LIBRIES: Library and Information Science Research e- Journal: A Bibliometric Analysis

 

Dr. N. Zafrunnnisha ¹

 

¹ Dy. Librarian, Department of Library, JNTUA College of Engineering, Kalikiri, Andhra Pradesh, India

 

1. INTRODUCTION

About the Journal: LIBRES is an internationally refereed e-journal devoted to research and scholarly articles in Library and Information Science (LIS). It has a particular focus on research in emerging areas of LIS, synthesis of LIS research areas and on novel perspectives and conceptions that advance theory and practice. LIBRES is published twice a year in June and in December.

Bibliometrics: Bibliometric studies have been gaining significance in the field of Library and information science. Bibliometrics has commanded the attention of numerous individuals in library and information science. The measurement of bibliographic information offers the promise of providing a theory that will resolve many practical problems. It is claimed that author productivity patterns, literature growth rates and related statistical distributions can be used to evaluate authors, assess disciplines, and maintain collections.

 

1.1. Scope for the Study

Bibliometric analysis helps to find out certain characteristics about the literature in a particular field. The present investigation is concerned with the analysis of citations cited in LIBRIES e-journal, total 1085 citations were appended in 5 volumes of LIBIES i.e., from V28(2018) to V32(2023), total 5 years’ data source for the present study.

 

1.2. Objectives

The following are the objectives of the present study:

·        To know the various sources of information consulted by the authors in LIBRIES e-journal,

·        To observe the nature of authorship pattern in LIBRIES,

·        To examine the core journals of LIBRIES,

·        To study the distribution of citations by subject, country of origin and language,

·        To examine the applicability of Bradford’s Law of scattering to the pattern of journals used by the authors in LIBRIES, and

·        To find the Productivity of journals used in LIBRIES.

 

2. Review of literature

The literature of bibliometrics is developing rapidly. Many review articles and books on development of bibliometrics have been published. Bibliometric analysis has been increasingly used to evaluate the research performance of the scientists and the growth of different disciplines.

 

2.1. Earlier studies on citation analysis

Citations are the explicit linkage between papers that have a particular point in common. Some of the studies that were conducted on citation analysis are as follows:

Verma & Shukla (2018)1 studied a bibliometric analysis of the Journal of Library Herald for the period of 10 years (2008-2017). They analysed articles during the period of study was 222 articles in the journal. The objectives of the paper was to know the authorship pattern, geographical distribution of cited literature.

Seno and Others (2019)2 conducted A study on ‘A Bibliometric Analysis of Journal of Higher Education Management’ from 2007 to 2016.The study explored that total 83 papers and 1821 citations were analysed within period of their study, single authored papers were high (54%) than multi-authored papers, the Journal of higher Education was the most cited journal etc.

Muhammad and Others (2021)3 revealed results in their study that 122 authors contributed 130 articles from different regions during 2012-20. Out of 130 articles, 101 articles were contributed by single authors. Pakistani authors contributed a total of 96 out of 130 articles. Bangladesh secured the second position with nine articles etc. Muhammad Naveed and Others (2021) 4 evaluated Research Output of the Library Quarterly journal the study evaluated t total 469 documents published in this timespan in LQ.

Ali et al. (2021)5 analysed document types, yearly published documents within 42 years, top productive authors, top productive institutions and countries, frequently used keywords, and greatly cited articles. These aspects also meet the objectives of the study and provide the major findings such as most of the publications are "articles" belong to the Department of Information Science from the UK.

Frank and others (2022)6 and others studied on Bibliometric Analysis of the International Dental Journal. their study revealed results that   total 7212 citations were analysed, collaborative research is high than individual research, Highest literature published country was US.

Material: Total 1085 citations were appended in 5 volumes of LIBIES i.e., from V28 to V32, during the years from 2018 to 2023 are used as source material for the present investigation.

 

3. Methodology for Analysis of Data

The information relating to each citation, i.e., number of authors, type of bibliographic form, publication year of source item, name of the journal, subject, country, language, and publisher’s name are recorded and the data is fed into the computer using MS-Excel software package for analysis of data.

 

4. Results and Discussion

The results and discussion regarding different aspects are presented for LIBRIES.

Table 1

Table 1 Authorship Pattern in LIBRIES
S. No	No of Authors	No. of References	Per cent age	Cum. No. of Citations	Cum Per cent age
1	Single	507	46.73	507	46.73
2	Two	294	27.1	801	73.82
3	Three	133	12.26	934	86.08
4	Four	103	9.49	1037	95.58
5	Five	23	2.12	1060	97.7
6	Six	15	1.38	1075	99.08
7	Seven	10	0.92	1085	100
	Total	1085	100	1085	100

 

Authorship pattern in LIBRIES Journal is shown in Table 1, it is evident from the table that the single authored papers are maximum with 53.58% of total citations. Two authored papers account for 30.18% and multi authored papers account for 46.37% of total cited papers. It is noticed from Table 4.14 that in basic Psychology single authored papers have shown a declining trend from 79.4% (1941-1945) to 26.8% (1996-2000).

