Identifying Needs of Research Faculty Based on the Characteristics of Their Publications and Their Cited References at a Research Institution

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper provides information on the characteristics of the research output from the chemistry and biochemistry faculty publications at the University of Arkansas over a ten-year period (2011–2020). The faculty publications were used to identify (a) a core set of journals and other resources they are publishing in and citing over this period; (b) the characteristics of the journals in which they publish and cite (i.e., scatter of publications, Bradford distribution, major publishers, ranking and subject categories based on the Journal citation Reports (JCR); (3) the degree of openness of their publications; their citation advantage, if any, using both the Web of Science and SciFinder; and (4) the age of resources that are referenced. Based on the findings, the authors were able to gain a very good overview of the characteristics of the research publications and were able to identify how well the library is catering to those needs. We were able to demonstrate based on information obtained from both Web of Science and SciFinder, that the non-OA papers from this department had higher citations.