Abstract
Research is a key element of any profession and an analysis of published research enables professional communities to understand the dynamics of growth in a profession and its literature. Bibliometrics is used to carry out the analysis of Library and Information Science (LIS) research articles published by Pakistani authors because it is an important method for measuring impact of published research. We used relatedness measures to estimate the correlation among research growth, authorship patterns and publishing outlets. The sample consists of the research articles published during 2001–2016 by Pakistani authors who mostly remained associated with Pakistani institutions during this period. Chi-square and Binary Logistic Regression was used to find the relationship among different research indicators. Overall annual growth rate of the research articles remained between 8 and 9% from 2004 to 2016. During 2001 and 2016, 166 Pakistani authors contributed 600 articles with an average of 3.61 articles per author. Growth of articles published in foreign journals remained higher as compared to local journals. Out of 600 articles, 31% were contributed by 48 female and 71% articles were published by 118 male authors. Females were slightly more productive with an average of 3.85 than males with an average of 3.51. Collaboration among authors was seven times higher during 2009–16. Collaboration was higher among practitioners and for impact factor publishing. Females contributed more research during 2009–16 as compared to 2001–08. During the 2009–16, foreign articles were contributed with higher percentage by females and faculty. The current study depicts a comprehensive picture of LIS research publishing by Pakistani authors while exploring relationships among different bibliometric indicators.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aharony, N. (2012). Library and Information Science research areas: A content analysis of articles from the top 10 journals 2007–8. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 44(1), 27–35.
Ahmad, Z., & Warraich, N. F. (2013). Patterns of LIS literature produced by Pakistani authors, 2007–2012. Chinese Librarianship, p. 36.
Aina, L. O., & Mooko, N. P. (1999). Research and publication patterns in library and information science. Information Development, 15(2), 114–119.
Al-Ansari, H. H. (2008). Library and information science literature on the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries: A bibliographic analysis. Technical Services Quarterly, 25(3), 21–34.
Alemna, A. A. (1996). The periodical literature of library and information in Africa: 1990–1995. The International Information & Library Review, 28(2), 93–103.
Alemna, A. A. (2001). The periodical literature of library and information in Africa: 1996–2000. Information Development, 17(4), 257–261.
Alemna, A., & Badu, E. (1994). The nature and trends in research and journal literature in English speaking Africa. The International Information & Library Review, 26(1), 19–30.
Ali, M. Y., & Richardson, J. (2017). Pakistani LIS scholars’ altmetrics in ResearchGate. Program, 51(2), 152–169.
Ali, M. Y., & Richardson, J. (2019). Google Scholar Citation metrics of Pakistani LIS scholars: An overview. Global Knowledge, Memory and Communication, 68(4/5), 392–412. https://doi.org/10.1108/GKMC-03-2018-0025
Ameen, K., & Warraich, N. F. (2014). Trends in LIS education and research in Pakistan. In Library and Information Science Research in Asia-Oceania: Theory and Practice (pp. 187–199). IGI Global.
Anwar, M. A., & Jan, S. U. (2017). Research output of the Pakistani library and information science authors: A bibliometric evaluation of their impact. Journal of Information Science Theory and Practice, 5(2), 48–61.
Åström, F., & Hansson, J. (2013). How implementation of bibliometric practice affects the role of academic libraries. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 45(4), 316–322. https://doi.org/10.1177/0961000612456867
Asubiaro, T. (2019). How collaboration type, publication place, funding and author’s role affect citations received by publications from Africa: A bibliometric study of LIS research from 1996 to 2015. Scientometrics, 120(3), 1261–1287.
Aytac, S., & Slutsky, B. (2014). Published librarian research, 2008 through 2012: Analyses and perspectives. Collaborative Librarianship, 6(4), 6.
Barik, N., & Jena, P. (2019). Visibility and growth of LIS research publications: a Scopus based analysis of select open access journals during 2001 to 2015. Library Hi Tech News.
Barrett, K., & Pagotto, S. (2019). Local users, consortial providers: seeking points of dissatisfaction with a collaborative virtual reference service. Evidence Based Library and Information Practice, 14(4), 2–20.
Bashir, M. (2013). Bibliometric study of Pakistan’s research output and comparison with other selected countries of the world. Asian Journal of Science and Technology, 4(5), 1–7.
Bu, Y., Wang, B., Chinchilla-Rodríguez, Z., Sugimoto, C. R., Huang, Y., & Huang, W. B. (2020). Considering author sequence in all-author co-citation analysis. Information Processing & Management, 57(6), 102300.
Buente, W., & Robbin, A. (2008). Trends in Internet information behavior, 2000–2004. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 59(11), 1743–1760.
Chang, Y. W. (2021). Characteristics of high research performance authors in the field of library and information science and those of their articles. Scientometrics, 126(4), 3373–3391.
Cibangu, S. K. (2013). A memo of qualitative research for information science: Toward theory construction. Journal of Documentation, 69, 194–213.
Click, A. B., Wiley, C. W., & Houlihan, M. (2017). The internationalization of the academic library: A systematic review of 25 years of literature on international students. College & Research Libraries, 78(3), 328.
Cline, G. S. (1982). College & Research Libraries: its first forty years.
Clyde, L. A. (2004). Research in school librarianship 1991–2000: Australia in an international setting. The Australian Library Journal, 53(2), 181–199.
Dimitroff, A. (1992). Research in health sciences library and information science: A quantitative analysis. Bulletin of the Medical Library Association, 80(4), 340.
Donthu, N., Kumar, S., Pandey, N., & Gupta, P. (2021). Forty years of the international journal of information management: A bibliometric analysis. International Journal of Information Management, 57, 102307.
