Thirty years of Evidence-based Librarianship (EBL):Citation analysis and review

Abstract

The main objective of this study was to visualize the trend of scientific production on Evidence Based Librarianship (EBL)and identify the active authors, the top institutes, the leading countries and accordingly, to articulate the contribution of Iranian authors on EBL in comparison with other countries. Utilizing advanced search strategy using related terms Scopus database was searched. Queries were formulated based on SPICE, limiting the searches to “title”,”abstract” and “keywords”. Then searched was narrowed to the time span 1985–2014 with no language limitation. A manual search was also carried out on references to drill down more in bibliographical information. The search results provided us with 512 records, 392 of them were original papers and 120 theoretical and narrative reviews. The USA, England and Canada were leading countries in publishing the EBL papers. Journal of Health Information and Libraries with 92 records was the core and active journal in Evidence Based Librarianship. Findings indicated that,Iranian authors have a small contribution to world’s publications on EBL, in comparison with other countries.This study suggests that, EBL has a potentiality to establish a wide research front. For that it is eligible to more concentration in curriculum of library science education. This will support And empower the practice of library education and services based on evidence, especially in countries out of the three leading countries and in developing world.