Bibliometrics

Bibliometrics is a type of research method used in library and information science. It utilizes quantitative analysis and statistics to describe patterns of publication within a given field or body of literature. Researchers may use bibliometric methods of evaluation to determine the influence of a single writer, for example, or to describe the relationship between two or more writers or works. One common way of conducting bibliometric research is to use the Social Science Citation Index, the Science Citation Index or the Arts and Humanities Citation Index to trace citations Why is bibliometrics important? The Research Quality Framework is likely to use some form of bibliometrics to measure quality. National and international university ranking tables use bibliometrics. For both of these reasons, and for internal strategic planning purposes our universities are increasingly turning to bibliometrics to understand research performance. What’s bibliometrics got to do with us? Bibliometrics is fundamentally, although not exclusively, a library science. We subscribe to the main citation indexes, or will be asked to subscribe to, or provide advice about, them. Many of us are being asked to contribute to our institution’s s RQF preparations. Many of us are involved with open access initiatives that are intended to have an impact on citation rates.