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01. Librametry, bibliometrics, scientometrics, informetrics and webometrics: historical development P- 07. Informetrics & Scientometrics

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01. Librametry, bibliometrics, scientometrics, informetrics and webometrics: historical development


P- 07. Informetrics & Scientometrics *

By :I K Ravichandra Rao,Paper Coordinator

01. Librametry, Bibliometrics, Scientometrics, Informetrics and Webometrics: Historical Development  

Summary
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The terms librametry, bibliometrics, scientometrics, informetrics, cybermetrics, and webometrics  refer to fields related to the study of the dynamics of disciplines as reflected in the production of their literature. Areas of study range from charting changes in the output of a scholarly field through time and across countries, to the library collection problem of maintaining control of the output, and to the low publication productivity of most researchers. These terms are used to describe similar and overlapping methodologies. The origins, historical survey, scope, application and development of each of these terms are presented in this paper.


Objectives

The main objective of Unit - 1 is to know the scope & definition of different termonolgies (such as, librametrics, bibliometrics, scientometrics, informetrics  and webometrics, etc.)  used in the field and their relevance to  the field of information as well as to science.

Introduction

Prof. P. C. Mahalanobis, founder of the Indian Statistical Institute, in the early 1950’s argued that Statistics is a “Key technology” – as it is required for all socio-economic development activities, and since statistical techniques are used in all development and forecasting studies. In recent past, statistics has been applied to a number of areas such as perspective planning, industrial and agricultural development, etc. Library and Information managers have adopted a number of quantitative methods in recent years in order to evaluate library resources and services more objectively and effectively. Scientometrics/ Informetrics refer to quantitative techniques applicable to measure the records of human communication. Over the years, several new terms have appeared on the horizon representing quantitative studies in library and Information Science. 

The History of comparative Anatomy Part-I: A Statistical Analysis by Cole and Eale (10) is considered to be the first bibliometric study in 1917. Hulme (19) was the first to use the expression ‘statistical bibliography’ in 1923; later several studies have been conducted. Gross and Gross (18) study is considered to be the third study in the field based on citations. After Hulme, the term statistical bibliography was used by Henkle4 in 1938 in his article “The periodical literature of Biochemistry” and Gosnell (16,17) in his dissertation in 1943, and later in his article 1944. The historical development of the term statistical bibliography has been traced by Witting (38) in a foot note. As the term was considered very clumsy, not very descriptive, and can be confused with statistics itself or bibliographies on statistics.

Librametry

In 1948 at the Aslib’s conference in Lamington Spa, Ranganathan introduced the term Librametry for the first time. He suggested to develop librametry on the lines of biometry, econometry, and psychometry (2). His suggestions were avidly welcomed at the conference by Bernal and others. The term Librametrics has two roots: Libra and Metry. The word ‘Libra’ connotes ‘library’ and ‘metrics’ means measurement.  Further,  as the librarian of the Madras University Library, he practiced various librametric techniques way back in 1925, in order to solve day today library problems and to streamline the day-to-day library activities, services for their clientele and also for the betterment of library professional as a whole(31)      

            The scope of the library is limited to the quantitative study of books, readers and staff.  Here the books, readers and staff are the three constituent elements or factors of the library. The absence of any one of the three will make the library cease to exist. Each has its own potentiality and it is only a sum of the three that makes a library. Thus we can measure all the Characteristics of books, readers and staff.

            The library book selection, acquisition, accessioning, classification, cataloguing, stack arrangement, publicity, reference service, circulation activities can be measured. The library reader’s book use behaviour can be quantifiable. The library staff-their satisfaction, dissatisfaction-also can be measured. Even we can include library accounting, budgeting and manpower planning.

