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Information science as "Little Science":The implications of a bibliometric analysis of theJournal of the American Society for Information Science

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  • Wallace Koehler

    (University of Oklahoma)

Abstract

This paper considers the status of information science as science through an exploration ofone of the leading journals in the field – the Journal of the American Society for InformationScience (JASIS) from its initial publication as American Documentation (AD) in 1950 through theclosing issue of its Silver Anniversary year in December 1999. It is a bibliometric examination ofAD/JASIS articles. Based on our analysis of articles published in AD and JASIS from 1950 to1999, we find that there has been a slow but perhaps inevitable shift based first on the single nonfundedresearcher and author to a much wider research and publishing participation amongauthors, regions, corporate authors, and countries. This suggests not only cross-fertilization ofideas, but also more complex research questions. A small trend toward greater external fundingfurther reinforces this hypothesis. Information may no longer be "little" science, but it is also not"big" science.

Suggested Citation

  • Wallace Koehler, 2001. "Information science as "Little Science":The implications of a bibliometric analysis of theJournal of the American Society for Information Science," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 51(1), pages 117-132, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:51:y:2001:i:1:d:10.1023_a:1010516712215
    DOI: 10.1023/A:1010516712215
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. V. Cano, 1999. "Bibliometric overview of Library and Information Science Research in Spain," Journal of the American Society for Information Science, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 50(8), pages 675-680.
    2. Vernon D. Tate, 1950. "Introducing American Documentation. A quarterly review of ideas, techniques, problems and achievements in documentation," American Documentation, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 1(1), pages 3-7, January.
    3. Henry Small, 1973. "Co‐citation in the scientific literature: A new measure of the relationship between two documents," Journal of the American Society for Information Science, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 24(4), pages 265-269, July.
    4. Marcia J. Bates, 1999. "A tour of information science through the pages of JASIS," Journal of the American Society for Information Science, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 50(11), pages 975-993.
    5. Thomas D. Walker, 1997. "Journal of Documentary Reproduction, 1938–1942: Domain as reflected in characteristics of authorship and citation," Journal of the American Society for Information Science, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 48(4), pages 361-368, April.
    6. Marcia J. Bates, 1999. "The 50th Anniversary of the Journal of the American Society for Information Science: Guest editor introduction," Journal of the American Society for Information Science, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 50(11), pages 960-964.
    7. Michael Buckland, 1999. "The landscape of information science: The American Society for Information Science at 62," Journal of the American Society for Information Science, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 50(11), pages 970-974.
    8. Ben‐Ami Lipetz, 1999. "Aspects of JASIS authorship through five decades," Journal of the American Society for Information Science, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 50(11), pages 994-1003.
    9. Leo Egghe & Ronald Rousseau & Guido Van Hooydonk, 2000. "Methods for accrediting publications to authors or countries: Consequences for evaluation studies," Journal of the American Society for Information Science, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 51(2), pages 145-157.
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