A history of webometrics

Abstract

Editor's Summary The application of bibliometric and informetric approaches to study the web, its information resources, structures and technologies, is known as webometrics. Since the name was coined in 1997, the value of webometrics quickly became established through the Web Impact Factor, the key metric for measuring and analyzing website hyperlinks. Link analysis became more focused as link impact analysis and link network analysis, taking the quantity of links as a reflection of research productivity or prestige. Web citation analysis developed to facilitate investigations of links to journal articles, and analysis of keywords and phrases enables linking other types of web content. While webometrics is based in the theory of citation analysis, its methodology and software contributions may offer the greatest value and widest applicability. A study of the ASIS&T site demonstrates link network analysis.