One category, two communities: subfield differences in “Information Science and Library Science” in Journal Citation Reports

Mu-hsuan Huang (), Wang-Ching Shaw () and Chi-Shiou Lin ()
Additional contact information
Mu-hsuan Huang: National Taiwan University
Wang-Ching Shaw: Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research
Chi-Shiou Lin: National Taiwan University

Scientometrics, 2019, vol. 119, issue 2, No 26, 1059-1079

Abstract: Abstract Journal Citation Reports (JCR) and its journal ranking in terms of impact factor are highly influential in research evaluation. Comparisons of impact factor are valuable only when journals are of the same subject. However, a particular JCR subject category, Information Science and Library Science (IS–LS), combines two different study fields, namely Management Information Systems (MIS) and Library and Information Science (LIS). The combination of these subjects in a single category has caused the undesirable suppression of LIS journals in annual rankings. This study used papers and citation data from 88 IS–LS journals published between 2005 and 2014 to study subfield differences between MIS and LIS and their impact factor performances over 10 years. The study further examined the subfield differences within LIS, examining the differences and performances of library science, information science, and scientometric research. The results indicate that MIS and LIS are considerably different in terms of publishing and citation characteristics, cited subjects, and author affiliations. Moreover, significant differences were observed among LIS subfields. Furthermore, the results suggested that MIS and LIS pertain to two different research communities. Stakeholders must consider this difference and allow reasonable subfield differentiation and rank adjustment when using JCR for constructive research evaluations.

Keywords: Journal Citation Reports; Research evaluation; Journal ranking; Impact factor; Library and Information Science; Management Information Systems (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11192-019-03074-3 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

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:spr:scient:v:119:y:2019:i:2:d:10.1007_s11192-019-03074-3

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11192

DOI: 10.1007/s11192-019-03074-3

Access Statistics for this article

Scientometrics is currently edited by Wolfgang Glänzel

More articles in Scientometrics from Springer, Akadémiai Kiadó
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().