Assessing the digital library research output: bibliometric analysis from 2002 to 2016

A bibliometric analysis of publication output in selected South American countries

Research output provides an insight into the development of the scientific capability of a country. Budget allocation for research and development (R&D) is directly proportional to the research output of a country. Bibliometric analysis of South American countries has not been done in many studies. The purpose of this paper was to analyse research outputs from South American countries on various metrics. An analysis was done for a period of 11 years from 2010 to 2020. The analysis revealed that Brazil with highest percentage of research spend has lowest Field Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI). This contrasts with Uruguay, whose FWCI is high despite comparatively lower spend on R&D and lower publication output. Although Argentina has the highest percentage of researchers per million population (1202), it has the least papers per researchers (0.3 per year) among the countries studied. A huge disparity in terms of percentage of research spent, research output, papers per researcher, and output with national and international co-authorship was observed.

Metrics employed in the evaluation of research productivity: A systematic literature review

The present paper makes a systematic review of 131 articles on research productivity basing upon a model developed by Denyer and Tranfield. The current review paper analyzed the quantitative and qualitative dimensions of the sample literature in the field of research productivity. The quantitative analysis incorporates the chronological distribution of articles, keyword wise distribution, form wise distribution, discipline wise distribution, publisher wise distribution, data sources used in the articles, most prolific journals of the publications and qualitative dimensions studied are top-cited articles and all the metrices used in these articles. The paper is based upon literature retrieved from Scopus bibliographic database and other online databases like Emerald, Taylor & Francis, Google Scholar, JSTOR, ProQuest, and EBSCO for full-text articles. It was revealed that there is significant growth in the number of articles during the fourth decade (2011–2020) whereas the highest numbers of citations (1530) have been received during the third decade from 2001 to 2010. Journal articles appeared to be the predominant source of information. A wide range of metrices found to be used in the sample literature to analyze the research productivity namely basic metrics, metrics dealing with growth, collaboration and metrics at institute level and author level metrics. It will serve as a reference tool to the scholars and practitioners in the field who will be acquainted with the publications on research productivity as well as various metrices, laws of bibliometrics, statistical tools, used in the articles.

A bibliometric study on library and information science and information systems literature during 2010–2019

Purpose

Studying the nature of research progress in interrelated research domains is important for evaluating the research productivity and to understand the current trends of the area of research. This study aims to examine a research domain that combines library and information science with information systems (IS).

Design/methodology/approach

Quartile 1 journals that cover both subject domains in SCImago were selected for the study. Bibliographic records of the publications during 2010 and 2019 were retrieved from the Scopus database. VOSviewer data visualization tool was used to perform citation, coauthorship, bibliographic coupling, cocitation and co-occurrence analysis. In addition, descriptive and inferential statistics were exploited.

Findings

The absence of a consistent association between the number of documents authored and the number of citations received by a researcher was an important finding of the study. The strong association of authors regardless of the different topics they researched and the trend of increasing interest on collaborative research were also highlighted. Moreover, the authors who received the highest number of citations were not always the first authors of the documents which received the most citations. The documents published in information management, information theory and IS journals attained the most citations. The journals, institutions and countries with the highest number of documents and citations were also revealed by the research. Electrical engineering departments showed a higher research productivity, while they were utilized more compared to that of other departments. IS and management, information theory, communication, information retrieval, geographic-based IS and bioinformatics were the six major research areas of the considered domain.

Originality/value

This is the first study related to examining the research progress in a combined subject domain using multiple aspects including, individual performance, institutional progress, geographical contribution and so on. Identifying the major research areas in the combined subject domain can also be considered a novel contribution to the field.

Mapping the quantity, quality and structural indicators of Asian (48 countries and 3 territories) research productivity on cloud computing

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to map the quantity (frequency), quality (impact) and structural indicators (correlations) of research produced on cloud computing in 48 countries and 3 territories in the Asia continent.

Design/methodology/approach

To achieve the objectives of the study and scientifically map the indicators, data were extracted from the Scopus database. The extracted bibliographic data was first cleaned properly using Endnote and then analyzed using Biblioshiny and VosViewer application software. In the software, calculations include citations count; h, g and m indexes; Bradford's and Lotka's laws; and other scientific mappings.

Findings

Results of the study indicate that China remained the most productive, impactful and collaborative country in Asia. All the top 20 impactful authors were also from China. The other most researched areas associated with cloud computing were revealed to be mobile cloud computing and data security in clouds. The most prominent journal currently publishing research studies on cloud computing was “Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing.”

Originality/value

The study is the first of its kind which identified the quantity (frequencies), quality (impact) and structural indicators (correlations) of Asian (48 countries and 3 territories) research productivity on cloud computing. The results are of great importance for researchers and countries interested in further exploring, publishing and increasing cross country collaborations related to the phenomenon of cloud computing.

