SINGH & BEBI DOI: 10.5958/j.0976-2469.52.1.002 19 Vol 52 No 1 March 2014 Library Herald: A Bibliometric Study (2003-2012) K P SINGH BEBI This paper presents a bibliometric study of the journal Library Herald for the period of 10 years (2003-2012) in which 234 articles were published during the marked period. Study examines the various bibliometric parameters such as authorship pattern, gender-wise, geographical distribution, major authors and their affiliations, topical mapping and length of articles. Study finds that 48.72% (114) articles were contributed by single authors. Further, study also examines the length of articles and average number of references in the articles. Keywords: Library Herald; Bibliometric Study, Delhi Library Association. 1. INTRODUCTION Library Herald, a quarterly peer reviewed journal published by Delhi Library Association was first Published in April 1958 with a lead article entitled Document, Documentation and Standardization by Dr. SR Ranganathan. The issue had the editorial patronage of M/s S Das Gupta, RS Goyal, K S Pareek, Jainath Kaul, K S Dalal and P N Kaula. Under the able editorship of these personalities the journal started coming out regularly in January, April, July and October each year. In October 1961 the Editorial Board was reconstituted and was entrusted to Shri NK Goil assisted by M/s HC Jain and V Sundaram. After Shri Goil s death in August 1980 the Editorial Board was again reconstituted with Shri Krishan Kumar as editor and M/s M M Kashyap and CP Vashishth as associate editors. In 2001 Professor CP Vashishth was named as the sole associate editor of Library Herald. In October 2005 the Editorial Board once again reconstituted with Professor CP Vashishth as Editor and Dr. * Senior Assistant Professor and Principal Investigator, Department of Library and Information Science, University of Delhi, Delhi. singhkp_1972@yahoo.co.in. ** Ph.D Scholar, Department of Library and Information Science, University of Delhi, Delhi. bebi.mywork@gmail.com
20 A BIBLIOMETRIC STUDY Sunil Kumar and RK Sharma as associate editors. The journal publishes original contributions in the field of Library Science and Library service, reviews important Indian and foreign publications and incorporates research reports. Special issues on various aspects of Library and Information Science are also published from time to time. Its annual subscription is Rs. 1500 in India and US $ 50 for subscribers abroad. The journal is indexed in Library Literature, Library and Information Science Abstracts, Guide to Indian Periodical Literature, Indian Library Science Abstracts and Index India. It is one of the oldest journals in India in the field of Library and Information Science patronized by Dr. SR Ranganathan. Since 2010 the Library Herald is accessible online through the interface of www.indianjournals.com. 1 2. EARLIER STUDIES A number of studies have been done on bibliometric study of journals. Pandita (2013) 2 conducted a bibliometric study on the journal Annals of Library and Information Studies from 2002-2012. Single authorship was found highest in his study. Das (2013) 3 conducted a bibliometric study on the journal Library Trends, one of the renowned journal from 2007-2012. He found in his study that majority of the authors preferred to publish their research articles as individual authorship. The majority of articles have page length of 16-20 pages. The highest number of contributions were with citations between 11-20. The present study is an extension of the earlier studies on Library Herald conducted by Thanuskodi (2011) 4 for the period 2006-2010 and Riahinia (2009) 5 who made a citation study on Library Herald from the period 2003-2007. 3. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY The following are the objectives of the present study To identify the number of contributors and the pattern of growth of articles published in the journal during 2003-2012; To examine different types of publications (Articles/research reports/ book reviews, etc) published in Library Herald; To examine the pattern of authorship and collaboration coefficient; To identify the most prolific authors and their work affiliation; To examine the geographical distribution of articles (Indian/foreign); To measure the topical mapping of research articles published in Library Herald; and
SINGH & BEBI 21 To examine the length of articles and number of references in an article. 4. METHODOLOGY The data required for analysis was collected from the online version of Library Herald http://www.indianjournals.com/ijor.aspx?target=ijor:lh& type=home accessible in the Central Library, University of Delhi for 10 years from volume 41 (2003) to volume 50 (2012). Following items of information needed for the study such as year of publication with its volume number, name of authors with their affiliations, total counts of authors, length of the articles in terms of the number of pages and their references were collected and recorded. The collected data was coded in MS-Excel sheet for analysis and statistical inferences. Some of the special issues i.e. Cumulative Index to Library Herald published in issues 3-4 of the volume 43 (2005), a tribute to Prof. P N Kaula published in issue 4 of vol.47 (2009) and a tribute to Prof. S Das Gupta published in issue 3 of vol. 50 (2012) has not been included in the present study as these issues have the major articles on the life and works of Prof. PN Kaula and Prof. S Das Gupta. 5. DISCUSSION AND INTERPRETATIONS 5.1 YEAR-WISE DISTRIBUTION OF ARTICLES/BOOK REVIEWS/ REPORTS Table 1 presents the data on articles/book reviews/research reports/ annual reports and seminar reports published in the source journal during 2003-2012. It indicates that 234 articles were published in 40 issues during 2003-2012 with an average of 23 articles per year. In addition to the research articles 52 books reviews, 17 research reports, nine annual reports and four seminar reports were also published during 2003-2012. Table 1 also depicts that the maximum number (30) articles were published in the year of 2003 (Vol. 41) and minimum number (14) articles were published in the year 2005 (Vol. 43). Less number of articles were published in volumes 43, 47 and 50 because volume 43 issues (3-4) was published as Cumulative Index to Library Herald, issue 4 of vol.47 (2009) and issue 3 of vol. 50 were published as a tribute to Prof. P N Kaula and to Prof. S Das Gupta respectively. The gender-wise analysis of authorship indicates that of 387 authors, 299 (77.2%) articles were contributed by the male authors and 88 (22.8%) were contributed by the female authors.