The literature in any discipline is published in different bibliographic forms such as journals, books, dissertations and theses, reports, newspapers, monographs, magazines, Dictionaries/Encyclopedias and seminar/conference proceedings etc.

Table 2

Table 2 Bibliographic Form Wise Distribution of Citations in LIBRIES
S. No	Bibliographic form wise distribution of References	No. of Citations	Per cent age	Cum. No. of Citations	Cum Per cent age
1	Journals	510	47.00	510	47.00
2	books	215	19.82	725	66.82
3	www	166	15.30	891	82.12
4	Conf/Seminar Proceedings	110	10.14	1001	92.26
5	Magazines	13	1.20	1014	93.46
6	Dictionaries/Encyclopedias	38	3.50	1052	96.96
7	Newspapers	2	0.18	1054	97.14
8	Reports	6	0.55	1060	97.70
9	Blogs	2	0.18	1062	97.88
10	Unpublished documents	6	0.55	1068	98.43
11	Un-identified	17	1.57	1085	100
	Total	1085	100	1085	100

 

The literature in any discipline is published in different bibliographic forms such as journals, books, dissertations and theses, reports, newspapers, monographs, magazines, and seminar/conference proceedings etc.

Table 1 shows the distribution of citations among different bibliographic forms in LIBRIES.  It is evident from the table that the journals contribute the highest number of citations accounting for 47% of total citations. Books secured second highest number of citations accounting for 19.82% of total citations. www secured third highest rank accounting with 15.3%, followed by Conf/Seminar Proceedings with 10.41% The remaining 7.74 % of citations are from other bibliographic forms.

Table 3

Table 3 Rank list of journals in LIBRIES
S. No	Name of the Journal	No. of Citations	Per cent age	Cum. No. of Citations	Cum Per cent age
1	Scientometrics	136	26.67	136.00	26.67
2	Higher Education	15	2.94	151.00	29.61
3	College & Research Libraries	12	2.35	163.00	31.96
4	PLOS ONE	11	2.16	174.00	34.12
5	Journal of Academic Librarianship	9	1.76	183.00	35.88
9	Cataloging & Classification Quarterly	9	1.76	192.00	37.65
6	Journal of Documentation	8	1.57	200.00	39.22
7	Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology	8	1.57	208	40.78
8	IFLA Journal	7	1.37	215.00	42.16
10	Information Research	6	1.18	221.00	43.33
11	Journal of American Society for Information Science	6	1.18	227.00	44.51
12	Australian Academic and Research Libraries	5	0.98	232.00	45.49
13	Cataloging & Classification Quarterly	5	0.98	237.00	46.47
32	Malaysian Journal of Library & Information Science	5	0.98	242.00	47.45
14	Electronic Library	4	0.78	246.00	48.24
15	Administrative Science Quarterly	3	0.59	249.00	48.82
16	American Journal of Sociology	3	0.59	252.00	49.41
17	Aslib Journal of Information Management	3	0.59	255	50
18	Data motion	3	0.59	258.00	50.59
19	Information and Knowledge Management	3	0.59	261.00	51.18
20	Information Science	3	0.59	264.00	51.76
21	Information Technology and Libraries	3	0.59	267.00	52.35
22	Innovations Online	3	0.59	270.00	52.94
23	International Journal of Digital Curation	3	0.59	273.00	53.53
24	International Journal of Education and Research	3	0.59	276.00	54.12
25	Journal of American Society for Information Science & Technology	3	0.59	279.00	54.71
26	Journal of applied Information Science and Technology	3	0.59	282.00	55.29
27	Journal of Emerging Trends in LIS	3	0.59	285.00	55.88
28	Journal of information Science	3	0.59	288.00	56.47
29	Knowledge Organization	3	0.59	291.00	57.06
30	Library Philosophy and Practice	3	0.59	294.00	57.65
31	LIBRIES	3	0.59	297.00	58.24
33	Management for Development Journal	3	0.59	300.00	58.82
34	PLOSONE	3	0.59	303.00	59.41
35	Research in Higher Education	3	0.59	306.00	60
36	Research Policy	3	0.59	309.00	60.59
37	Salaam Library Journal	3	0.59	312.00	61.18
38	The Serials Librarian	3	0.59	315.00	61.76
39	European Journal of Information Systems	2	0.39	317.00	62.16
40	Journal of Digital Curation	2	0.39	319.00	62.55
41	Journal of Information	2	0.39	321.00	62.94
42	Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology			323.00	63.33
		2	0.39
43	Library Hi-Tech	2	0.39	325.00	63.73
44	Library Trends	2	0.39	327.00	64.12
45	187 Journals with each 1 citation	187	35.88	510.00	100
	Total	510	100	510	100

