Journal article
How important is software to library and information science research? A content analysis of full-text publications
Journal of informetrics, v 13(1), pp 397-406
Feb 2019
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
•This paper investigates the contributions of software to LIS research.•We explore the extent to which researchers follow software citation instructions.•Nearly 30% of the LIS articles in our sample explicitly mention and use software.•A substantial proportion of scholars do not follow software citation instructions.
We investigate the contributions of scientific software to library and information science (LIS) research using a sample of 572 English language articles published in 13 journals in 2008, 2011, 2014, and 2017. In particular, we examine the use and citation of software freely available for academic use in the LIS literature; we also explore the extent to which researchers follow software citation instructions provided by software developers. Twenty-seven percent of the LIS journal articles in our sample explicitly mention and use software. Yet although LIS researchers are becoming increasingly reliant on software that is freely available for academic use, many still fail to include formal citations of such software in their publications. We also find that a substantial proportion of researchers, when documenting software use, do not cite the software in the manner recommended by its developers.
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Details
- Title
- How important is software to library and information science research? A content analysis of full-text publications
- Creators
- Xuelian Pan - School of Information Management, Nanjing University, Nanjing, ChinaErjia Yan - College of Computing and Informatics, Drexel University, Philadelphia, USAMing Cui - School of Information Management, Nanjing University, Nanjing, ChinaWeina Hua - School of Information Management, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China
- Publication Details
- Journal of informetrics, v 13(1), pp 397-406
- Publisher
- Elsevier
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Information Science
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000460550800021
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-85061637610
- Other Identifier
- 991014976819204721
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- International collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Computer Science, Interdisciplinary Applications
- Information Science & Library Science