Assessing the digital library research output: bibliometric analysis from 2002 to 2016
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/EL-02-2017-0036 |
| Pages | 696-704 |
| Date | 06 August 2018 |
| Published date | 06 August 2018 |
| Author | Khurshid Ahmad,Zheng Jian Ming,Muhammad Rafi |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information & communications technology,Internet |
Assessing the digital library
research output: bibliometric
analysis from 2002 to 2016
Khurshid Ahmad,Zheng Jian Ming and Muhammad Rafi
School of Information Management, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this bibliometricanalysis is to quantify the prominence and impact of published
literature within the field. The research has beenconducted with the intent of obtaining the expansion and
characteristicsof the literature on digital library.
Design/methodology/approach –More than 4,206 documents found in the period of 2002-2016 were
collected from the ISI Web of Science and wereanalyzed to explore the annual productivity, yearly citation,
most cited articles,prolific authors, eminent journals of the subject,productivity of institutes and contribution
of countries. These results arebased on the types of documents (articles, reviews, proceedingspapers, book
reviews,editorial materials and book chapters).
Findings –The core findings are that the most productiveyear of publication was 2016, and the growth of
citation increased rapidly; the top source of title is electronic library. The result shows that the USA
dominatesin the researchoutput, with Illinois University securing the first position;the most prolific author is
Fourie I from SouthAfrica. In the document types category, the most cited sources are research articles.
Originality/value –This research is useful for the researchersinterested in the field of bibliometrics as it
postulatesan inclusive indication of provenance in the field of libraryand information science.
Keywords Digital libraries, ISI Web of Science, Bibliometric analysis, Information science,
Library science
Paper type Literature review
Introduction
In digital libraries, collections are stored in a digital format using keyboard and scanners
and voice recording. For the assessmentof topic related to any field, the use of a bibliometric
study is very important. Bibliometric analysis is the quantitative study that is used to
explore the literature of anysubject domain. The practice of conducting bibliometric studies
is increasing with time; bibliometrics are being used to evaluate the healthcare system as
well. Moreover, the study of Lorenc and Robinson (2013) revealed the perspective of
complementary and alternative medicine(CAM) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
with the help of a literature review. Many studies were conducted to evaluate the literature
of library and information science (LIS) in the countryperspectives. The research of Naseer
and Mahmood (2009) shows the developmental stages of the LIS literature in Pakistan.
Kennedy (2015) evaluatedthe literature on digital image and copyright; he also identified the
patterns of publishing. For the control of bibliometrics,the study of bibliometric analysis is
important for the practice and sharing of literature. Thelwall (2008) discussed the
development and history of the literaturereview process from bibliometrics to webometrics.
He gave an overview of the literature evaluation exercise, detailed the techniques of
visualization and explored the bibliometric tools and indexes that were used for online
citation. Many authors in the field of LIS have analyzed the literature of single journal
EL
36,4
696
Received11 February 2017
Revised20 September 2017
22October 2017
Accepted10 November 2017
TheElectronic Library
Vol.36 No. 4, 2018
pp. 696-704
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0264-0473
DOI 10.1108/EL-02-2017-0036
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