22 A BIBLIOMETRIC STUDY TABLE 1 Year-wise distribution of articles/book reviews/reports Year Vol. Articles Book Research Annual Seminar Gender Reviews Reports Reports Report Distribution Male Female 2003 41 30 09 01 40 06 2004 42 29 12 01 01 46 07 2005 43 14 04 02 12 05 2006 44 28 04 04 35 10 2007 45 28 05 02 01 34 12 2008 46 20 01 01 01 30 07 2009 47 18 01 01 01 22 07 2010 48 27 08 01-33 12 2011 49 24 06 06 01 02 26 16 2012 50 16 02 01 02 01 21 06 Total 234 52 17 09 04 299 88 5.2 AUTHORSHIP PATTERN Table 2 shows the authorship pattern of articles published during 2003-2012. It is obvious from the table 2 that maximum number (48.8%) of articles are single authored followed by two authored (38.5%). The proportion of three authored and four authored contributions are very less as compared to single and two authored articles. Therefore, it is deduced that the publications in the source journal is dominated by single authored papers and this is also indicated by low value (0.27) of collaborative coefficient, which was calculated by the formula proposed by Ajiferuke (1988). 6 5.3 PROLIFIC AUTHORS AND THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS DURING 2003-2012 All the contributors are significant who contribute to the Library Herald. The total number of 234 papers was authored by the 387 authors. On the analysis of the data 8 authors contributed 4 or more papers and their contribution to the total output is 22.2%. Table 3 reflects the authors who have contributed four or more papers during the specified period. Analysis of data presented in Table 3 indicates that out of the eight authors, six are affiliated to teaching institutions while two were from
SINGH & BEBI 23 TABLE 2 Authorship Pattern Author (s) No. of Articles %age Single Authors 114 48.8 Two Authors 90 38.5 Three Authors 27 11.5 Four Authors 03 1.2 Total 234 100 university libraries. Among all the authors Dr. Nosrat Riahinia from Tarbiat Moallem University, Tehran topped the list of contributors followed by Dr. KP Singh, University of Delhi. The table also presents the data on the number of books reviewed by prolific authors. It reveals that highest books (20) are reviewed by M P Satija followed by K P Singh and H C Jain (06) respectively. TABLE 3 Prolific authors, contributions and their affiliations (as research articles & book reviews) S. Author Affiliation Number of Number of Articles Books Reviews 1 Nosrat Riahinia Tarbiat Moallem University, Tehran, Iran 16 2 K P Singh University of Delhi, Delhi, India 08 06 3 C P Vashishth University of Delhi, Delhi, India 06 05 4 Arvind Kumar MLB Government College Gwalior, Sharma MP, India 05 5 B T Laloo North Eastern Hill University, Manipur, India 05 6 Asefeh Asemi Isfahan University, Isfahan, Iran, 04 7 M P Satija Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, India 04 20 8 Sanjay K. Kaushik Maharishi Dayanand University, Rohtak, India 04 Total 52 31
24 A BIBLIOMETRIC STUDY TABLE 4 Types of Institutional affiliations of contributors S. No. Type and Name No. %age 1 Universities 159 67.9 2 Colleges 27 11.5 3 Research Institutions 40 17.1 4 Others 08 3.5 Total 234 100 5.4 TYPES OF INSTITUTIONAL AFFILIATIONS OF CONTRIBUTORS Table 4 shows the data on institution-wise contribution of articles. Institutions are categorized into three main categories- Universities, Colleges and Research Institutions. Examination of data on the affiliations of the contributors, it is found that the highest contributions 67.9 % (159) were from the authors affiliated to universities followed by research institutions (such as DRDO, ICAR, ICSSR, NIC, etc) with 40 (17.1%) and colleges with 27 (11.5%). The remaining eight articles (3.5%) were found from the other organizations such as societies, associations, etc. 5.5 TOPICAL MAPPING OF RESEARCH ARTICLES Table 5 shows the data on topics of research articles undertaken by the researchers. The 14 sub-topics have been identified and presented in table 5. It is observed that more than two-third (36.6%) articles are on academic libraries and ICT/Internet /Web Technology respectively, followed by Information Literacy/ LIS 32 (13.7%). These three together constitute about half of the output in different sub-disciplines. Rest half are scatted in remaining 11 sub-disciplines. Hence, it is observed that the new emerging areas such as web technologies, ontologies are quite popular among the researchers. 5.7 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF CONTRIBUTIONS The articles are analyzed according to their country of origin. Articles published in the journal are originated from India and abroad. However, major portion (81.6 %) of the articles originated from India and about 18.4% from abroad. The major foreign countries contributions received were from Iran with 19 (8.1%) articles, Nigeria with 17 (7.2%),
