article

Citation levels and collaboration within library and information science

Authors:

Jonathan M. Levitt,

Mike ThelwallAuthors Info & Claims

Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Volume 60, Issue 3

Pages 434 - 442

Published: 01 March 2009 Publication History

Abstract

Collaboration is a major research policy objective, but does it deliver higher quality research&quest; This study uses citation analysis to examine the Web of Science (WoS) Information Science & Library Science subject category (IS&LS) to ascertain whether, in general, more highly cited articles are more highly collaborative than other articles. It consists of two investigations. The first investigation is a longitudinal comparison of the degree and proportion of collaboration in five strata of citation; it found that collaboration in the highest four citation strata (all in the most highly cited 22%) increased in unison over time, whereas collaboration in the lowest citation strata (un-cited articles) remained low and stable. Given that over 40% of the articles were un-cited, it seems important to take into account the differences found between un-cited articles and relatively highly cited articles when investigating collaboration in IS&LS. The second investigation compares collaboration for 35 influential information scientists; it found that their more highly cited articles on average were not more highly collaborative than their less highly cited articles. In summary, although collaborative research is conducive to high citation in general, collaboration has apparently not tended to be essential to the success of current and former elite information scientists. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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Wu LYang JWang DCheng QLu W(2023)Scientists’ response to global public health emergenciesJournal of Information Science10.1177/0165551521103086649:4(911-931)Online publication date: 1-Aug-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1177/01655515211030866
Zhao ZPan XHua W(2021)Comparative analysis of the research productivity, publication quality, and collaboration patterns of top ranked library and information science schools in China and the United StatesScientometrics10.1007/s11192-020-03796-9126:2(931-950)Online publication date: 1-Feb-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s11192-020-03796-9
Ronda-Pupo GKatz J(2018)The power law relationship between citation impact and multi-authorship patterns in articles in Information Science & Library Science journalsScientometrics10.1007/s11192-017-2612-7114:3(919-932)Online publication date: 1-Mar-2018
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cover image Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology

Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology Volume 60, Issue 3

March 2009

214 pages

ISSN:1532-2882

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John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

United States

Publication History

Published: 01 March 2009

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Cited By

Wu LYang JWang DCheng QLu W(2023)Scientists’ response to global public health emergenciesJournal of Information Science10.1177/0165551521103086649:4(911-931)Online publication date: 1-Aug-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1177/01655515211030866
Zhao ZPan XHua W(2021)Comparative analysis of the research productivity, publication quality, and collaboration patterns of top ranked library and information science schools in China and the United StatesScientometrics10.1007/s11192-020-03796-9126:2(931-950)Online publication date: 1-Feb-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s11192-020-03796-9
Ronda-Pupo GKatz J(2018)The power law relationship between citation impact and multi-authorship patterns in articles in Information Science & Library Science journalsScientometrics10.1007/s11192-017-2612-7114:3(919-932)Online publication date: 1-Mar-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s11192-017-2612-7
Naudé F(2017)Country Trends and Scholarly Collaboration in the ICT4D Research Community 2000–2013The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries10.1002/j.1681-4835.2016.tb00521.x72:1(1-26)Online publication date: 5-Dec-2017
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1002/j.1681-4835.2016.tb00521.x
Sheble L(2016)Changing approaches to research synthesis affect social and intellectual structures of scienceProceedings of the 79th ASIS&T Annual Meeting: Creating Knowledge, Enhancing Lives through Information & Technology10.5555/3017447.3017523(1-10)Online publication date: 14-Oct-2016
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/3017447.3017523
Gazni ALarivière VDidegah F(2016)The effect of collaborators on institutions' scientific impactScientometrics10.1007/s11192-016-2101-4109:2(1209-1230)Online publication date: 1-Nov-2016
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s11192-016-2101-4
Hudson J(2016)An analysis of the titles of papers submitted to the UK REF in 2014Scientometrics10.1007/s11192-016-2081-4109:2(871-889)Online publication date: 1-Nov-2016
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s11192-016-2081-4
Levitt JThelwall M(2016)Long term productivity and collaboration in information scienceScientometrics10.1007/s11192-016-2061-8108:3(1103-1117)Online publication date: 1-Sep-2016
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s11192-016-2061-8
Ronda-Pupo GKatz J(2016)The power-law relationship between citation-based performance and collaboration in articles in management journalsJournal of the Association for Information Science and Technology10.1002/asi.2357567:10(2565-2572)Online publication date: 1-Oct-2016
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1002/asi.23575
Sud PThelwall M(2016)Not all international collaboration is beneficialJournal of the Association for Information Science and Technology10.1002/asi.2351567:8(1849-1857)Online publication date: 1-Aug-2016
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