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Disciplinary contributions to research topics and methodology in Library and Information Science—Leading to fragmentation?

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  • Pertti Vakkari
  • Yu‐Wei Chang
  • Kalervo Järvelin

Abstract

The study analyses contributions to Library and Information Science (LIS) by researchers representing various disciplines. How are such contributions associated with the choice of research topics and methodology? The study employs a quantitative content analysis of articles published in 31 scholarly LIS journals in 2015. Each article is seen as a contribution to LIS by the authors' disciplines, which are inferred from their affiliations. The unit of analysis is the article‐discipline pair. Of the contribution instances, the share of LIS is one third. Computer Science contributes one fifth and Business and Economics one sixth. The latter disciplines dominate the contributions in information retrieval, information seeking, and scientific communication indicating strong influences in LIS. Correspondence analysis reveals three clusters of research, one focusing on traditional LIS with contributions from LIS and Humanities and survey‐type research; another on information retrieval with contributions from Computer Science and experimental research; and the third on scientific communication with contributions from Natural Sciences and Medicine and citation analytic research. The strong differentiation of scholarly contributions in LIS hints to the fragmentation of LIS as a discipline.

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  • Pertti Vakkari & Yu‐Wei Chang & Kalervo Järvelin, 2022. "Disciplinary contributions to research topics and methodology in Library and Information Science—Leading to fragmentation?," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 73(12), pages 1706-1722, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jinfst:v:73:y:2022:i:12:p:1706-1722
    DOI: 10.1002/asi.24690
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Pertti Vakkari & Kalervo Järvelin & Yu‐Wei Chang, 2023. "The association of disciplinary background with the evolution of topics and methods in Library and Information Science research 1995–2015," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 74(7), pages 811-827, July.

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