            Ranganathan (27) in his paper presented in the DRTC 7th Annual Seminar (1969) suggested a few examples of statistics to library science. Based on his experience and the experiments carried out at the Documentation Research and Training Centre, Neelameghan (23) outlined the  applications for Librametrics:

  1. Determination of the strength of library staff;
  2. Disposition of library staff for circulation work during different library hours;
  3. Disposition of library staff for reference service during different library hours
  4. Organization of library system;Establishing the distinction between “service library” and “dormitory library”;
  5. Design of library building, fittings, and furniture;
  6. Book selection;
  7. Absolute syntax and facet syntax in relation to classification;
  8. Length of class number;
  9. Variation in style in writing catalogue entries; and
  10. DOC-Finder.

Statistical techniques are also useful in

  1. Transfer of a big library from one building to another;
  2. Periodical changes in the sequence of subjects in shelving of books in the stack room in relation to saving of the time of readers.
  3. Estimation opinion of readers about library services received by them;
  4. Estimation of library use; and
  5. Accuracy in cataloguing work.

The librametric studies if developed properly as suggested by Ranganathan could become a good indicator for measuring various activities of librarianship both quantitatively and qualitatively. It is therefore imperative on the professional schools of library and information science to incorporate Librametrics as a foundation course. Such a step would help us to have an objective as systematic approach to the field of library and information science.

Bibliometrics

The term bibliometrics was first coined by Prichard (25) in 1969 in preference to existing terminology ‘statistical bibliography’. The word “Bibliometrics” has two roots: ‘biblio’ and ‘metrics. The term ‘biblio’ is derived from the combination of Latin and Greek word ‘biblion’ equivalent to Bylos, meaning book, paper which in turn was derived from the word Bylos, a city of Phenonicia,  a noted city for export trade in paper.  The word ‘metrics’, on the other hand, indicates the science of meter, i.e., measurement and is derived either from Latin or Greek word ‘metricus’ or ‘metricos’ respectively, each managing measurement.  This term was coined for the first time by Alan Pritchard.  He used the term to describe all 'studies which seek to quantify the process of written communication'. Fairthorne (13) also defined it as 'the quantitative treatment of the properties of recorded discourse and behaviour pertaining to it.'

Bibliometric studies include studies of the growth of the literature in some subject, how much literature is contributed by various individuals, groups, or organisations or countries; how much exists in various languages; how the literature on some subject is scattered (e.g., over documentary types, language journals); and how quickly the literature on some subject becomes out-of-date (Studies of obsolescence).  Another important group of bibliometric studies relates to what sources author cite.  Day-by-day this study is attaining sophistication and complexity, having national, international and inter disciplinary character.  The backbone of Bibliometrics lies in its sound theoretical foundation most effectively laid by some pioneers like Lotka (20), Bradford (3), Zipf (39), Duck J de Sola Price (24), Bookstein(4), Mandelbrot (21), Brookes (5,6,7,8), Garifield (14,15), Egghe (12) and many others, and their techniques are capable of throwing light on various complicated problems faced by information scientists to quantify the process of written communication. The bibliometric tools can be applied to

  1. Studies related to scattering of articles
  2. Geographical distribution, language-wise distribution, institution-wise distribution of articles
  3. Age distribution of documents
  4. Distribution of citations -- subject, author, language, type, journal etc.
  5. Use of information storage and retrieval
  6. Application, in the Library Use Studies.
  7. To study the trends in research, and identifying the growth of literature.
  8. To identify authorship trends in documents on various subjects.
  9. to measure the utolity of library services
10.  To evaluate the library collection, etc..

