Citation analysis and citation theories : A critical review

The purpose of this Masters thesis is to make an outline of different methods and theories within the field of bibliometrics and critically review their strengths and weaknesses. The author studied literature that discussed bibliometric methods and theories. The number of empirical studies that are based on bibliometric methods and theories are numerous and where principally excluded, but some empirical studies were included as part of the argumentation for and against different methods and theories. The author first gives an outline of which methods and theories there are and describes their different strengths and weaknesses. Citation analysis has many different fields of application such as information retrieval, mapping science, evaluative studies and monitoring literature. There are also many new areas of use such as the use of citation analysis in an electronic environment, then called link analysis. Within the theoretical research there is discussion weather or not there is a need for a general theory of citation. The result of the review shows that citation analysis has great flaws and theoretical research within this field is problematic, since there are many factors that affect citations, which makes it impossible to identify and quantify them all. There is a need for qualitative aspects and basic research. The goal of theoretical research should not be to find a general theory of citation.Uppsatsnivå: