1. 南京理工大学信息管理系 Research Methodology 科学研究方法
Class 5
April 11, 2017

2. Overview of Today’s Class
Major data collection techniques III
Bibliometrics
Aka Informetrics and Scientometrics
Webometrics
Aka Cybermetrics
Altmetrics
Ethnography/fieldwork
Historical research
Delphi study - Practice
RM-Class 5

3. Bibliometrics Definition Components Hulme Chu
Counting and analyzing various facets of written communication
Chu
Analysis of data (publication data, references/citations, and other related data) recorded in formal communication
Components
Bibliometric laws (e.g., Bradford’s Law)
Citation analysis
Citation-dependent measures (e.g., impact factor, h-index)
RM-Class 5

4. Written/Formal Communication
Facets of written communication
Publication data (e.g., author, title, publication year)
Text itself (e.g., words, location of words, word frequency)
Reference/Citation data (e.g., author, title, document type, language)
Relationship to information management
Information management → Written/Recorded information (e.g., books, periodicals) → Written communication
RM-Class 5

5. Citations or References?
Citing Author/Item
Making a reference
Cited Author/Item
Receiving a
Citation
RM-Class 5

6. Bibliometric Laws – Bradford’s Law
If periodicals contributing to a subject area are ranked and then grouped in such a way that each group contributes the same # of articles, the #s of periodicals in each group increase geometrically, i.e., k : kn : kn2 ...
Aka “law of scattering” or “law of concentration”
Bradford type of distribution
RM-Class 5

7. Bradford-type Distribution
RM-Class 5

8. Bradford Distribution of Publications in Applied Physics & Lubrication (k=9, n=5)
# of Journals
k:kn:kn2 …
# of Articles 9
k → 9
429 59
kn → 9x5=45
499
258
kn2 → 9x52=225
404 …
RM-Class 5

9. Bibliometric Laws – Lotka’s Law
Suppose n is the number of papers published, k is the number of authors who published a single paper, the number of people publishing n articles is about k/n2. That is, if k people publish a single paper, k/22 people publish 2 papers, k/32 people publish 3 papers, …
Aka "Inverse square law of authors' productivity"
An example
RM-Class 5

10. Lotka’s Law: An Example
If K=100 in k/n2
Then
When n=1, k/n2 =100/12= 100 → 100 people publish 1 paper in their life time
When n=2, k/n2 =100/22= 25 → 25 people publish 2 papers in their life time
When n=3, k/n2 =100/32= 11 → 11 people publish 3 papers in their life time
When n=4, k/n2 =100/42= 6 → 6 people publish 4 papers in their life time …
RM-Class 5

11. Bibliometric Laws – Zipf’s Law
The principle of least effort
If words are ranked (r) according to their frequency of occurrence (f), the product of r and its corresponding f is equal to a constant: rf = C
Sample applications
Language learning/acquisition
Indexing & retrieval
RM-Class 5

12. Zipf’s Law vs. Indexing & RetrievalC D
RM-Class 5

13. Citation Analysis Assumptions Sources of citation data
Citation indexes (Eugene Garfield & ISI) → Web of Science
Scopus, Microsoft Academic Search, …
CSSCI, CSCI, 百度学术，…
Citation analysis methods
Direct counting
Bibliographic coupling (书目对、书目耦合）
Co-citation analysis （共引分析）
RM-Class 5

14. Bibliographic Coupling vs. Co-citation Analysis
RM-Class 5

15. Impact Factor (IF – 影响因子)
Journal Citation Reports (JCR)
Journal IF=A/B
A = # of times the “citable items” (e.g., articles, reviews, proceedings or notes) published in two years (e.g., ) were cited in indexed journals during the third year (e.g., 2015)
B = # of citable items published in the first two years (e.g., )
RM-Class 5

16. h-index & Other Variations
Suggested by Jorge E. Hirsch in 2005
A scientist has index h if h of his Np papers have at least h citations each, and the other (Np - h) papers have at most h citations each.
That is, h = citation #s one receives for each paper = paper #s the same person publishes
h5-index, h10-index, …
Journal Scholar Metrics
RM-Class 5

17. Webometrics Coined by Peter Ingwersen in 1997
Webpages/websites ≈ publications
Links → (Sitations) ≈ Citations
Incoming links (in-links)
Co-cited links (co-links)
Web impact factor (WIF)
Examples
Ranking of universities in the world:
MDS map of 53 LIS schools
RM-Class 5

18. MDS Map for 53 LIS Schools
(Innovation)
(Technology)
RM-Class 5

19. Bibliometrics & Webometrics: A Summary
Features
Unobtrusive
Rich data for both quantitative and qualitative analysis
Widely used for evaluating individuals, groups, institutions, and artifacts such as publications and websites; for exploring the intellectual development and structure of a specialty/field; …
Criticisms
Hard to determine reasons for citations/linking
Self-citations/links and citation/link manipulation
Only first author was counted until recent years
What to do with publications of multiple authors?
RM-Class 5

20. Altmetrics
Altmetrics, short for alternative metrics, are new measurements for the impact of scholarly content.
Altmetrics go beyond counts from citation databases by considering other aspects of the impact of a work, such as article views, downloads, or # of followers/mentions/reviews in social media.
Increasingly used as a method to complement bibliometric & webometric research
See Gallican and Dyas-Correia (2013) for more.
RM-Class 5

