The research front and the intellectual base of information science : a bibliometric study

The purpose with this study is to map the research front and the research base in information science, by using the bibliometric methods bibliographic coupling and author-co citation analysis. The research questions are: 1. What is the nature of the research front in information science, regarding which areas that are being studied? 2. What is the nature of the research base in information science, regarding which authors who are most cited, and how they can be grouped? The data used in the study were gathered from articles published in the journal Journal of the American society for information science and technology, published between 2004-2006, respectively 1986-2006. The result was presented by using cluster analysis and MDS-maps. The study shows that the research front can be divided in to three areas: 1. Information searching and information retrieval from the World Wide Web. 2. Bibliometrics. 3. Information searching and information retrieval, not from the World Wide Web. The 50 most cited authors was identified, and could be grouped into three areas: 1. Bibliometrics, 2. General, 3. Hard-IR/Soft-IR.Uppsatsnivå: