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The most highly cited Library and Information Science articles: Interdisciplinarity, first authors and citation patterns

Author

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  • Jonathan M. Levitt

    (University of Wolverhampton)

  • Mike Thelwall

    (University of Wolverhampton)

Abstract

Highly cited articles are interesting because of the potential association between high citation counts and high quality research. This study investigates the 82 most highly cited Information Science and Library Science’ (IS&LS) articles (the top 0.1%) in the Web of Science from the perspectives of disciplinarity, annual citation patterns, and first author citation profiles. First, the relative frequency of these 82 articles was much lower for articles solely in IS&LS than for those in IS&LS and at least one other subject, suggesting that that the promotion of interdisciplinary research in IS&LS may be conducive to improving research quality. Second, two thirds of the first authors had an h-index in IS&LS of less than eight, show that much significant research is produced by researchers without a high overall IS&LS research productivity. Third, there is a moderate correlation (0.46) between citation ranking and the number of years between peak year and year of publication. This indicates that high quality ideas and methods in IS&LS often are deployed many years after being published.

Suggested Citation

  • Jonathan M. Levitt & Mike Thelwall, 2009. "The most highly cited Library and Information Science articles: Interdisciplinarity, first authors and citation patterns," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 78(1), pages 45-67, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:78:y:2009:i:1:d:10.1007_s11192-007-1927-1
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-007-1927-1
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. M. A. Martínez & M. Herrera & J. López-Gijón & E. Herrera-Viedma, 2014. "H-Classics: characterizing the concept of citation classics through H-index," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 98(3), pages 1971-1983, March.
    3. Cassidy R. Sugimoto, 2011. "Looking across communicative genres: a call for inclusive indicators of interdisciplinarity," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 86(2), pages 449-461, February.
    4. Jiang Wu, 2013. "Geographical knowledge diffusion and spatial diversity citation rank," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 94(1), pages 181-201, January.
    5. Mingyang Wang & Guang Yu & Shuang An & Daren Yu, 2012. "Discovery of factors influencing citation impact based on a soft fuzzy rough set model," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 93(3), pages 635-644, December.
    6. Fan, Lingxu & Guo, Lei & Wang, Xinhua & Xu, Liancheng & Liu, Fangai, 2022. "Does the author’s collaboration mode lead to papers’ different citation impacts? An empirical analysis based on propensity score matching," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 16(4).
    7. Cristóbal Urbano & Jordi Ardanuy, 2020. "Cross-disciplinary collaboration versus coexistence in LIS serials: analysis of authorship affiliations in four European countries," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 124(1), pages 575-602, July.
    8. Chen, Shiji & Qiu, Junping & Arsenault, Clément & Larivière, Vincent, 2021. "Exploring the interdisciplinarity patterns of highly cited papers," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 15(1).
    9. Indra Budi & Yaniasih Yaniasih, 2023. "Understanding the meanings of citations using sentiment, role, and citation function classifications," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(1), pages 735-759, January.
    10. Li, Jiang & Shi, Dongbo & Zhao, Star X. & Ye, Fred Y., 2014. "A study of the “heartbeat spectra” for “sleeping beauties”," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 8(3), pages 493-502.
    11. C Velmurugan, 2018. "Twenty six year Analysis of Fossil Fuel Related Highly Cited Works: A Web of Science Based Scientometric Profile," International Journal of Environmental Sciences & Natural Resources, Juniper Publishers Inc., vol. 10(5), pages 167-175, May.
    12. Mu-hsuan Huang & Wang-Ching Shaw & Chi-Shiou Lin, 2019. "One category, two communities: subfield differences in “Information Science and Library Science” in Journal Citation Reports," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 119(2), pages 1059-1079, May.
    13. Nobuko Miyairi & Han-Wen Chang, 2012. "Bibliometric characteristics of highly cited papers from Taiwan, 2000–2009," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 92(1), pages 197-205, July.
    14. Carlos G. Figuerola & Francisco Javier García Marco & María Pinto, 2017. "Mapping the evolution of library and information science (1978–2014) using topic modeling on LISA," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 112(3), pages 1507-1535, September.
    15. Chen, Shiji & Arsenault, Clément & Larivière, Vincent, 2015. "Are top-cited papers more interdisciplinary?," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 9(4), pages 1034-1046.
    16. Jiayu Li, 2023. "Publications in Educational Research Journals from Singapore, Japan, and South Korea (2008–2017): A Bibliometric Analysis," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, December.
    17. M. A. Martínez & M. Herrera & E. Contreras & A. Ruíz & E. Herrera-Viedma, 2015. "Characterizing highly cited papers in Social Work through H-Classics," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 102(2), pages 1713-1729, February.
    18. Mu-Hsuan Huang & Chia-Pin Chang, 2014. "Detecting research fronts in OLED field using bibliographic coupling with sliding window," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 98(3), pages 1721-1744, March.
    19. Shiji Chen & Yanhui Song & Fei Shu & Vincent Larivière, 2022. "Interdisciplinarity and impact: the effects of the citation time window," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(5), pages 2621-2642, May.
    20. Lin Zhang & Wolfgang Glänzel, 2012. "Where demographics meets scientometrics: towards a dynamic career analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 91(2), pages 617-630, May.

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