Sixty-four years of informetrics research: productivity, impact and collaboration

A. Abrizah (), Mohammadamin Erfanmanesh (), Vala Ali Rohani (), Mike Thelwall (), Jonathan M. Levitt () and Fereshteh Didegah ()
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A. Abrizah: University of Malaya
Mohammadamin Erfanmanesh: Shahid Beheshti University
Vala Ali Rohani: University of Malaya
Mike Thelwall: University of Wolverhampton
Jonathan M. Levitt: University of Wolverhampton
Fereshteh Didegah: University of Wolverhampton

Scientometrics, 2014, vol. 101, issue 1, No 26, 569-585

Abstract: Abstract This paper analyses the information science research field of informetrics to identify publication strategies that have been important for its successful researchers. The study uses a micro-analysis of informetrics researchers from 5,417 informetrics papers published in 7 core informetrics journals during 1948–2012. The most productive informetrics researchers were analysed in terms of productivity, citation impact, and co-authorship. The 30 most productive informetrics researchers of all time span several generations and seem to be usually the primary authors of their research, highly collaborative, affiliated with one institution at a time, and often affiliated with a few core European centres. Their research usually has a high total citation impact but not the highest citation impact per paper. Perhaps surprisingly, the US does not seem to be good at producing highly productive researchers but is successful at producing high impact researchers. Although there are exceptions to all of the patterns found, researchers wishing to have the best chance of being part of the next generation of highly productive informetricians may wish to emulate some of these characteristics.

Keywords: Scientific productivity; Co-authorship; Social network analysis; Centrality measures; Informetrics; Scientometrics; Bibliometrics; Cybermetrics; Webometrics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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DOI: 10.1007/s11192-014-1390-8

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