On the origin and meaning of bibliometric indicators: Journals in the social sciences, 1886–1985

Sydney J. Pierce

Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 1992, vol. 43, issue 7, 477-487

Abstract: In this study, it is demonstrated that, as disciplines mature, research articles in core journals become increasingly similar in their bibliometric features. Data were collected from research articles published in core journals in sociology, political science, and economics from 1886 through 1985 (N = 8,634). Variation in levels of use of footnotes and of visuals within the same discipline was found to decline over time, even though the means about which the variation was measured changed throughout the period. It is suggested that authors, editors, referees, and others come to view prevailing practices in the use of footnotes and visuals as disciplinary standards for the presentation of research. Comparison of change in levels of variation to change in levels of consensus described in disciplinary histories suggested an association between levels of agreement on presentational standards and levels of cognitive consensus. © 1992 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Date: 1992
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1097-4571(199208)43:73.0.CO;2-E

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:jamest:v:43:y:1992:i:7:p:477-487

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://doi.org/10.1002/(ISSN)1097-4571

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of the American Society for Information Science from Association for Information Science & Technology
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().