IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/scient/v52y2001i2d10.1023_a1017919924342.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Literature of Bibliometrics, Scientometrics, and Informetrics

Author

Listed:
  • William W. Hood

    (The University of New South Wales)

  • Concepción S. Wilson

    (The University of New South Wales)

Abstract

Since Vassily V. Nalimov coined the term ‘scientometrics’ in the 1960s, this term has grown in popularity and is used to describe the study of science: growth, structure, interrelationships and productivity. Scientometrics is related to and has overlapping interests with bibliometrics and informetrics. The terms bibliometrics, scientometrics, and informetrics refer to component fields related to the study of the dynamics of disciplines as reflected in the production of their literature. Areas of study range from charting changes in the output of a scholarly field through time and across countries, to the library collection problem of maintaining control of the output, and to the low publication productivity of most researchers. These terms are used to describe similar and overlapping methodologies. The origins and historical survey of the development of each of these terms are presented. Profiles of the usage of each of these terms over time are presented, using an appropriate subject category of databases on the DIALOG information service. Various definitions of each of the terms are provided from an examination of the literature. The size of the overall literature of these fields is determined and the growth and stabilisation of both the dissertation and non-dissertation literature are shown. A listing of the top journals in the three fields are given, as well as a list of the major reviews and bibliographies that have been published over the years.

Suggested Citation

  • William W. Hood & Concepción S. Wilson, 2001. "The Literature of Bibliometrics, Scientometrics, and Informetrics," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 52(2), pages 291-314, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:52:y:2001:i:2:d:10.1023_a:1017919924342
    DOI: 10.1023/A:1017919924342
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1023/A:1017919924342
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1023/A:1017919924342?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Myke Gluck, 1990. "A review of journal coverage overlap with an extension to the definition of overlap," Journal of the American Society for Information Science, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 41(1), pages 43-60, January.
    2. Fred R. Shapiro, 1992. "Origins of bibliometrics, citation indexing, and citation analysis: The neglected legal literature," Journal of the American Society for Information Science, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 43(5), pages 337-339, June.
    3. A. Schubert, 1999. "Scientometrics: A citation based bibliography 1994–1996," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 44(2), pages 267-315, February.
    4. Peter Ingwersen & Finn Hjortgaard Christensen, 1997. "Data set isolation for bibliometric online analyses of research publications: Fundamental methodological issues," Journal of the American Society for Information Science, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 48(3), pages 205-217, March.
    5. Bella Hass Weinberg, 1997. "The earliest Hebrew citation indexes," Journal of the American Society for Information Science, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 48(4), pages 318-330, April.
    6. Sydney J. Pierce, 1992. "On the origin and meaning of bibliometric indicators: Journals in the social sciences, 1886–1985," Journal of the American Society for Information Science, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 43(7), pages 477-487, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Derek R. Smith, 2012. "Impact factors, scientometrics and the history of citation-based research," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 92(2), pages 419-427, August.
    2. Davide Arduini & Antonello Zanfei, 2012. "An overview of existing literature on public e-services," Working Papers 1214, University of Urbino Carlo Bo, Department of Economics, Society & Politics - Scientific Committee - L. Stefanini & G. Travaglini, revised 2012.
    3. repec:ehu:cuader:55444 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. William W. Hood & Concepción S. Wilson, 2003. "Informetric studies using databases: Opportunities and challenges," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 58(3), pages 587-608, November.
    5. W. W. Hood & Concepción S. Wilson, 1999. "The distribution of bibliographic records in databases using different counting methods for duplicate records," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 46(3), pages 473-486, November.
    6. José Álvarez-García & Claudia Patricia Maldonado-Erazo & María de la Cruz Del Río-Rama & Francisco Javier Castellano-Álvarez, 2019. "Cultural Heritage and Tourism Basis for Regional Development: Mapping of Scientific Coverage," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(21), pages 1-21, October.
    7. Howard D. White, 2001. "Author-centered bibliometrics through CAMEOs: Characterizations automatically made and edited online," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 51(3), pages 607-637, July.
    8. Alberto Martín-Martín & Enrique Orduna-Malea & Emilio Delgado López-Cózar, 2018. "A novel method for depicting academic disciplines through Google Scholar Citations: The case of Bibliometrics," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 114(3), pages 1251-1273, March.
    9. Claudia Patricia Maldonado-Erazo & José Álvarez-García & María de la Cruz del Río-Rama & Amador Durán-Sánchez, 2021. "Scientific Mapping on the Impact of Climate Change on Cultural and Natural Heritage: A Systematic Scientometric Analysis," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-19, January.
    10. Gomez-Jauregui, Valentin & Gomez-Jauregui, Cecilia & Manchado, Cristina & Otero, Cesar, 2014. "Information management and improvement of citation indices," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 257-271.
    11. Arduini, Davide & Zanfei, Antonello, 2014. "An overview of scholarly research on public e-services? A meta-analysis of the literature," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 476-495.
    12. Amador Durán-Sánchez & María de la Cruz del Río-Rama & José à lvarez-García & Cristiana Oliveira, 2022. "Analysis of Worldwide Research on Craft Beer," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(2), pages 21582440221, June.
    13. Mehmet Ali Abdulhayoglu & Bart Thijs, 2018. "Use of locality sensitive hashing (LSH) algorithm to match Web of Science and Scopus," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 116(2), pages 1229-1245, August.
    14. Irene Wormell, 2000. "Bibliometric Analysis of the Welfare Topic," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 48(2), pages 203-236, September.
    15. Mohsen Fazeli-Varzaneh & Pete Bettinger & Erfan Ghaderi-Azad & Marcin Kozak & Davood Mafi-Gholami & Abolfazl Jaafari, 2021. "Forestry Research in the Middle East: A Bibliometric Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-19, July.
    16. Amador Durán-Sánchez & José Álvarez-García & María de la Cruz del Río-Rama & Beatriz Rosado-Cebrián, 2019. "Science Mapping of the Knowledge Base on Tourism Innovation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-17, June.
    17. Frandsen, Tove Faber, 2009. "The effects of open access on un-published documents: A case study of economics working papers," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 3(2), pages 124-133.
    18. Władysław Marek Kolasa, 2012. "Specific character of citations in historiography (using the example of Polish history)," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 90(3), pages 905-923, March.
    19. Howard D. White, 2001. "Author-centered bibliometrics through CAMEOs: Characterizations automatically made and edited online," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 50(3), pages 607-637, January.
    20. José Álvarez-García & Amador Durán-Sánchez & María de la Cruz del Río-Rama & Ronny Correa-Quezada, 2019. "Older Adults and Digital Society: Scientific Coverage," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(11), pages 1-16, June.
    21. Mikkel Christoffersen, 2004. "Identifying core documents with a multiple evidence relevance filter," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 61(3), pages 385-394, November.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:52:y:2001:i:2:d:10.1023_a:1017919924342. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.