21. More on Altmetrics Reasons for using social media
Common academic social networks
中国科技论文在线:
学术汇:
天玑网(SoScholar):
Academia.edu:
ResearchGate:
Mendeley:
RM-Class 5

22. Bibliometrics, Webometrics & Altmetrics Dos and Don’ts
Select trusted sources for collecting citation, link & altmetric data.
Apply sampling techniques for data collection wherever possible.
Use citation/link/altmetric counts as a rough indicator of quality.
Analyze citation/link/altmetric data in context, both quantitatively and qualitatively.
Use altmetric and other techniques to supplement bibliometric & webometric research
Don’t assume all citations/links/altmetric data are equal.
Don’t over-interpret citation/link/altmetric data.
RM-Class 5

23. What is Ethnography? Ethnos Ethnography (人种/民族志学) Features
People of the same race or nationality who share a distinctive culture (from WordNet)
Ethnography (人种/民族志学)
The branch of anthropology that provides scientific description of individual human societies
Features
Involves an ongoing attempt to place specific encounters, events, and understandings into a fuller, more meaningful context
Combines various methods of inquiry to produce historically, politically and personally situated accounts, interpretations, and representations of human lives
Enters into close and relatively prolonged interaction with people
RM-Class 5

24. Approaches to Ethnography
Fieldwork
The most often used approach in ethnography
Need to employ specific techniques for data collection
Participant observation
Interview, questionnaire
Photo survey
Various other techniques described in Delcore, et al. (2009) such as floating reference, student day-mapping, …
RM-Class 5

25. Fieldwork: Stages & Questions
How to gain access to less or least accessible fields?
How to become acceptable after entering the field?
How to become invisible in the field while not causing ethical concerns?
How to watch, listen and learn in a field?
Shall the researcher be value-free or value-laden?
RM-Class 5

26. Ethnography: Applications
General areas
Cultural and social anthropology, sociology, communication studies, …
Specific areas
Cultural studies, literary theory, folklore, nursing (i.e., ethnonursing), law, …
Information management
Information seeking behavior (e.g., information source selection, library use) of users, information needs of special groups, online communities, organization, …
RM-Class 5

27. Historical Research What is historical research Features
Study a research problem by examining, analyzing (synthesize, summarize) & interpreting existing published/unpublished materials
Features
No discrete phases. Rather, hypothesis formation, collection and interpretation of evidences (data) are all integrated with one another
Mainly qualitative
General research steps
Data sources and evaluation
Primary, secondary, tertiary
RM-Class 5

28. Steps in Historical Research
Recognizing a historical problem or identifying a need for certain historical knowledge
Gathering as much pertinent information as possible about the problem or topic as possible
If appropriate, forming hypotheses that tentatively explain relationships between historical factors (variables)
Rigorously collecting and organizing evidence, and verifying the authenticity and veracity of information and its sources
Selecting, organizing, and analyzing the most pertinent collected evidence, and drawing conclusions
Recording conclusions in a meaningful narrative
RM-Class 5

29. More on Historical Research
Dos and don’ts
Be thorough in data collection
Be diligent in verifying the authenticity of data sources
Be truthful in interpreting the data collected
Try to take into consideration of the contextual factors in existence when analyzing the data collected
When to use the historical research method?
RM-Class 5

30. Delphi Study What is Delphi study? Features of the Delphi method?
Use data collected from a selected group of anonymous experts during several "rounds" of information exchange in order to reach consensus.
Features of the Delphi method?
Compare with focus groups
Other features
Controlled feedback in the form of statistical summaries of group opinions
Allow the researcher to ask participants to provide explanations for their choices and if their feedback fall outside of the range of group consensus.
RM-Class 5

31. Delphi Study: General Process
Select experts
Develop data collection instrument
Conduct the first round of Delphi study
Gather data using the data collection instrument
Analyze, summarize and incorporate the results into the data collection instrument before moving to the next round
Repeat the same process in the 2nd, 3rd, … round
How many rounds?
Example
Zhang & Salaba, 2009
RM-Class 5

32. More on Delphi Study Dos and don’ts
Keep time intervals between rounds to a reasonable length
Summarize and present group responses properly
Don’t omit, misinterpret what is gathered
Don’t impose one’s own opinion to research participants
When to use the Delphi method in our field?
Practice: Research fronts in information management
RM-Class 5

33. Research Fronts in Info Management
Access to quality info
Artificial intelligence
Big data
Cloud computing
Database manag’mt
Digital libraries
HCI/UX
Information networks
Information retrieval
Information security
Info seeking behavior
Information systems
Internet of Things (IoT)
Knowledge manag’mt
Knowledge organiz’tn
Linked data
Mobile technologies
Natural language IR
Organizing the web
Security systems
Social media
Ubiquitous computing
Web 2.0
Your suggestions:
RM-Class 5

34. Next class (4/12, 2-5pm) Major data collection techniques IV
Think aloud protocols
Transaction log analysis
Research diaries
Other methods
Preparations for data analysis
Quantitative research vs. qualitative research
Major quantitative data analysis techniques (Q&A only)
Descriptive statistics
Inferential statistics & Big Data analytics
RM-Class 5