Galyani-Moghaddam, G., & Taheri, P. (2019). Library and information science research in Iran: An analysis of national and international publications. International Information & Library Review, 51(3), 231–238.
Garcia-Zorita, C., Rousseau, R., Marugan-Lazaro, S., & Sanz-Casado, E. (2018). Ranking dynamics and volatility. Journal of Informetrics, 12(3), 567–578.
Gelber, N. (2013). Five years of empirical research in the area of technical services: An examination of selected peer-reviewed journals, 2007–2011. Technical Services Quarterly, 30(2), 166–186.
Gunasekera, C. (2008). Library and information sciences research literature in Sri Lanka: a bibliometric study. Journal of the University Librarians Association of Sri Lanka. https://doi.org/10.4038/jula.v12i0.327
Haq, I. U., & Alfouzan, K. (2019). Pakistan Library and Information Science Journal; Bibliometric Review of a Decade (2008–2017). Pakistan Library and. Information Science Journal, 50(2), 85–98.
He, T., & Wang, W. (2006). Library and information science research in China: An international perspective. The International Information & Library Review, 38(4), 185–191.
Hersberger, J. A., & Demas, C. (2001). The current state of public library research in select peer-reviewed journals: 1996–2000. North Carolina Libraries, 59(1), 10.
Jabeen, M., Yun, L., Rafiq, M., & Jabeen, M. (2015a). Research productivity of library scholars: Bibliometric analysis of growth and trends of LIS publications. New Library World, 116(7–8), 433–454.
Jabeen, M., Yun, L., Rafiq, M., Jabeen, M., & Tahir, M. A. (2015b). Scientometric analysis of Library and Information Science journals 2003–2012 using Web of Science. International Information & Library Review, 47(3–4), 71–82.
Julien, H. (1996). A content analysis of the recent information needs and uses literature. Library & Information Science Research, 18(1), 53–65.
Kelly, D., & Sugimoto, C. R. (2013). A systematic review of interactive information retrieval evaluation studies, 1967–2006. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 64(4), 745–770.
Khurshid, Z. (2013). Contributions of Pakistani authors to foreign library and information science journals. An evaluative study. Aslib Proceedings, 65(4), 441–459.
Ma, R. (2012). Discovering and analyzing the intellectual structure and its evolution of LIS in China, 1998–2007. Scientometrics, 93(3), 645–659.
Malliari, A., & Togia, A. (2016). An analysis of research strategies of articles published in Library Science journals: The example of Library and Information Science Research. Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Libraries, 5(4), 805–818.
Mat, S. R. T., Ab Razak, M. F., Kahar, M. N. M., Arif, J. M., Mohamad, S., & Firdaus, A. (2021). Towards a systematic description of the field using bibliometric analysis: malware evolution. Scientometrics, 126(3), 2013–55.
Meng, G. F., & Singh, D. (2007). Trends in Malaysian LIS research 1996–2006: A content analysis of the MJLIS articles. Abrizah Abdullah, et al.(Eds.) ICOLIS. In International conference on libraries, information and society, ICoLIS (pp. 397–406).
Mukherjee, B. (2010). Assessing Asian scholarly research in Library and Information Science: A quantitative view as reflected in web of knowledge. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 36(1), 90–101.
Ocholla, D. N., & Ocholla, L. (2007). Research in library and information science in South Africa: An analysis of journal research output from 1993–2006. South African Journal of Library and Information Science, 73(2), 109.
Ocholla, D., Ocholla, L., & Onyancha, O. B. (2012). Research visibility, publication patterns and output of academic librarians in sub-Saharan Africa: The case of Eastern Africa. In Aslib proceedings: New information perspectives (Vol. 64, No. 5, pp. 478–493). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Oyewusi, F. O. (2012). School library research in Nigeria. Library Review., 61(3), 215–230.
Pandita, R., & Singh, S. (2015). Research growth in LIS during last decade: A study. Library Review., 64(8/9), 514–532.
Ramos-Eclevia, M., Janio, R. V., Vinzon, M. R., Eclevia, C. L., Jr., & Apolinario, R. R. U. (2018). Researching together: Exploring research productivity and collaboration of librarians in ASEAN Countries. Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association, 67(3), 307–320.
Sahoo, J., Mohanty, B., Biswal, O., Dash, N. K., & Sahu, J. K. (2019). Authorship trend and content analysis: A case study on highly cited articles in library and information science journals. Performance Measurement and Metrics, 21(1), 33–51.
Sheikh, A., Malik, A., & Mahmood, K. (2020). Research practices of LIS professionals in Pakistan: A study of attitudes, involvement and competencies. Journal of Information Science. https://doi.org/10.1177/0165551520972033
Siddique, N., Rehman, S. U., Khan, M. A., & Altaf, A. (2020). Library and information science research in Pakistan: A bibliometric analysis, 1957–2018. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 53(1), 89–102.
Thelwall, M., Bailey, C., Makita, M., Sud, P., & Madalli, D. P. (2019). Gender and research publishing in India: Uniformly high inequality? Journal of Informetrics, 13(1), 118–131.
Yang, K., & Lee, J. (2012). Analysis of publication patterns in Korean library and information science research. Scientometrics, 93(2), 233–251.
Zhang, F., & Wu, S. (2020). Return to basics: Clustering of scientific literature using structural information. Journal of Informetrics, 14(2), 101099.
Zuo, Z., Zhao, K., & Ni, C. (2019). Standing on the shoulders of giants?—Faculty hiring in information schools. Journal of Informetrics, 13(1), 341–353.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ullah, A., Ameen, K. Relating research growth, authorship patterns and publishing outlets: a bibliometric study of LIS articles produced by Pakistani authors. Scientometrics 126, 8029–8047 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-021-04081-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-021-04081-z