University students’ attitudes towards ubiquitous library-supported learning: an empirical investigation in the context of the Line@Library

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the influences of task-technology fit on university students’ attitudes towards ubiquitous library-supported learning when they use a mobile library app, Line@Library.

Design/methodology/approach

In this study, structural equation modelling to examine 158 valid questionnaires are used. The study aims to examine the effects of task-technology fit (TTF) on university students’ attitudes towards mobile learning (AML) when using Line@Library.

Findings

The results show that task-technology fit is an important role that influences the students’ attitudes towards mobile learning. The factor “technology characteristics” is considered when the students attempted to use the mobile app to solve problems or complete tasks. This study also found that the students responded with positive perceptions of the task-technology fit and had positive perceptions of its ease of use. Furthermore, usefulness, ease of use and affection of AML were found to be the most influential predictors of mobile library adoption intention.

Originality/value

From the perspective of learners, this study investigates the relationships of the combination of social media and a mobile library between TTF and AML. This study further found that not only ease of use, usefulness and affection but also task-technology fit can be a predictor that influences students’ attitudes towards mobile learning.

Transformation of educational roles of library-supported mobile learning: a literature review from 2009 to 2018

Purpose

This study aims to explore the transformation of the roles of libraries, application trends and potential research issues of library-supported mobile learning.

Design/methodology/approach

The publications in the Scopus database from 2009 to 2018 are reviewed and analyzed from various aspects, such as the roles of libraries in mobile learning, types of libraries, research foci and sensing or location-based technologies.

Findings

The role of libraries as learning material providers is examined the most in library-supported mobile learning studies, followed by the role as inquiry context providers and as knowledge-sharing platforms. In terms of the role as learning material providers, academic libraries were investigated the most and radio frequency identification (RFID) was mainly adopted. In terms of the role as inquiry context providers, special libraries were explored the most; adopted sensing technologies were more diverse (e.g. QR code, augmented reality, RFID and Global Positioning System). Only special libraries played a role as knowledge-sharing platforms, adopting augmented reality. Most research on library-supported mobile learning mainly focused on investigating the affective domain during mobile learning.

Practical implications

Five potential applications of educational roles in library-supported mobile learning are suggested based on the findings of the present study.

Originality/value

The current study provides insights relevant to the educational roles of library-supported mobile learning. The findings and suggestions can serve as references for researchers and school teachers conducting library-supported mobile learning.

Ensuring continued use of a digital library: a qualitative approach

Purpose

This paper aims to identify the factors affecting continued use of digital libraries in a military context.

Design/methodology/approach

Semi-structured interviews with four focus groups consisting of 21 respondents, who are military education instructors and librarians, were carried out. This qualitative approach study adopted content analysis methods that were designed to contrast and make comparisons based on the participants’ responses. The valid responses were analyzed using NVivo 12 Plus.

Findings

Using semi-structured interviews, this study presents five dimensions of critical success factors generated from the analysis of the content of the qualitative data. The dimensions highlighted are as follows: perceived quality factors; perceived instrumental support; perceived ease of use; users’ expectation and users’ satisfaction; and net benefits and perceived usefulness.

Research limitations/implications

This study is only focussing on military education instructors and librarians in the vicinity of four regions in Peninsular Malaysia. For practical implications, it provides an understanding of how the organization could sustain the continued use of a military-context digital library (DL).

Practical implications

This study makes a new practical contribution to DL information systems’ successful implementation practices in a military context. This study also serves as a guideline for the organizational stakeholders to have a better understanding of their knowledge and the digitalization environment. The findings of this study provide an understanding of how the organization could sustain the continued use of digital libraries in a military context.

Originality/value

This study fills the void in the literature by investigating the DL use in the context of a military setting.

Library and information science research in Pakistan: A bibliometric analysis, 1957–2018

This article reviews 62 years (1957–2018) of research in library and information science in Pakistan. A comprehensive bibliometric study was conducted using the four leading databases (Web of Science, Scopus, Library and Information Science Abstracts, and Library, Information Science and Technology Abstracts). The researchers found a positive upward trend. Library research is on the rise in Pakistan. The Department of Information Management at the University of the Punjab is the major contributor to the library and information science literature. Forty percent of the total publications were published in two Pakistani journals. Older and well-established institutions like the University of the Punjab and the University of Karachi have taken the lead in publishing research. The Baluchistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces require more focus and funding.