These definitions of librametry and bibliometrics show that librametry primarily aims at the quantitative analysis of the management of libraries and bibliometrics is limited to recorded knowledge. The publication in both the fields suggests that in librametry and bibliometrics, one examines the statistical distributions of the processes relating to the utilization of documents, Library staff, and Library users, to establish a theory for the structural aspects of library. Bibliometrics and librametry may therefore be commonly
defined as areas in which one studies ‘information processes and information handling in libraries and information centers by quantitatively analyzing the characteristics and behavior of documents, library staff, and library users.’ (28)

Scientometrics

In the 1960s, particularly in Eastern Europe, the term “scientometrics” was used to denote “measurement of informatics process.” The term informatics was then widely used to mean “documentation / information handling activities;” obviously, there is not much difference between bibliometrics of the West and the scientometrics of the East Europe. The term Scientometrics originated as a Russian term for the application of quantitative methods to the history of science, which studies the quantative aspects of science. It was  suggested by Dolrov and Kormoni (11), often used with same meaning as the bibliometrics to mean ‘the application of quantitative methods to history of science’. This term came into prominence with the founding of the journal named ‘Scientometrics’ by T. Braun in 1977, originally published in Hungary and currently from Amsterdam, The Netherlands.  Scientometrics used to mean communication process in science including socio-cultural aspects, and appears to be almost synonymous with science of science with more stress on its quantitative aspects.  It is also used as a generic term for a system of knowledge, which endeavours to study the scientific (and technological) system by using a variety of approaches within the area of science and technology studies.   

Scientometrics is concerned with the quantitative features and characteristics of science and scientific research. Emphasis is placed on investigations in which the development and mechanism of science are studied by statistical mathematical methods. Scientometrics is now considered as a part of the sociology of science and is applied to science policy making. Thus Scientometrics involves studies in:

  1. Sociology of Science,
  2. History of science,
  3. Growth of literature
  4. Behaviour of of  scientists,
  5. Science indicators, eyc.

Derek John de Solla Price (22 January 1922 – 3 September 1983) (24) was credited as the father of scientometrics. He was a physicist, a historian of science, an information scientist and worked as a teacher of applied mathematics at Raffles College (which was to become part of the University of Singapore in 1948). It was there that he formulated his theory on the exponential growth of science, an idea that occurred to him when he noticed the growth in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society between 1665 and 1850. – he had the complete set in his home while Raffles College had its library built. Further, Garfield's contribution (14, 15) to scientometrics is quite significant; his contributions are evolved through his Science Citation Index. Merton also had his view on scientometrics; it is  based on Mathew Effect (23).

Informetrics

Information, in its most restricted technical sense, is a sequence of symbols that can be interpreted as a message. Information can be recorded as signs, or transmitted as signals. Information is any kind of event that affects the state of adynamic system. Conceptually, information is the message  being conveyed. The English word was apparently derived from the Latin stem (information-) of the nominative (information): this noun is in its turn derived from the verb "informare" (to inform) in the sense of "to give form to the mind", "to discipline", "instruct", "teach":. Metrics means measuring. Informetrics is the study of quantitative aspects of information. This includes the production, dissemination and use of all forms of information, regardless of its form or origin.

According to Brookes (9) the word ‘Informetrics’ was first proposed by Otto Nacke of West Germany in 1979.  FID constituted a committee with this name and Nacke was its first Chairman. Rajan (26), the next Chairman of the Committee, reformulated the objectives of informetrics as to (1) provide reliable data for research and development, policy-making, planning; (2) to evaluate institutions, projects, articles, products, and other academic activities, and (3) to identify or to develop the techniques to trace the origins and development of concepts. In a short communication on “Informetrics vis-à-vis Bibliometrics: Scope and its Development”, Ravichandra Rao (29) mentioned that it is a field wherein the flow of information and behavior of information are analyzed, measured and quantitative relationships are established. It is a scientific field wherein the developments of measurement of impact of information are assessed continuously. Bibliometrics may therefore be treated as synonymous to informetrics having a scope to analyze quantitative characteristics of information. An FID Committee constituted with broadly defined objectives in the provision of research and technical data subsequently gave this name. 

