IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jamist/v52y2001i1p62-73.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The use of theory in information science research

Author

Listed:
  • Karen E. Pettigrew
  • Lynne (E.F.) McKechnie

Abstract

We report on our findings regarding authors' use of theory in 1,160 articles that appeared in six information science (IS) journals from 1993–1998. Our findings indicate that theory was discussed in 34.1% of the articles (0.93 theory incidents per article; 2.73 incidents per article when considering only those articles employing theory). The majority of these theories were from the social sciences (45.4%), followed by IS (29.9%), the sciences (19.3%), and humanities (5.4%). New IS theories were proposed by 71 authors. When compared with previous studies, our results suggest an increase in the use of theory within IS. However, clear discrepancies were evident in terms of how researchers working in different subfields define theory. Results from citation analysis indicate that IS theory is not heavily cited outside the field, except by IS authors publishing in other literatures. Suggestions for further research are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Karen E. Pettigrew & Lynne (E.F.) McKechnie, 2001. "The use of theory in information science research," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 52(1), pages 62-73.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jamist:v:52:y:2001:i:1:p:62-73
    DOI: 10.1002/1532-2890(2000)52:13.0.CO;2-J
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/1532-2890(2000)52:13.0.CO;2-J
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/1532-2890(2000)52:13.0.CO;2-J?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yosuke Miyata & Emi Ishita & Fang Yang & Michimasa Yamamoto & Azusa Iwase & Keiko Kurata, 2020. "Knowledge structure transition in library and information science: topic modeling and visualization," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 125(1), pages 665-687, October.
    2. Paul Beamish, 2006. "Publishing international (joint venture) research for impact," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 29-46, March.
    3. Yuxiang Zhao & Qinghua Zhu, 2014. "Evaluation on crowdsourcing research: Current status and future direction," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 417-434, July.
    4. Shiyun Wang & Jin Mao & Yujie Cao & Gang Li, 2022. "Integrated knowledge content in an interdisciplinary field: identification, classification, and application," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(11), pages 6581-6614, November.
    5. Lala Hajibayova, 2020. "(Un)theorizing citizen science: Investigation of theories applied to citizen science studies," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 71(8), pages 916-926, August.
    6. Wang, Shiyun & Mao, Jin & Lu, Kun & Cao, Yujie & Li, Gang, 2021. "Understanding interdisciplinary knowledge integration through citance analysis: A case study on eHealth," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 15(4).
    7. Sidikat Shitu & Rohaya Mohd-Nor, 2017. "Implementation of Sustainability Standard into Commodity Supply Chain Networks: A Processual Case Approach," International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, Human Resource Management Academic Research Society, International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, vol. 7(6), pages 52-62, June.
    8. Bar-Ilan, Judit, 2008. "Informetrics at the beginning of the 21st century—A review," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 2(1), pages 1-52.
    9. Mauricio B. Almeida & Eduardo R. Felipe & Renata Barcelos, 2020. "Toward a document‐centered ontological theory for information architecture in corporations," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 71(11), pages 1308-1326, November.
    10. Yu, Qi & Ding, Ying & Song, Min & Song, Sungjeon & Liu, Jianhua & Zhang, Bin, 2015. "Tracing database usage: Detecting main paths in database link networks," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 1-15.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jamist:v:52:y:2001:i:1:p:62-73. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.asis.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.