Citation Analysis: Sources Cited in Dissertations Completed at Hacettepe University Department of Librarianship

Abstract

Bibliometrics deals with the quantitative analysis of some distinct characteristics (i.e. authorship, subject, publication information, and cited sources) of publications or documents. The process of scientific communication in various fields can be investigated using bibliometric data obtained in such studies. This paper analyzes the bibliometric features of 100 master’s and doctoral dissertations completed at the Department of Library Science of Hacettepe University between 1974 and 2002. An average dissertation was 171 pages long and contained 70 citations. Doctoral dissertations were twice as long as master’s dissertations (275 pages as opposed to 142 pages). Similarly, the average number of citations in a doctoral dissertation was 2.5 times higher than that of a master’s dissertation. Monographs received half of all citations (7019) while journals did 42%, dissertations and electronic publications 3% each, and “other” documents such as unpublished manuscripts 2%. The Türk Kütüphanecili¤i (the journal Turkish Librarianship), Resmî Gazete (Official Gazette), College & Research Libraries, Library Trends, Library Journal, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Unesco Bulletin for Libraries were among the most frequently cited journals. Articles that appeared in the top four and top 38 journals received 32% and 67% of all citations, respectively. The distribution of citations to foreign journals fits the Bradford’s Law of Scattering. The mean half-life of sources cited in dissertations was 9 years. Sources cited in master’s dissertations were younger than those of doctoral dissertations. The great majority of cited resources in dissertations had single authorship. Findings obtained in this study can be used to evaluate the library collections as well as to develop a core journals list in librarianship.