            Third International conference on Informetrics was held in Bangalore in 1991.  ‘Informetrics’ was used as a generic term to mean “The use and development of a variety of measures to study and analyse several properties of information in general and documents in particular the study of the quantitative aspects of information in any form, not just records or bibliographies. Informetrics is the study of quantitative aspects of information. This includes the production, dissemination and use of all forms of information, regardless of its form or origin. As such, informetrics encompasses the fields of which studies quantitative aspects of science. It is mostly concerned with development of models  to explain and identify the various characteristics of the literature. It also discusses scientific productivity, collaborative research, etc.

Webometrics


The science of webometrics (also cybermetrics) tries to measure the World Wide Web to get knowledge about the number and types of hyperlinks, structure of the World Wide Web and usage patterns. According to Björneborn and Ingwersen (2004), the definition of webometrics is "the study of the quantitative aspects of the construction and use of information resources, structures and technologies on the Web drawing on bibliometric and informetric approaches." The term webometricswas first coined by Almind and Ingwersen (1). A second definition of webometrics has also been introduced, "the study of web-based content with primarily quantitative methods for social science research goals using techniques that are not specific to one field of study" (35), which emphasizes the development of applied methods for use in the wider social sciences. The purpose of this alternative definition was to help publicize appropriate methods outside of the information science discipline rather than to replace the original definition within information science.

Cybermetrics is one of the recently emerged fields in the line of metric studies.  It has gained much popularity since the mid-1990 with the advent of Information Technology.  As it is mainly concerned with the computer-science-based approaches, it has superseded all other metric studies in this Internet Era. Cybermetrics is proposed as a generic term for “The study of the quantitative aspects of the construction and use of information resources, structures and technologies on the whole Internet drawing on bibliometric and informetric approaches.” Cybermetrics thus encompasses statistical studies of discussion groups, mailing lists, and other computer – mediated communication on the internet, including the www.  Besides covering all computer-mediated communication by using internet applications, this definition of cybermetrics also covers quantitative measures of the internet backbone technology, topology and traffic.  The breadth of coverage of cybermetrics implies large overlaps with proliferating computer-science-based approaches in analyses of web contents, link structures, and web usage and web technologies. The Webometrics which studies are the quantitative aspects of the World Wide Web.The Cybermetrics which is similar to webometrics; but broadens its scope ;which include namely the electronic resources. Research of all network-based communications by using informetric or other quantitative measures is called webometrics.

There has been a revolutionising symbiosis between computer and communication technologies in the west over the past ten years. The invention of World Wide Web (www) a part of the ‘INTERNET’, which is the mother of networks, has practically webbed the information globally under less than one roof.  There has been a shift in navigational approaches from syntactical to semantic (i.e., from sentences to words), as an ever increasing number of research institutes, universities and business organisations are currently providing information  about themselves in the form their articles, publications, reports, catalogues and other information resources on the INTERNET in general and the www in particular.  This is now becoming the accepted method of disseminating and sharing information resources in hypermedia.  Information science research has also changed, with much research to find out, how the new technologies are being used, particularly e-mail and the web.  In addition to user studies there have been attempts to extract new kinds of information from the web.

Being a global document network initially developed for scholarly use, it is now inhabited by a diversity of users, and the web constitutes an obvious research area for bibliometrics, scientometrics and informetrics.

Conclusion

Bibliometrics is concerned with theoretical and philosophical foundations. Some of the important studies on theoretical and philosophical foundations are in the area of ( 3, 20, 32, 33, 39,):
  • Law of Scattering (Bradford’s law)
  • Author productivity (Lotka’s law)
  • Word productivity (law of Least Efforts)
  • Success-breeds success phenomenon
  • Circulation theory
  • Information Product and Processes (IPP) and Duality in IPPs
There are other theoretical studies, especially in the area of circulation theory, citation analysis, sources-items relation, etc. Some of these are discussed in ( ):
  • Quantitative Method for Library and Information Science. By I K Ravichandra Rao. Wiley-Eastern. New Delhi. 1983.
  • Proceedings of the ISSI Conferences in Scientometrics and Informetrics (held bi-annually since 1987)
  • Introduction to Informetrics: Quantitative Methods in Library, Documentation and Information Science. By Leo Egghe and Ronald Rousseau. Elsevier. Amsterdam. 1990
  • Power Laws in the Information Production Process: Lotkaian Informetrics. By Leo Egghe. Elsevier. Amsterdam. 2005.
Studies based on citation data have several limitations. They are (34):
  • Citation studies are mostly dependent on data from databases such as Web of Science, SCOPUS, etc. which cover only a limited number of journals and its coverage does not remain constant since new journals are added regularly and some are dropped,

  • Solutions to problems of eliminating self-citation are cumbersome.
            A primary objective of bibliometric research is the development of a general and systematic set of theories from which hypotheses can be generated and tested. Scientometric studies vary from each other from several points of view. They adopt different methods of data collection as well as different techniques. Even there are no universally accepted terminologies. In addition, use of algebraic symbols varies from one study to another. Under these circumstances, it would be difficult to think of “bibliometric or scientometric standards,” let alone formulating them ( 31, 32, 34)
            Most of the scientometric studies are empirical in nature. In such circumstances, to reproduce the research, one has to repeat the survey and analyze the data right from the beginning. Even then, we may not get the same result! In natural sciences, it is possible and quite common that research may be repeated in laboratories. But in social sciences this is not only difficult, but is not possible. Further, an important cause of the overall unreliability and therefore a cause of invalidity in any basic research in the social sciences are due to space and time factors. It is therefore  difficult to reproduce the results of research (31, 32, 34)
            The fact, whether we call our research area as librametry or bibliometrics or scientometrics or informetrics  most of the topics we deal with are (31, 32, 34):
  • Quantitative aspects of library and information studies, especially use and user studies, growth of collection, age distribution of documents, circulation statistics, etc.
  • Journal productivity (by coverage, by use, by citation, cost-effectiveness measures, impact factor, h-index, sources of citations, immediacy of citations, age of sources cited, coverage in databases, etc.)
  • Measures of productivity or author productivity, including studies related to multiple authorship (number of publications. cost-effectiveness measures, impact factor, h-index, reprints request, photo copies made, sources of citations, immediacy of citations, number of reviews, adoption rates (text books), etc.)
  • Obsolescence and growth of literature
  • Co-citation, bibliographic coupling, co-word analysis, rank distribution of words, etc.
  • Quantitative analyses of science (science indicators -- country-wise, language-wise, subject-wise, etc.)
  • Identifying relationships among various disciplines, structure of subjects, etc.
  • Evaluation of scientific research (by institutions, by individuals, by countries, etc.)
            Acceptance of a single term to define a subject and acceptance of its scope are necessary for any scientist. Otherwise, it is difficult to include it in a syllabus. It is also difficult to get research grant from different agencies. It helps us in identifying the research groups especially at national and international levels. At present, the term 'scientometrics' is used as synonym to both 'bibliometrics' and 'informetrics'.
In order to encourage communication and exchange of professional information in the field of scientometrics and informetrics, a Society, called 'the International Society for Informetrics and Scientometrics' (ISSI) was founded in 1993. It  is an association of professionals active in the emerging interdisciplinary fields of informetrics, bibliometrics / scientometrics, technometrics and webometrics. Among its membership are scientists from over 30 countries representing all five continents. The Articles of Association state that the aim of ISSI is the advancement of the theory, methods and explanations through the following two main streams:

  1. Quantitative Studies related to
  • Scientific, technological and other scholarly substantiveinformation.
  • Science of science and technology, social sciences, arts and humanities'.
  • Generation, diffusion and use of information.
  • Information systems, including libraries, archives and databases
  1. Mathematical, Statistical, and Computational Modelling and Analysis of Information Processes.

