This article reports on methodological approaches to evaluate the relevance and quality of educational research publications. In the first section it focuses on the ISI Social Science Citation Index and shows that this standard instrument for bibliometric measurement is insufficient for the representation of European educational research. In the…

The citations contained in research published in two British scholarly periodicals in the field of continuing education for the years 1986-1990 were analyzed. The analysis had two primary objectives: (1) to evaluate the potential of citation analysis as a quantitative method of studying the quality of research output; and (2) to determine whether…

Proposes a new definition of the nuclear zone of a Bradford or Leimkuhler curve. The mathematical rationale is outlined, and examples of the application of this technique to citation analysis are given. (15 references) (CLB)

Examines characteristics of 50 frequently cited authors in the field of computer applications to education (CAE). Citation analysis used in the study is discussed, a taxonomy of topics in CAE based upon the writings of these authors is developed, and a comparison is made with data from the Social Science Citation Index. (LRW)

University libraries are becoming increasingly aware of the need to assess the quality of students' information literacy and library research skills and to use this assessment data to effectively improve the quality of university library services to graduate programs. However, libraries have had difficulties finding ways to accomplish this both…

This paper addresses two key issues related to the disciplinary role of journals in library and information science (LIS). The first issue is the nature of knowledge as communicated through public mechanisms such as journals. The second issue is the set of attributes that characterizes a portion of the content of LIS journals. In order to complete…

Discusses the retrieval dimensions of data collection activity online and their influence on the research evaluation outcome to reinforce the link between online retrieval and bibliometrics. Topics include publication counts; citation analyses; citation databases from the Institute for Scientific Information; and data set isolation. (Author/LRW)

Analysis of 310 papers presented at 1990-94 meetings of the Canadian Association for the Study of Adult Education showed a substantial increase in female and Canadian authors cited. More women collaborated in adult education research in publishing than men did. Emphasis on reviving adult education's role in social change was increasing. (SK)

Provides an applications-oriented view of algorithmic historiography and how it relates to understanding scientific paradigms. Discusses HistCite[TM], a program that allows scholars to identify significant works on a given topic; paradigm shifts; a genealogic approach; citation analyses; correcting variations in citations; and bibliographic…

Explains the Matthew Effect for Countries (MEC) which consists of the systematic deviation in the number of actual citations in scientific journals from the number of expected citations from particular countries. Highlights include a rank order of countries; journal rankings; and a list of Matthew core journals. (Author/LRW)

Discusses the use of link structure analysis in World Wide Web information retrieval and in retrieval and ranking algorithms of search engines. Presents two techniques which bias co-citation based link analyses towards favorable Web pages and away from undesired pages, and are then integrated into existing link-analyzing algorithms. (Author/LRW)

Investigates the effectiveness of citation indexes as tools for communication research. Concludes that because five communication journals are not covered by citation indexes, using these indexes is problematic for communication researchers. (MM)

Describes a study that examined characteristics of author self-citations in the library and information science literature based on a sample of 1,058 articles from 28 journals. Specific factors examined include frequency of self-citations, self-citations compared to total citations, professional characteristics of the authors, and subject…

Two methods of ranking the influence of social work journals, based on citation counts, are compared for 22 core journals. Substantial differences between the resulting rankings suggest that impact factors do not accurately indicate the most influential journals within the social work discipline. Implications for faculty and libraries are…

Reports on a study which compared the research performance of departments in linguistics and literature from universities in the United States, the Netherlands, Italy, and Germany, using database searches to reconstruct publication lists based on analysis of citations. Data are presented on the impact of book publications and articles, as well as…