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Citation levels and collaboration within library and information science

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  • Jonathan M. Levitt
  • Mike Thelwall

Abstract

Collaboration is a major research policy objective, but does it deliver higher quality research? This study uses citation analysis to examine the Web of Science (WoS) Information Science & Library Science subject category (IS&LS) to ascertain whether, in general, more highly cited articles are more highly collaborative than other articles. It consists of two investigations. The first investigation is a longitudinal comparison of the degree and proportion of collaboration in five strata of citation; it found that collaboration in the highest four citation strata (all in the most highly cited 22%) increased in unison over time, whereas collaboration in the lowest citation strata (un‐cited articles) remained low and stable. Given that over 40% of the articles were un‐cited, it seems important to take into account the differences found between un‐cited articles and relatively highly cited articles when investigating collaboration in IS&LS. The second investigation compares collaboration for 35 influential information scientists; it found that their more highly cited articles on average were not more highly collaborative than their less highly cited articles. In summary, although collaborative research is conducive to high citation in general, collaboration has apparently not tended to be essential to the success of current and former elite information scientists.

Suggested Citation

  • Jonathan M. Levitt & Mike Thelwall, 2009. "Citation levels and collaboration within library and information science," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 60(3), pages 434-442, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jamist:v:60:y:2009:i:3:p:434-442
    DOI: 10.1002/asi.21000
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Jonathan M. Levitt & Mike Thelwall, 2016. "Long term productivity and collaboration in information science," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 108(3), pages 1103-1117, September.
    2. Guillermo Armando Ronda-Pupo & Carlos Díaz-Contreras & Guillermo Ronda-Velázquez & Jorge Carlos Ronda-Pupo, 2015. "The role of academic collaboration in the impact of Latin-American research on management," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 102(2), pages 1435-1454, February.
    3. Maarten Wesel & Sally Wyatt & Jeroen Haaf, 2014. "What a difference a colon makes: how superficial factors influence subsequent citation," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 98(3), pages 1601-1615, March.
    4. Wah Yun Low & Kwan Hoong Ng & M. A. Kabir & Ai Peng Koh & Janaki Sinnasamy, 2014. "Trend and impact of international collaboration in clinical medicine papers published in Malaysia," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 98(2), pages 1521-1533, February.
    5. Thelwall, Mike & Sud, Pardeep, 2014. "No citation advantage for monograph-based collaborations?," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 276-283.
    6. A. Abrizah & Mohammadamin Erfanmanesh & Vala Ali Rohani & Mike Thelwall & Jonathan M. Levitt & Fereshteh Didegah, 2014. "Sixty-four years of informetrics research: productivity, impact and collaboration," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 101(1), pages 569-585, October.
    7. Zhenyue Zhao & Xuelian Pan & Weina Hua, 2021. "Comparative analysis of the research productivity, publication quality, and collaboration patterns of top ranked library and information science schools in China and the United States," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(2), pages 931-950, February.
    8. Daniel L Belavy & Patrick J Owen & Patricia M Livingston, 2020. "Do successful PhD outcomes reflect the research environment rather than academic ability?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(8), pages 1-14, August.
    9. Mihail Cocosila & Alexander Serenko & Ofir Turel, 2011. "Exploring the management information systems discipline: a scientometric study of ICIS, PACIS and ASAC," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 87(1), pages 1-16, April.
    10. Guillermo Armando Ronda-Pupo & J. Sylvan Katz, 2018. "The power law relationship between citation impact and multi-authorship patterns in articles in Information Science & Library Science journals," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 114(3), pages 919-932, March.
    11. Alexander I. Terekhov, 2017. "Bibliometric spectroscopy of Russia’s nanotechnology: 2000–2014," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 110(3), pages 1217-1242, March.
    12. Fairclough, Ruth & Thelwall, Mike, 2015. "More precise methods for national research citation impact comparisons," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 9(4), pages 895-906.
    13. John Hudson, 2016. "An analysis of the titles of papers submitted to the UK REF in 2014: authors, disciplines, and stylistic details," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 109(2), pages 871-889, November.
    14. Minho So & Jiyoung Kim & Sangki Choi & Han Park, 2015. "Factors affecting citation networks in science and technology: focused on non-quality factors," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 49(4), pages 1513-1530, July.
    15. Jonathan M. Levitt, 2015. "What is the optimal number of researchers for social science research?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 102(1), pages 213-225, January.
    16. Ali Gazni & Vincent Larivière & Fereshteh Didegah, 2016. "The effect of collaborators on institutions’ scientific impact," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 109(2), pages 1209-1230, November.
    17. Franceschet, Massimo & Costantini, Antonio, 2010. "The effect of scholar collaboration on impact and quality of academic papers," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 4(4), pages 540-553.
    18. Alfonso Ibáñez & Concha Bielza & Pedro Larrañaga, 2013. "Relationship among research collaboration, number of documents and number of citations: a case study in Spanish computer science production in 2000–2009," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 95(2), pages 689-716, May.
    19. Chen, Kaihua & Zhang, Yi & Fu, Xiaolan, 2019. "International research collaboration: An emerging domain of innovation studies?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 149-168.

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