            The Society was founded at the International Conference on Bibliometrics, Informetrics and Scientometrics held in Berlin, 11-15 September in 1993. This conference was the fourth of a series of prominent biennial conference that subsequently have been held under the auspices of the Society.  The first three earlier conferences were held in Diepenbeek, Belgium (1987, Chairman: Dr. Leo Egghe), London, Ontario, Canada (1989, Chairman: Dr J M Tague) and in Bangalore, India (1991, Chairman: Dr I K Raviachandra Rao). The Society was incorporated with formal Articles of Association in 1994 in the Netherlands (Utrecht.) Dr Hildrun Kretschmer was elected its first President (32)

            With Berlin as its virtual center COLLNET was set up on January 1st, 2000, under the leadership of Hildrun Kretschmer,  in her capacity as coordinator. The network is to comprise the prominent scientists, who work at present mostly in the field of quantitative science studies, coming from 15 countries of America, Asia, Australia and Europe. The intention is to work together in co-operation both on theoretical and applied aspects. COLLNET conducts every year Intrnational cocnference in scientometrics.

There are three important journals in scientometrics -- Journal of Scientometrics, Journal of Informetrics and COLLNET Journal of scientometrics and Information ManagementS. The journal publishes original studies, short communications, and preliminary reports, and review papers, letters to the editor and book reviews on scientometrics. Due to its fully interdisciplinary character, the journal is indispensable to research workers and research administrators. It provides valuable assistance to librarians and documentalists in central scientific agencies, ministries, research institutes and laboratories.

On 27th March 2011at Tumkur in IndiaInstitute of Scientometrics was founded by Prof S L Sangam, with an objective to promote research in Scientoemtrics. It is a virtual and non-profit organization. which has been set up by. Much of the research works in this area were carried out in National Institute of Science Communication and Information Resources (NISCAIR, a wing of CSIR) (formerly known as INSDOC), National Institute of Csience Technology and Development Studies (NISTADS, a wing of CSIR) and Documentation Research and Training Centre of the Indian Statistical Institute. In recent times, a number of research works were published from Deartments of Library and Information Science of many Universities in India. In 2009, UGC recognized Department of Library and Information Studied of the Karnataka University a Special Assistant Program (SAP) in scientometrics.

From the point of view of the library and information centres, it is essential to evaluate and study the research trends from time to time, so that it would be quite easy for designing, organising and managing the various information services and products to cater to the information needs of researchers effectively, expeditiously and exhaustively.  The field of cybermetrics exceeds the boundaries of bibliometrics, because some activities in cyberspace normally are not recorded, but communicated synchronously as in chat rooms.  Cybermetric studies of such activities still fit in the generic field of Informetrics as the study of the quantitative aspects of information “in any form” and ‘in any social group” as stated by Tague-Sutcliffe (1992).  The inclusion of webometrics expands the field of bibliometrics, as webometrics inevitably will contribute to further methodological developments of web-specific approaches.  As ideas rooted in bibliometrics, scientometrics and Informetrics contributed to the emergence of webometrics, ideas in webometrics might also contribute to the development of these all embracing fields.

References


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39.  Zipf, George. (1949). Human behavior and the principle of least effort. New York. Addison-Wesley Press


Information Sources Programs Reference & Information Services - 110

इस ब्लॉग्स को सृजन करने में आप सभी से सादर सुझाव आमंत्रित हैं , कृपया अपने सुझाव और प्रविष्टियाँ प्रेषित करे , इसका संपूर्ण कार्य क्षेत्र विश्व ज्ञान समुदाय हैं , जो सभी प्रतियोगियों के कॅरिअर निर्माण महत्त्वपूर्ण योगदान देगा ,आप अपने सुझाव इस मेल पत्ते पर भेज सकते हैं - chandrashekhar.malav@yahoo.com

Information Sources Programs Reference & Information Services 

1. Introduction

In the previous Unit you might have been acquainted with the categorization of documentary information sources as primary, secondary and tertiary. A secondary source of information is one that was created based on the primary sources like journal articles, research reports, conference publications etc. The secondary sources are again conditioned by the nature of information they deal with and may vary.


