- cific authors and periodical titles in library and information science dissertations. Windsor4 examined the quantity of refer- ences in information science papers. It is apparent that there is no lack of interest in this aspect of information science. Academic librarians, by nature of their situation in higher education, publish more than any other group of librarians. Because of this frequency of publishing, academic librarians rely on journals as a medium for communicating their research efforts. An examination of the references found in journals of academic librarian- ship can reveal some interesting biblio- metric patterns. Questions specifically asked in this study are (1) do academic li- brarians use more periodical articles or monographs in their research; (2) do arti- cles in specific journal titles reference that specific journal; and (3) in what years are the majority of references found? A cita- tion analysis was conducted in an attempt to answer these questions. THE STUDY References in two academic library jour- nals, College & Research Libraries and Jour- nal of Academic Librarianship for 1981, were examined. The choice of these two titles was based on a survey done by Swisher and Smith .5 C&RL and ]AL were among the top five. journal titles read by academic librarians. By common consensus they are the major journals in academic librarian- ship. Data tallied included whether the reference was a periodical article or mono- graph; if periodical article, what specific ti- tle; and the date of each reference. RESULTS Thirty-seven articles in C&RL were pub- lished in 1981 with a total of 454 refer- ences. Of these, 178 were monograph cita- tions, 258 were periodical citations and 18 referred to miscellaneous documents, such as unpublished committee reports. The average number of citations per article was 12.27. Twenty-seven articles in ]AL were pub- lished in 1981 with a total of 259 refer- ences. Of these, 94 were monograph cita- tions, 141 were periodical citations, and 23 referred to miscellaneous documents. The average number of citations per article was 9.59. Within the 258 periodical citations in C&RL, 65, or 25.19 percent, were refer- ences to articles previously published in C&RL; 20, or7.75percent, were references to ]AL; 173, or 67.05 percent, were refer- ences to other library and nonlibrary jour- nals. Within the 141 periodical citations in ]AL, 23, or 16.3 percent, were references to C&RL; 16, or 11.34 percent, were refer- ences to ]AL; 102, or 72.34 percent, were references to other library and nonlibrary journals (see table 1). DISCUSSION The figures obtained in the results indi- cate that the articles in both journals use more periodical titles than monographs; however, the number of monographs is surprisingly high. This corresponds to the fact that the dates for both periodicals and Mary K. Sellen is head librarian, Behrend College Library, Pennsylvania State University, Erie. 130 College & Research Libraries monographs coincide, indicating that monographs for research are being pub- lished in the same years that relevant peri- odical articles are being published. C&RL was the most cited periodical title in itself and in JAL. JAL ranked second in itself and C&RL. Other titles that were re- March 1984 ferred to frequently but not as often as C&RL and JAL were Library Journal and Li- brary Quarterly (see table 1). In C&RL there is a dramatic drop in citation numbers af- ter the first three titles. The citation num- bers decline gradually in JAL. Monographs and periodicals used in TABLE 1 RANKING OF PERIODICAL TITLES IN THE CITATIONS FOUND IN C&RL AND JAL: THE TOP TEN C&RL JAL Number of Title Times Cited Title C&RL 65 C&RL JAL 20 JAL LibraJ Journal 12 Library Journal Drexe Library Quarterly 6 Amencan Libraries Library Quarterly 5 Libra~ Resources Reference Services Review 4· & echnical Services Aslib Proceedings 4 Library Quarterly Journal %Documentation 4 RQ Libra~ esources Online & echnical Services 4 Drexel LibraJs Quarterly Library Trends 4 Library Tren s uO )) '(J 45 40 '0 (]) +> 3) · rl (.) Ul 30 (]) s ·rl +> 2) ..... 0 h 2l) (]) ~ 15 ;j z l l) ) CRL 0 JAL Number of Times Cited 27 16 11 9 8 7 5 4 2 2 tJ) uo u·r uo uJ '70 71 ·r..: 73 74 7) 7o 77 71.3 79 80 Yea r s of pub li cation FIGURE 1 Years and Frequency of Citation in Periodicals and Monographs in JAL and C&RL Research Notes 131 these 1981 articles were published with the most frequency in the post-1975 years (see figure 1). Figure 2 indicates that the majority of journal articles in the 1981 C&RL were published in 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, and 1979. The years that were the most significant for articles in ]AL were 1977, 1978, and 1979. Figure 3 indicates that the most important years for mono- graphs in C&RL were 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, and 1979, which correspond to the journal article years. In JAL, 1977, 1978, "d Q) +> •ri () Ill Q) a •ri +> <.-. 0 ,.. Q) ~ z 40 35 30 35 30 25 20 15 10 CRL 0 JAL 65 66 67 b8 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 8o "d Q) 40 35 JO ~ 25 () 0 Years of publication FIGURE2 Years and Frequency of Citation in Periodicals in JAL and C&RL 65 66 6'( 68 6') 70 7l 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 Years of publication FIGURE 3 Years and Frequency of Citation in Monographs in JAL and C&RL 132 College & Research Libraries and 1979, again, similar to the article years, had the most titles published. SUMMARY The questions posed at the beginning of this study can be answered from the cita- tion analyses of articles appearing in C&RL and JAL in 1981 as follows: (1) aca- demic librarians do use more periodical ar- ticles than monographs, but the number of monographs used is high; (2) C&RL and JAL do reference themselves; (3) the ma- jority of the references in both periodical and monograph form were in the post- 1975 years. March 1984 This citation analysis indicates that re- search in academic librarianship (1) to a large extent reflects the current trends, as the years of publication for references tend to predate the actual research by only · three to four years; (2) there is consider- ably inbreeding within C&RL and JAL, the results of which may be positive or nega- tive; (3) C&RL is an important journal title in which academic librarians can commu- nicate their ideas; and (4) the time lag be- tween periodical literature and mono- graphic literature in library science does not seem to be large. REFERENCES 1. T. La Borie, "Citation Patterns in Library Science Dissertations," Journal of Education for Librarian- ship 16:271-83 (Spring 1976). 2. B. C. Peritz, ''Citation Characteristics in Library Science: Some Further Results from a Bibliometric Survey," Library Research 3:47-65 (Spring 1981). Peritz has also authored other articles in this area. 3. W. Brace, ''Frequently Cited Authors and Periodicals in Library and Information Science Disserta- tions, 1961-1970," Library and Information Sciences 2:16-34 (Apr. 1976). 4. D. A. Windsor, "Citation of the Literature by Information Scientists in Their Own Publications," Journal of the American Society of Information Science 24:377-381 (Sept./Oct. 1973). 5. R. Swisher andP. C. Smith, ''Journals Read by ACRL Academic Librarians, 1973 and 1978,'' Col- lege & Research Libraries 43:51-58 Oan. 1982) . ttj; y ; • Acquisition Librarians . . . . . : I t 1 I Now is the time I I \ I ~~!~!~~ce for: ~:::=~~~:·,~:!:.d:~m:: 1 J I; l • any book in print slips in books, standing orders, staff • accurate invoicing orders, and up to date information on • meaningful reports open orders. 1 ' I • rush order service the j I t • competitive discounts : ' • PLUS MANY OTHER SERVICES i I f CALL TOLL-FREE TODAY ' t 1-800-248-1146 ' ' Joe8EIIS SERVING LIBRARIES WITH 1 1 . 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