Bibliometric Portrait of SRELS Journal of Information Management for the Period 2004-2013

Abstract

(ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.)1. Introduction:Journals are no doubt the most preferred source of information in any field of research due to the nascent information that they carry and faster delivery of research output. But the increasing subscription rates and budget constraints forcing libraries to select and subscribe only the popular journals from the huge number of journals published in different subject fields. Bibliometrics and citation analysis have emerged as the important tools for selection of popular journals in any area of research or subject. As Zafrunnisha (2012) explains, bibliometric techniques are being used for a variety of purposes such as determination of various scientific indicators, evaluation of scientific output, selection of journals for libraries and even forecasting the potential of a particular field. Anyi et al (2009) are of the opinion that bibliometric analysis of single journal creates the portrait of that journal and indicates the quality, maturity and productivity of the journal in any field, in a country or region. It also informs us about the research orientation that it supports to disseminate and its influence on author's choice as a channel to communicate or retrieve information for their research needs. Taking these advantages of presenting bibliometric portrait of journals, Journal of Information is selected for this study. Journal of Information has emerged as one of the highly regarded journal in the field of library and information science in India. In this study an attempt is made to examine the characteristics and present the bibliometric portrait of Journal of Information Management.2. Source Journal:Sarada Ranganathan Endowment for Science has been publishing the quarterly journal 'Library Science with a slant to Documentation' since 1964. It was founded by Dr. S. R. Ranganathan. The title of the journal was changed to Library Science with a slant to Documentation and Information Studies from Vol.25 in 1988 and to SRELS Journal of Information Management from Vol.37 (2000). The journal has been publishing scholarly articles and articles of practical use in the fields of library and information science and services. Journal of Information is published bi-monthly (6 issues per year) since from 2010. Journal has well defined guidelines for authors to submit articles and is peer reviewed by the board of editors. Beginning 2014, the journal is published by Informatics Publishing Limited, Bangalore. From 2015 onwards, manuscripts have to be submitted online and the entire review process will be electronic.3. Objectives of the Study:The objectives of the study are as follows:* To map year-wise distribution of articles* To find the average length of articles* To examine the authorship pattern of the contributions* To study author productivity* To study the range and percentage of references per article* To study different types of resources used and number of citations appended* To study different collaboration measures* To identify and prepare ranked list of authors and journals* To identify and prepare geographical list of contributions and State-wise list of Indian contributions* To study Lotka's law of scientific productivity* To study Bradford's law of scattering4. Methodology:The data required for the study was collected from both print and electronic version of the journal for the period 2004-2013. The references appended to each article were carefully scanned and tabulated in respective tables using Microsoft Excel. The details regarding number of articles published, author names and affiliations are recorded for each article. Citation analysis technique and required bibliometric measures are applied.5. Analysis of Data:Following section discusses the analysis of the data collected and presented under different table headings as per the objectives of the study. …