Skip to main content
Log in

A comparison of citation distributions of journals and books on the topic “information society”

  • Published:
Scientometrics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore and compare citations and discipline distribution in journal articles and books in the field of information society. By investigating citations, co-citation analysis and social network analysis, this study highlights the major disciplines in the information society field, identifies the highly-cited works and the relationships among them, and analyzes the multidisciplinary nature of the field. A total of 84 selective documents related to the study of information society were collected. The Web of Science, including Science Citation Index Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index, Arts and Humanities Citation Index, and Book Citation Index, was selected to search for citation and co-citation data from 2005 to 2012. A co-citation matrix was built and subject clusters were determined. Moreover, co-citation data acquired from a social network analysis tool, UCINET, were put through centrality analysis to explore the influence of each document in the field of information society. Conclusions were made based on research results.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Alger, J. (1996). Can RANK be used to generate a reliable author list for co-citation studies? College & Research Libraries, 57(6), 567–574.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Astrom, F. (2007). Changes in the LIS research front: Time-sliced co-citation analysis of LIS journal articles, 1990–2004. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 58, 947–957.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen, C., Ibekwe-San Juan, F., & Hou, J. (2010). The structure and dynamics of co-citation clusters: A multiple-perspective cocitation analysis. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 61(7), 1386–1409.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cooper, M. (2003). Book review on Theories of the Information Society, second edition, by Frank Webster. Qualitative Sociology, 26(4), 563–566.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cronin, B. (1984). The citation process: The role and significance of citations in scientific communication. London: Taylor Graham.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goffman, J.W. (1985). A Bibliometric Analysis of a Selected Literature Dealing with the Humanities from the Dictionary of the History of Ideas. Ph.D. Diss., Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio.

  • Gorraiz, J., Purnell, P. J., & Glanzel, W. (2013). Opportunities for and limitations of the Book Citation Index. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 64(7), 1388–1398.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kim, H., & Barnett, G. A. (2008). Social Network Analysis Using Author Co-citation Data. AMCIS 2008 Proceedings. Paper 172. http://aisel.aisnet.org/amcis2008/172. Accessed 23 Nov 2013

  • Knievel, J. E., & Kellsey, C. (2005). Citation analysis for collection development: A comparative study of eight humanities fields. Library Quarterly, 75(2), 142–168.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kreuzman, H. (2001). A co-citation analysis of representative authors in philosophy: Examining the relationship between epistemologists and philosophers of science. Scientometrics, 51(3), 525–539.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Machlup, F. (1962). The production and distribution of knowledge in the United State. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maxwell, R. (2002). Theories of the information society, by Frank Webster. Taylor & Francis Ltd/Books, 1–1.

  • McCain, K. W. (1990). Mapping authors in intellectual space: A technical overview. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 41(6), 433–443.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCain, K. W. (1991). Mapping economics through the journal literature: An experiment in journal co-citation analysis. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 42(4), 290–296.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nicholas, D., & Ritchie, M. (1978). Literature and bibliometrics. London: Clive Bingley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Paisley, W. (1990). An oasis where trails cross: The improbable co-citation networks of a multidiscipline. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 41(6), 459–468.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Raban, D. R., Gordon, A., & Geifman, D. (2011). The information society: The development of a scientific specialty. Information, Communication & Society, 14(3), 357–399.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reid, E. F., & Chen, H. (2007). Mapping the contemporary terrorism research domain. International Journal of Human Computer Study, 65, 42–56.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Selwyn, N. (2005). Book review on The Information Society Reader, edited by Frank Webster. The Information Society, 21, 77–78.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wasserman, S., & Faust, K. (1994). Social network analysis: Methods and applications. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Webster, F. (2005). The information society reader. New York: Routledge Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Webster, F. (2006). Theories of the information society. New York: Routledge Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • WOS. (2013). Web of knowledge. http://webofknowledge.com. Accessed 23 Nov 2013

  • Yan, E., & Ding, Y. (2009). Applying centrality measures to impact analysis: A co-authorship network analysis. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 42(10), 2107–2118.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ming-yueh Tsay.

Appendices

Appendix 1

See Table 12.

Table 12 Documents on information society and their journal and book citations

Appendix 2

See Table 13.

Table 13 Number and percentage of co-citations in the journals and books

Appendix 3

See Table 14.

Table 14 No. of co-citations and centrality for documents on information society

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Tsay, My., Shen, Tm. & Liang, Mh. A comparison of citation distributions of journals and books on the topic “information society”. Scientometrics 106, 475–508 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-015-1791-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-015-1791-3

Keywords

Navigation