  • Reference information – Encyclopaedias, geographical sources, directories, yearbooks, almanacs, handbooks, manuals etc.

  • Bibliographic information – Catalogues / OPACs, union catalogues, subject bibliographies / webliographies

  • Analyzed and surrogated / consolidated - indexes, abstracts

Out of the three, the analysis and consolidation are value added as the original documents are scanned, analyzed for subject terms / keywords, and repackaged as indexes and abstracts. The popular name for such sources in the electronic environment is ‘aggregator’ type. They have an important role in dissemination of information; therefore let us have a detailed discussion on indexing and abstracting sources.

When we talk about indexes and abstracts little clarification is required as indexing and abstracting are discussed in library science in the context of i) source and ii) service. Indexing is also important in third context i.e. iii) subject indexing. In special libraries the information is analyzed and consolidated customizing for institutional requirements and is called as indexing and abstracting service. Further while organizing the documents, more specifically micro documents (journal articles etc) the library and information system follows standard terminology called indexing language (e.g. L.C. List of Subject Headings, Classification Schemes, Thesaurus) that is referred to as subject indexing. However in this Unit the focus is on indexing and abstracting periodicals as sources i.e. the information sources that has indexed and or abstracted the primary sources thus providing a key to open the treasure of primary sources. Other aspects will be discussed at appropriate sections. 

2. Indexing sources

The word index is derived from the Latin word ‘indicare’ that means to indicate or point out the information where it is available. It is a location tool. 
The American National Standards Institute has defined as “systematic guide to items contained in or concepts derived from a collection.  These items or derived concepts are represented by entries arranged in a known or stated searchable order.”  
According to Kishan Kumar an index is “a systematic guide to the text of any reading matter or to the contents of other collected documentary material, comprising a series of entries, with headings arranged in alphabetical or other chosen order, & with references to show where each item indexed is located”.

So it is a method of document representation that tells a user quickly where an item is to be found and where it is filed.

It is very useful tool and helps to know the sources of information as well as its location.   It facilitates the identification or selection of desired documents containing the required information after they have been stored or shelved in a library. It may be published separately or as a part of the work.  

2.1 Origin and development:

Indexing owes its origin to the traditional book index which has gradually seen considerable improvements and developed as bibliographic index/ subject index. Specific aspects of a subject are given in the form of subject headings or keywords. Later there was the growth of primary sources especially the periodicals. There aroused a need to have a bibliographical control apparatus that indexes all published periodical articles in a given subject. Pole’s Index to periodical Literature (1848) and Index Medicus (1879) were some of the earlier examples of indexing periodicals. However Index Medicus ceased its print version from 2004 and available as PubMed database. Now indexing periodicals in print or electronic databases are available in almost all subjects.   



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The coverage of an indexing periodical is generally restricted to subject, but rarely may cover geographical or specific material collections.
Structure of index: Basically the index is having two parts:
  • Searching part – keyword, subject, title, author that represents the original document and used a tool for search
  • Citation – brief information of the document that facilitates identification of the original document.
  • 2.2 Uses and functions

    Uses
    Libraries generally hold good collections of periodicals as they provide current information and form basis for research and academic pursuit. However their use is limited unless the contents of each journal are brought into notice of users. Further a library cannot subscribe all journals available in a subject but would like to know what is available and in which journal so that if necessary they can procure that information. For instance according to Ulrichsweb( www.ulrichsweb.com/ulrichsweb/analysis/), there are 107,765 active journal publications of which 94,687 are academic scholarly journals. It is almost impossible for any library to subscribe them all and for scientist or researcher to find relevant information out of the overload of information available. Through application of subject indexing, access to periodical literature has been tremendously increased. Therefore the primary uses of indexing sources are:

