Introduction to bibliometrics

Philippe Mongeon

Agenda

  • What is scholarly communication?
  • What are bibliometrics?
  • Overview of the course and assignments

What are scholarly communications?

“The system through which research and other scholarly writings are created, evaluated for quality, disseminated to the scholarly community, and preserved for future use” (Association of College & Research Libraries, 2003).

Source: https://www.ala.org/acrl/publications/whitepapers/principlesstrategies

The scholarly publishing cycle

Source: https://acrl.libguides.com/scholcomm/toolkit/

What are bibliometrics?

  • “The measurement of all aspects related to the publication and reading of books and documents.” (Otlet, 1934)

  • “the application of mathematics and statistical methods to books and other media of communication.” (Pritchard, 1969)

In principle, bibliometrics could be applied to any type of documents, but in practice they are applied to scholarly outputs to measure knowledge production, dissemination, and use

What’s in a name?

Bibliometrics is a widely used term to refer to the field, but it is not the only (and probably not the best) one. Other (quasi-)synonyms include:

  • Bibliometrics, Scientometrics, info(r)metrics, altmetrics, Quantitative Science Studies

  • Science of science, research on research

Science and technology studies (STS) shares an object but uses mainly qualitative methods.

Two underlying assumptions of bibliometrics

  • Peer-reviewed scholarly work are contributions to the advancement of knowledge (or units of knowledge production)

  • Because researchers cite their sources, citations can measure of the use (or impact? Quality? Importance?) of a contribution to knowledge.

Applications of bibliometrics

  • Sociology of science

  • History of science

  • Science policy

  • Library and Information Science

  • Research evaluation

  • Etc.

Bibliometrics in LIS

Bibliometrics in LIS

Larivière (2012).

The course in three parts

  • Understanding the research system

    • Theoretical with lectures and in-class discussions

  • Analyzing and evaluating research

    • Practical, with a focus on hands-on work with data

  • Improving the research system

    • Critical, with a focus on some of the main contemporary issues in academia

Assignments

  1. Article review (15% - Sep 30)
  2. Outline of a research project (5% - Oct 28)
  3. Descriptive analysis of a research network (10% - Nov 18)
  4. Research assessment report (30% - Dec 2)
  5. Research project (30% - Dec 16)

References

Larivière, V. (2012). The decade of metrics? Examining the evolution of metrics within and outside LIS. Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 38(6), 12–17.

Otlet, P. (1934). Traité de documentation: Le livre sur le livre, théorie et pratique. Editiones Mundaneum: Mons, Belgium

Pritchard, A. (1969). Statistical Bibliography or Bibliometrics. Journal of Documentation, 25(4), 348–349.