What is bibliometrics?
Bibliometric methods are frequently used in library and information science.
The subfield of bibliometrics that deals with the analysis of scientific publications is called scientometrics.
Citation analysis is a widely used bibliometric method based on the construction of a citation graph, a network or graphical representation of citations between documents.
Many research fields use bibliometric methods to investigate the influence of their field, the influence of a group of researchers, the influence of a particular paper, or to identify particularly influential papers in a particular research field.
Bibliometrics also has a wide range of other applications, such as descriptive linguistics, the development of terminology and the assessment of reader usage.
It is known that researchers turn to bibliometric research for different reasons.
On the one hand, bibliometric research can identify the most prolific researchers in a given field, and on the other hand, it can reveal the extent of the interaction between them.
With a similar approach, bibliometric research also enables comparisons to be made between countries, institutions or schools of thought on various subjects.
Koehler states that people who deal with bibliometrics can be divided into at least four groups;
Those who work on citation analysis,
Those focusing on co-citation analysis,
Those interested in the productivity of individuals, organizations or countries,
It shows that those who conduct studies related to information products such as books, articles and patents.
Bibliometric studies provide information on the effectiveness of scientific publications. It is observed that these studies are mostly published in Scientometrics, which has a special place in the field of bibliometrics (the first issue of the journal was published in 1978).
In addition to Scientometrics, the Journal of Informetrics, which published its first issue in 2007, is another periodical frequently consulted by those interested in bibliometrics.
Other journals in the field are the International Journal of Scientometrics, Informetrics and Bibliometrics, which is only published electronically, and Research Evaluation, which publishes five issues a year.