A study on statistical methods used in six journals of library and information science
| Published date | 13 June 2016 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/OIR-07-2015-0247 |
| Date | 13 June 2016 |
| Pages | 416-434 |
| Author | Jin Zhang,Yuehua Zhao,Yanyan Wang |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Information behaviour & retrieval |
A study on statistical methods
used in six journals of library
and information science
Jin Zhang, Yuehua Zhao and Yanyan Wang
School of Information Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, USA
Abstract
Purpose –Quantitative methods, especially statistical methods, play an increasingly important role in
research of library and information science (LIS). For different journals, the uses of statistical methods
vary substantially due to different journal scopes and aims. The purpose of this paper is to explore the
characteristics of statistical methodology uses in six major scholarly journals in LIS.
Design/methodology/approach –Research papers that used statistical methods from the six major
journals were selected and investigated. Content analysis method, descriptive statistical analysis
method, and temporal analysis method were used to compare and analyze statistical method uses in
research papers of the investigated journals.
Findings –The findings of this study show that there was a clear growth trend of statistical method
uses in five of the investigated journals; statistical methods were used most in The Journal of the
Association for Information Science and Technology and Information Processing & Management;
and the top three most frequently used statistical methods were t-test, ANOVA test, and χ
2
-test.
Originality/value –The findings can be used to better understand the application areas, patterns,
and trends of statistical methods among the investigated journals and their statistical methodology
orientations in research studies of LIS.
Keywords Methodology, Quantitative research, Journal, Statistical method
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
The growth of scientific and technicalknowledge has resulted in a proliferation of studies
in a variety of disciplines. Journals are primary channels forresearchers to publish their
research findings. Research methodology determines at least to some degree the quality
of a research study. Most modern research studies adhere to a well-defined research
design based on the appropriate selection of research methodology. The application of
both quantitativeresearch methodology and qualitativeresearch methodology may vary
in different fields and research problems. A wide variety of statistical methodshas been
applied to analyze the data obtained.
Statistics is a branch of mathematics which can be applied to analyze various data.
The applications of statistical techniques promote the establishment of relationships
between the quantitative data and the quantitative research questions, and to interpret
the complicated resultant data pattern. To speak of statistical methodology, infere ntial
statistics, and predictive statistics are widely utilized in almost all research domains.
The inferential statistical methods, such as t-test and ANOVA, concentrate on
hypothesis testing, while the predictive statistical methods focusses on correlation
analysis and regression analysis. Both inferential statistics and predictive statistics
play an extremely important role in quantitative research.
Library and information science (LIS) is a broad discipline that has adopted a wide
variety of continuously evolving research strategies and techniques (Hider and Pymm,
Online Information Review
Vol. 40 No. 3, 2016
pp. 416-434
©Emerald Group Publishing Limited
1468-4527
DOI 10.1108/OIR-07-2015-0247
Received 30 July 2015
Revised 8 January 2016
Accepted 11 January 2016
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/1468-4527.htm
416
OIR
40,3
2008). Like other disciplines such as mathematics, biology, and physics, LIS is a
developing and expanding field. It is particularly necessary to understand the
methodology changes over time in LIS research. Many previous evaluations of research
studies in LIS have been conducted. They include the methods of content analysis and
co-citation analysis on journal articles (e.g. Järve lin and Vakkari, 1993) and
dissertations (e.g. Sugimoto et al., 2011). The majority of these studies address
research topics in LIS.
Although studies have made substantial contributions to journal comparison and
evaluation, prior studies have rarely explicated statistical research method orientations
of the journals. Research methodology orientation of journals provides a unique way to
assess the journals and their characteristics. In this study, we chose six major scholarly
journals from 1999 to 2013 in LIS and investigated their statistical methodology.
This study sheds light on the statistical method use patterns in the major LIS
journals and temporal change trends of the statistical method uses in these journals;
helps people better understand the statistical method orientations of these journals; and
assists researchers in selecting proper publication journals for their research papers.
2. Problem statement
Because of the importance of applying statistical methodology to research studies,
and the lack of an overview of statistical method uses in LIS, this study aims at
analyzing and comparing the characteristics of statistical methodology used in the
major scholarly journals in LIS. The overarching research problem of this study is
stated as follows: what is the overall status of statistical method uses in research
studies published in the six major scholarly journals of LIS between 1999 and 2013?
The specific research questions of this study:
RQ1. Are statistical methods used differently in the major scholarly journals in LIS?
RQ2. Are the temporal change patterns of the statistical method uses in the major
scholarly journals in LIS different?
The objectives of this study are to investigate the use of statistical methods in the six
major scholarly journals in LIS; ascertain the application areas of statistical metho ds;
compare the uses of statistical methods among the six journals; and reveal the
characteristics and temporal patterns of the applications of statistical methods in the
investigated journals.
3. Literature review
The studies of scholarly journals have attracted researchers for decades. The longitudinal
and systematic study of core journals sheds light on the understanding of the development
and evolution of a certain discipline. Research studies on journal publications in a domain
field can reveal the research topic trends, leading researchers, and research methods in that
field. The distributions and relationships of research topics in LIS have been investigated
by Järvelin and Vakkari (1993). The authors sampled full-length research articles
published in core LIS journals and identified library and information-service (L&I)
activities as well as information storage and retrieval (IS&R) as main research topics. In
addition, Pettigrew and Mckechnie (2001) reported the use of theory in LIS by
investigating six journals.
In addition to the research topics of the journal articles, research methodology is also
critical to research studies in any disciplines. There are three categories of widely used
417
Study on
statistical
methods
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