Critical success factors of the continued usage of digital library successful implementation in military-context

Purpose

This paper aims to identify the critical success factors of the continued usage of digital library (DL) successful implementation from the perspective of users with organisation support factors as key antecedents.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on the extensive literature review, this study has constructed a conceptual framework based on organisational support perspectives and updated Delone and McLean’s information system success model. A pilot study was carried out on a sample of 105 respondents from military-context. A survey instrument including 22 measurement items was designed to identify the level of DL information system (IS) successful implementation practices in military context. Descriptive statistical analysis and reliability analysis were used to analyse the data with SPSS software.

Findings

The findings indicate that training and education, DL environment and communication support, continuation of usage intention, net benefits and user satisfaction are the critical success factors that play key role in ensuring the continued usage DL successful implementation in military context. The military-context DL needs to obtain critical success factors of DL practices implementation to sustain its continued usage, particularly for the active users of its members.

Research limitations/implications

This study only considered the military personnel who have visited the five main military libraries. For practical implications, the development of instruments in this study may be valuable tools to evaluate DL in other DL settings in Malaysian context other than academic settings.

Originality/value

This study makes a new contribution to DL IS successful implementation practices in military context. This study also provides important information for decision-makers involved in DL IS successful implementation practices and provides useful reference for future researchers in this research area.

Measuring book impact via content-level academic review mining

Purpose

As for academic papers, the customary methods for assessing the impact of books are based on citations, which is straightforward but limited to the coverage of databases. Alternative metrics can be used to avoid such limitations, such as blog citations and library holdings. However, content-level information is generally ignored, thus overlooking users’ intentions. Meanwhile, abundant academic reviews express scholars’ opinions on books, which can be used to assess books’ impact via fine-grained review mining. Hence, this study aims to assess books’ use impacts by conducting content mining of academic reviews automatically and thereby confirmed the usefulness of academic reviews to libraries and readers.

Design/methodology/approach

Firstly, 61,933 academic reviews in Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries were collected with three metadata metrics. Then, review contents were mined to obtain content metrics. Finally, to identify the reliability of academic reviews, Choice review metrics and other assessment metrics for use impact were compared and analysed.

Findings

The analysis results reveal that fine-grained mining of academic reviews can help users quickly understand multi-dimensional features of books, judge or predict the impacts of mass books, so as to provide references for different types of users (e.g. libraries and public readers) in book selection.

Originality/value

Book impact assessment via content mining can provide more detail information for massive users and cover shortcomings of traditional methods. It provides a new perspective and method for researches on use impact assessment. Moreover, this study’s proposed method might also be a means by which to measure other publications besides books.

Mapping the Knowledge Domain of Smart-City Research: A Bibliometric and Scientometric Analysis

As urbanization continues to accelerate, the number of cities and their growing populations have created problems, such as the congestion and noise related to transportation, the pollution from industry, and the difficulty of disposing of garbage. An emerging urban strategy is to make use of digital technologies and big data to help improve the quality of life of urban residents. In the past decade, more and more researchers have studied smart cities, and the number of literature in this field grows rapidly, making it “big data”. With the aim of better understanding the contexts of smart-city research, including the distribution of topics, knowledge bases, and the research frontiers in the field, this paper is based on the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) and Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) in the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection, and the method used is that of comprehensive scientometric analysis and knowledge mapping in terms of diversity, time slicing, and dynamics, using VOSviewer and CiteSpace to study the literature in the field. The main research topics can be divided into three areas—“the concepts and elements of the smart city”, “the smart city and the Internet of Things”, and “the smart city of the future”—through document co-citation analysis. There are four key directions—“research objectives and development-strategy research”, “technical-support research”, “data-processing and applied research”, and “management and applied research”—analyzed using keywords co-occurrence. Finally, the research frontiers are urban-development, sustainable cities, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, integration, undertaken through keyword co-occurrence analysis.

Scholarly research in Library and Information Science: an analysis based on ISI Web of Science

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present a quantitative analysis of the Library and Information Science (LIS) scholarly literature published worldwide.

Design/methodology/approach

The ISI Web of Science database was used as a source for extracting the data of published documents during the period 2003–2017. The analysis of the published literature was based on the following indicators: research productivity of each county, annual publications, annual citations, highly cited articles, highly cited LIS journals, most productive institutions in the field of LIS and most prolific authors. The types of documents included in this study were research articles, conference proceeding papers, book reviews and editorials.

Findings

The findings revealed that the USA had the highest overall output of LIS scholarly publications. The year 2016 was identified as the most productive year for the number of publications, whereas 2017 was identified as the most productive year for the number of citations. “Impact of data sources on citation counts and rankings of LIS faculty: Web of Science versus Scopus and Google Scholar” was the most highly cited article. The Journal of Medical Library Association was the most highly cited journal in LIS. Indiana University from the USA was the most productive LIS research institution. Mike Thelwall, from the UK, is identified as the most prolific author in LIS.

Originality/value

The study will be of interest for those researchers, who intend to conduct bibliometric research studies in LIS.