Library Herald Year : 2009, Volume : 47, Issue : 1 First page : ( 73) Last page : ( 89) Print ISSN : 0024-2292. A 2003–2007 Citation Analysis of Library Herald
Riahinia Nosrat, Associate Professor of Library and Information Science Tarbiat Moalem University, Tehran, Iran. E-mail: Sara-purriahi@yahoo.com.
Abstract Citation analysis of papers published in Library Herald in a five-year span is presented here. Citation analysis is discussed particularly as a means of assisting researchers in clarifying formal communication patterns among papers of Library Herald, a quarterly journal of Delhi Library Association. As a means of studying formal communication processes, Library and Information Science researchers have used journal citation analysis in a number of ways to discover new knowledge related to the intellectual structure of the field. The study represents a new method of citation analysis, that is studying only sole journal citations. In this new method, the researcher seeks to find scientific and intra-discipline communication relations among the papers of Library Herald, being published during a five-year period. For such a goal, the author extracted required data to answer questions like, what was the most interesting topic during the studied period?, who has received the most citations and for which topic and what is the journal's current dominant scope? Is the journal welcomed by international contributors, or it has just dealt with local interests? The finding shows that among 130 examined materials we had a mean of 26 materials for each year. The journal has published 120 original papers during five years. 88% of contributors were from India. The journal had only 16 international contributions during the course of five years. As a scientific journal, the author thinks, Library Herald is a prestigious journal in the field of LIS which is worth to be subscribed by university libraries. Few numbers of international contributors have provided an opportunity to young researchers to submit their manuscripts.