A citation analysis study of library science: Who cites librarians?

Abstract

Are librarians the only ones who read and cite articles published in library science journals? Research reported here shows that disciplines citing library science articles include computer science, medicine, psychology, the social sciences, and general sciences. This study's methodology involved using Social SciSearch on DIALOG to analyze citations to twenty-four library science journals over a twenty-year period. The authors identified the nonlibrary science fields or disciplines that cited articles published in the library journals included in this study by using the journal subject categories on DIALOG. Although citations from other fields are higher than previous studies indicate, comparison with other fields in the social sciences shows that library science is not commanding citations at the level of the more developed fields.