Comparing all-author and first-author co-citation analyses of information science

Dangzhi Zhao and Andreas Strotmann

Journal of Informetrics, 2008, vol. 2, issue 3, 229-239

Abstract: Although it is generally understood that different citation counting methods can produce quite different author rankings, and although “optimal” author co-citation counting methods have been identified theoretically, studies that compare author co-citation counting methods in author co-citation analysis (ACA) studies are still rare. The present study applies strict all-author-based ACA to the Information Science (IS) field, in that all authors of all cited references in a classic IS dataset are counted, and in that even the diagonal values of the co-citation matrix are computed in their theoretically optimal form. Using Scopus instead of SSCI as the data source, we find that results from a theoretically optimal all-author ACA appear to be excellent in practice, too, although in a field like IS where co-authorship levels are relatively low, its advantages over classic first-author ACA appear considerably smaller than in the more highly collaborative ones targeted before. Nevertheless, we do find some differences between the two approaches, in that first-author ACA appears to favor theorists who presumably tend to work alone, while all-author ACA appears to paint a somewhat more recent picture of the field, and to pick out some collaborative author clusters.

Keywords: Author co-citation analysis; Bibliometrics; Information science; Scopus; Citation analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (22)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:infome:v:2:y:2008:i:3:p:229-239

DOI: 10.1016/j.joi.2008.05.004

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