Global research studies on “Electronic Resources in Libraries”: A scientometric assessment during 1994-2017

Abstract

Purpose - This paper seeks to provide a quantitative and qualitative description of global research output on “electronic resources in libraries”, with particular reference to electronic books, electronic journals and electronic thesis published during 1994-17.Design/Methodology/Approach - The data for the study (2086 publications) was sourced from Scopus database covering period 1994-2017. The research output in the subject from Scopus database was analyzed on a series of bibliometric measures like average annual growth, citations per paper, international collaborative papers, relative citation index, activity index, top productive countries, organizations, authors, journals, and highly cited papers.Findings - ‘E-resources in libraries’ is fast emerging as a subject of research within the domain of library and information science. The global research in the subject across top 15 most productive countries in the world is highly skewed. The USA, the top ranking country leads with 46.06% global publications share whereas the rest of 14 top productive countries – including India as the second ranking most productive country (8.10% share) – are distant cousins accounting for their publication share in single digits. The top 25 most productive journals with 15 to 126 papers each accounted for 58.42% (867) of total 1484 papers reported in journals. Only 17 paper (0.81% of 2086 output)) received high citations from 62 to 166 citations per paper during 1994-17. These 17 highly cited papers accounted for 1502 citations, with an average of 88.35 citations per paper. Among the electronic resources, the major emphasis was on electronic books, followed by electronic journals, electronic thesis & dissertations, audio & videos resources and electronic reports during 1994-17. The major areas of research focus as identified from keywords are: overall management of electronic resources, electronic resources & its various types, types of libraries, acquisition, development, management and preservation, information storage & retrieval, information processing, information services, user education & user studies, copyright and licensing.Originality/value – This is the first study of its kind that provides a quantitative and qualitative description of research studies on ‘e-resources in libraries’.