 

Table 3 depicts the rank list of journals in LIBRIES. It is obvious from the table that the journal citations cited by researchers in LIBRIES are scattered in 510 journals. Among them ‘Scientometrics’ occupies first rank for being cited in more number of times with 26.67% of total journal citations, followed by ‘Higher Education’ journal (2.94%), College & Research Libraries ‘(2.35%) of total journal citations.

The first 10 journals in the rank list contributed more than 26% of total journal citations. The first 17 journals in the rank list contributed nearly 50% of total journal citations. These 17 journals can be considered as the most cited journals by the authors in LIBRIES. The remaining 50% of citations are scattered among 493journals.

 

5. Productivity of Journals in LIBRIES

The productivity of cited journals is measured after dividing all the journals into four equal groups. The number of journals covering the citations in each group is computed. The average rate of productivity (the ratio of the number of citations to the number of journals) in each group is computed.

Table 4

Table 4 Productivity of journals in LIBRIES E-Journal
Sl. No	Per cent age of Journals	No. of Citations	No. of Journals covered	Per cent age of Journals2	Average Productivity of Journals
1	0 - 25%	136	1	26.7	52.9
2	26 - 50%	119	16	23.3	6.2
3	51 - 75%	125	110	24.5	42.08
4	76 - 100%	130	130	25.5	50.58
	TOTAL	510	257	100	1.98

 

It is evident from Table 4 that in LIBRIES the first 25% of citations are from only one journal in the first group, thus signifying its high rate of productivity. The average rate of productivity of journals in the first group is 52.9, whereas it gone down to 6.2 in second group, again its gown up to 42.08 in third group and in fourth group also it’s gone up i.e., 50.58 This shows the concentration of a greater number of citations in a greater number of journals.

Table 5

Table 5 Bradford’s Zones for LIBRIES
Zones	Citations	Journals		Cumulative
			Journal Per cent age (%)	No. of Citations	No.  of Journals	Journal per cent age (%)
1	174	4	1.66	174	4	1.66
2	168	65	26.97	342	69	28.63
3	168	172	71.37	510	241	100
Total	510	241	100	510	241	100

 

It is evident from Table 8 that the ratio of the number of journal titles in the three zones in the LIBRIES is 4: 65: 172. The verbal formulation of the Bradford’s Law of Scattering is also tested by dividing the total number of citations in each field into three zones. The numbers of journal titles in the three zones are not increasing geometrically. Hence it is concluded that the journal usage pattern in the LIBRIES does not satisfy the verbal formulation of the Bradford’s Law of scattering.

 

6. Conclusion

It is concluded that the journals contribute the highest number of citations accounting for 47% of total citations, ‘Scientmetrics’ is the highest number of times cited journal in LIBRIES, single authored papers are maximum with 53.58% of total citations. The Bradford’s Law of scattering ratio in LIBRIES is 4: 65: 172. Hence it is concluded that the journal usage pattern in the LIBRIES does not satisfy the verbal formulation of the Bradford’s Law of scattering and the average rate of productivity of journals in in LIBRIES is 1.98.

 

CONFLICT OF INTERESTS

None. 

 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

None.

 

REFERENCES

Ali, N., Naveed, M., Aslam, S., & Bhatti, M. W. (2021). Research Trend of Journal of Information Science: A Bibliometric Analysis Through Web of Science Database. Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal), (6364). Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libphilprac/6364

Anita-Obong, S. E., Casselden, B., & Pickard, A. (2019). A Bibliometric Analysis of Journal of Higher Education Management from 2007-2016. Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal), (2037). Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libphilprac/2037

Hussain, A., & Arif, A. (2021). Bibliometric Analysis of Regional Studies- A quarterly journal of Institute of Regional Studies, Islamabad, Pakistan. Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal), (5157). Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libphilprac/5157

Mayta-Tovalino, F., et al. (2023). A Bibliometric Analysis of the International Dental Journal. International Dental Journal, 73(157-162).

Naveed, M., Ali, N., Aslam, S., & Siddique, N. (2021). Research Output of The Library Quarterly: A Bibliometric Analysis During 2010-2019. Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal), (5377). Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libphilprac/5377

Verma, M. K., & Shukla, R. (2018). Library Herald-2008-2017: A Bibliometric Study. Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal), (1762). Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libphilprac/1762