The application of bibliometric analysis: Disciplinary and user aspects

<div>Bibliometric analysis (BA) has been used increasingly as a tool within the scientific community. Interplay is vital between those involved in refining bibliometric methods and the recipients of this type of analysis. A sufficient number of studies have been completed, and with the resulting literature, it is now possible to analyse the bibliometric method by using its own methodology.</div><div>Bibliometric articles are classified in accordance with a modified version of Derrick’s, Jonker’s and Lewison’s (DJL) method [1]. Production as well as citations patterns reflect working methodologies in different disciplines within the specialized Library and Information Science (LIS) field, as well as in the non-specialist (non-LIS) professional field. The amount of cross-referencing between the LIS and the non-LIS field is modest in publications outside their main categories of interest, i.e. discussions of various bibliometic issues or strict analyses of various topics.</div><div>The impact in the different groupings is judged by means of citation analysis using normalized data and an almost linear increase can be observed from 1994 onwards in the non-LIS category. A keyword analysis identifies the most popular subjects covered by bibliometric analysis, and multidisciplinary articles are shown to have the highest impact. Analyses published by authors from ‘up-and-coming’ countries show an overweight of papers that relate to issues on industrial applications.</div><div><br></div><div><b>References</b></div><div><br></div><div>[1] Derrick G, Jonkers K and Lewison G. Characteristics of bibliometrics articles in library and information sciences (LIS) and other journals. In: Proceedings, 17th international conference on science and technology indicators STI 2012, pp.449-551.</div><div><br>