Indiana University's (IU) School of Library and Information Science (SLIS) has been ranked #1 in the world in terms of faculty and program citation counts. Citation counting is well known by scholars to be an objective measure that credits and recognizes the value, impact, quality, or significance of an author's work.
A study by Olle Persson and Fredrik Åström, of the Department of Sociology, Umeå Universitet (Sweden), based on articles from 27 of the top library and information science journals for the period 1990 to April 2005, placed SLIS well above the nearest contender (see links below). Self citations were excluded in the study.
"Most cited universities and authors in Library & Information Science 1990-2004," which appeared in a 2005 issue of Bibliometric Notes, "demonstrates yet again the outstanding research productivity and intellectual influence of SLIS faculty," said Dean Blaise Cronin. In two other recent studies by Budd (2000) and Adkins and Budd (2006), based on publication and citation data for the years 1993-1998 and 1999 to 2004, respectively, SLIS also ranked well above the nearest contender in terms of publication and citation counts. Two of the top-ten most widely published and most highly cited faculty members in Adkins and Budd study also came from IU.
Adkins, D., & Budd, J. (2006). Scholarly productivity of U.S. LIS faculty. Library & Information Science Research, 28 (3), 374-389.
Budd, J. M. (2000). Scholarly productivity of U.S. LIS faculty: An update. The Library Quarterly, 70(2), 230-245.
Persson, O., & Åström, F. (2005). Most cited universities and authors in Library & Information Science 1990-2004. Bibliometric Notes, 7(2).
Related SLIS News Stories:
SLIS Ranked in Top Ten by U.S. News & World Report
High Impact of IU Library and Information Science Publications
SLIS, its dean and faculty earn top honors
For more on SLIS's research activities, see http://www.slis.indiana.edu/research/
Posted November 30, 2006