In this study, it is indicated that there is a statistically significant semantic relationship between highly cited publications and their citing publications in comparison to highly cited publications with no citing relationship, within the same topic literature. Visualizing this set of data, however, shows that citation-based data represents…

Some theoretical models of scientific communication suggest science may be understood as a heterogeneous network of social actors and ideational elements. Bibliometric methods provide the means for empirical application of this perspective to investigations of the formal communication system in science. The conceptual-operational links between key…

Learning sciences (LS) and instructional systems design (ISD) are two related fields that have shared interests in the application of technology for advancing human learning. While the two fields may have different values, boundaries, and in some cases methods, they also share significant overlap of content and purpose. We examine the relationship…

The field of Religion and Literature has long been plagued by a lack of clear focus and identity. Both the American Academy of Religion and the American Library Association have felt this lack strongly enough to commission surveys of the field. This study applies the quantitative measures of bibliometrics to periodical literature within the field…

This study of the patterns of communication in the field of instructional technology examined the reference lists provided with each article or review in three journals for a period of five years to determine: (1) who the most cited authors in the field are; (2) whether invisible colleges exist in the field; and (3) if invisible colleges do exist,…

This discussion of the nature of classification schemes and their functions focuses on the differing classification systems of North American and European-type libraries. The functions are bibliothecal, bibliographical, and cognitive. The bibliothecal function concerns the physical location of items within a library (e.g., the Dewey Decimal and…

Describes study that compared and judged the quality of subject indexing in online bibliographic databases. Documents from medical behavioral science literature are used with terms drawn from MEDLINE, PsychINFO, BIOSIS, and Excerpta Medica. Comparative statistics are presented on how each database links related documents and discriminates among…

This study is concerned with the importance of historical method in library and information science research. The research conducted in this study specifically examined library and information science doctoral dissertations written between 1984-1999. The study of the "Digital Dissertations" database found that only eight to seventeen percent of…

A study examined the topics of 1,645 articles in 20 scholarly journals with an international marketing perspective published from 1987 through 1993. Classification of articles based on content yielded 24 distinct topic categories. Topical trends and frequent contributors in the literature are identified, and implications for future research are…

Examines the bibliometrics of the World Wide Web based on analysis of Web pages collected by the Inktomi "Web Crawler" and on the use of the DEC AltaVista search engine for cocitation analysis of a set of Earth Science related Web sites. Looks at the statistical characteristics of Web documents and their hypertext links, and the…

Presents the initial phase of a comparison of cocitation and social network analysis methods for the study of scholarly communication, based on a case study of the intellectual contributions of Kurt Lewin, a social psychologist. Highlights include an author tri-citation analysis; cluster analysis; multidimensional scaling; and diffusion of ideas.…

Describes a database-filtering approach that combines citation, indexing, and productivity analyses as an effective tool for identifying journals that support multidisciplinary research and development, based on a study of biotechnology research and development. Cocitation analysis, including cocitation maps; subject heading profile analysis; and…

Examines retrieval theory in terms of free-text searching, citation analysis, and knowledge synthesis, and supports the claim that topical relevance relationships are not primarily matching relationships. Suggests that the assumption of topic matching between user needs and texts topically relevant to those needs is often erroneous. (51…

Results of the 1994 College Board Vocabulary Study, a comprehensive study of word frequencies in reading materials used at high school and first-year college levels, are summarized. The 76 book titles most commonly recommended, based on a related citation study, are listed. (MSE)

Reviews bibliometric research on information science and communication and reports results of a bibliometric study that examined trends over time in the structures of these disciplines and links between them. It is concluded that there are some citation relationships, with slight increases from 1977 to 1987, between the two disciplines. (59…