SINGH & BEBI 25 TABLE 5 Topical mapping of research articles S. No. Research topics No. of Articles %age 1 Academic Libraries 43 18.3 2 ICT/Internet /Web Technology 43 18.3 3 Information Literacy/ LIS 32 13.7 4 User Studies/Case Studies 23 9.8 5 Special Libraries 17 7.2 6 Bibliometric/Citation Studies 12 5.1 7 Digital Libraries/Digitization 11 4.7 8 Library Network/ Consortium 09 3.8 9 Library Automation/Computerization 08 3.4 10 Public libraries 07 2.1 11 Library Profession/Librarianship 07 2.1 12 Other areas 22 9.4 Total 234 100 TABLE 6 Distribution of length of articles S. No. Pages No. of %age Total pages Average pages Articles per article 1 2-5 08 3.4 36 4.5 2 6-10 110 47.0 924 8.4 3 11-15 80 34.2 1000 12.5 4 16-20 27 11.5 458 17.6 5 >20 09 3.9 214 23.7 Total 234 100 2632 11.2 Bangladesh with 04 (1.7%) articles, Nepal with 02 (0.8%) and France with 01 (0.6%) articles respectively. 4.8 DISTRIBUTION OF LENGTH OF ARTICLES Table 6 indicates the details about the page length of the articles. It is found that Library Herald publishes on an average 11 pages per article. Further analysis reveals that about 50% articles have the pages length less
26 A BIBLIOMETRIC STUDY TABLE 7 Measurement of the number of the references S. No. References No. of %age Total References Average references Articles per article 1 2-5 35 14.9 130 3.7 2 6-10 89 38.0 709 7.9 3 11-15 49 20.9 633 12.9 4 16-20 24 10.2 419 18.2 5 > 20 24 10.2 768 32.0 6 Not found 13 5.5 - - Total 234 100.0 2659 11.3 than average. Rest 50% articles were having page length more than the average. 5.9 MEASUREMENT OF THE NUMBER OF THE REFERENCES The references of a research indicates the mapping the research in their concerned area and also the acknowledgements to the researchers. The study indicates that the references varied from article to article. However, on an average 11 references are found per article published during the specified period of study. Table 7 presents the data on the number of references in the published articles in Library Herald. Further analysis reveals that about 50% articles have references less than average. Rest 50% articles were having references more than the average. Study further found that there were 24 articles containing more than 20 references. There were 13 articles which were not containing references. MAJOR FINDINGS The following are the major findings observed from the study: A total of 234 articles were published during 2003-2012. The maximum numbers of articles (30) were published in the year 2003 and the minimum numbers of articles (14) published in the year 2005 as two issues (3-4) were published as cumulative index. Almost half of the articles are single authored. During the period of ten years (2003-2012), Nosrat Riahinia from Tehran has contributed maximum (16) articles followed by Dr. KP Singh, University of Delhi, India. Majority of the articles (299) were contributed by the male authors. Almost 81% of the total articles were published by the Indian researchers. Maximum number
SINGH & BEBI 27 of contributions (47%) has the length of 6-10 pages and maximum articles had 6-10 references. Most of the contributors were affiliated to Universities followed by research institutions. It is observed that the majority of the articles are on academic libraries and ICT based topics. REFERENCES 1 SINGH (K P) and SHARMA (Sundeep). 22 years of Library Herald: A database of cumulative index Vol. 21 (1982-83) to Vol. 42 (2004). Library Herald. 43; 3&4; 2005; 3. 2 PANDITA (Ramesh). Annals of Library and Information Studies (ALIS) journal: A bibliometric study (2002-2012). DESIDOC Journal of Library & Information Technology. 33,6; 2013; 493-497. 3 DAS (T K). A bibliometric analysis of contributions in the journal Library Trends. Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal). 2013. http:// digitalcommons.unl.edu./libphilprac/1014 (Accessed on 23.08.2013). 4 THANUSKODI (S). Library Herald Journal: A bibliometric study. Researchers World- Journal of Arts, Science & Commerce. 2; 4; 2011; 68-76. 5 RIAHNIA (Nosrat). A 2003 2007 Citation Analysis of Library Herald. Library Herald. 47; 1; 2009. 6 AJIFERUKE (Isola), BURELL (Q) and TAGUE (Jean). Collaborative coefficient: A single measure of the degree of collaboration in research. Scientometrics. 14, 5-6; 1988; 421-433.