    • Overviews of the subject – The periodicals are published in thousands. With such wider coverage of journals the indexing periodicals provide the users with an overview of the current developments and research trends in the respective subject.  
    • Access to information – A researcher / scientist or academician can access only those journals that are subscribed by the library in print or electronic. However access to major output of literature in his / her subject is possible through an indexing periodical. They can access more information than subscribed ones as indexing periodical has wider coverage. After going through the index for a particular topic, the reader can select items of interest and search for the primary source.
    • Resolves language problem – The journals are being published from different countries in different languages. The general belief is that at least 40-50 percent of journals are published in other than English language. Because of this the scholarly community is deprived of accessing literature available in foreign languages. An indexing periodical provides entries in English language translating the original thus resolving the language problem.  
    • Resolves problem of information explosion – Exponential growth of literature is a common phenomena in every scientific subject. For example Chemical Abstracts indexes around 10,000 major scientific journals and patent documents from 63 patent authorities (Source: https://www.cas.org/about-cas/cas-fact-sheets). PubMed includes 5051 journal titles (Source:http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/num_titles.html). A comparatively new subject like Library and Information Science has more than 440 journals (source: LISA). Thus the indexing periodicals are the bibliographical control apparatus that gathers information of all journal publications, analyzes and consolidates information and publishes at regular periods. Thus they help in resolving the issues associated with proliferation of scientific literature.

    Functions
    The indexes play a vital role in literature search and informing about availability and location of relevant documents in response to users request.
    • It facilitates subject, author and title approach to seek information
    • It provides information on contemporary or current issues
    • It facilitates search through specific subject headings
    • It also reveals trends in the growth of a subject.

    Usually an index is arranged alphabetically but may sometimes be arrange chronologically, geographically, numerically, or in any other suitable manner, depending upon the requirement. Thus the primary function of an indexing periodical is
    • compilation of title of articles under standard index terms;
    • providing bibliographical details for identification of the item and
    • arranging them in alphabetical order for easy retrieval.

    Generally titles of new books, conference proceedings, pamphlets etc are also included in the indexes. 

  • 2.3 Types of indexes


    The information sources are generally categorized further based on the nature of information they contain. You might have already learnt that encyclopedias and dictionaries divided as general, special etc. Similarly, the indexes are categorized broadly into three types based on the nature of information they provide:
    • General
    • Subject
    • Citation indexes

    Majority of the indexes are now available in print and electronic form. The electronic versions of indexes are referred to as ‘secondary databases’.

    2.3.1 General: General indexes coverage is wider and may or may not be confined to a subject field.
    • General indexes that lists periodical publications. E.g.
    i. The Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature, Fortnightly/ Monthly, New York, H.W.Wison, 1900-
    ii.Index India (Quarterly) Jaipur, Rajasthan University Library. 1967-
    iii.Guide to Indian Periodical Literature. Quarterly. New Delhi, Indian      Documentation Service 1964-
    • Subject indexes – Coverage includes all subjects and all types of documents. E.g.
    i. Library Literature. Bi Monthly. (Cumulated yearly). New York, H.W.Wilson, 1934-
    ii. Biography Index Past and Preseant. Quarterly (Cumulated annually) New York, H.W.Wilson, 1946-
    • Indexes to single magazines, either at the end of a volume or as separately published works. E.g. Scientific American Cumulative Index.
    • Press indexes: There is a growing number of newspaper indexes in the world.  The best known newspaper indexes are
    i. The New York Times Index (Quarterly cumulations) New York, New York Times Company.
    ii. Index to the Times of India. Three times a year. Bombay, Times of India Reference Department, 1973-
    E-Version: epaper.timesofindia.com/index.asp
    • Translations: E.g. Index Translationum. Annual. Paris, UNESCO, 1948-
    2.3.2 Subject: Subject indexes, covering not only several periodicals but also material found in other books, pamphlets, government documents and reports.  The purpose is to index material in a narrow subject field. There are indexes to reports both published and unpublished, govt., documents, proceedings of conferences, and other materials which can be defined as serials i.e., any publication issued in parts over an indefinite period.
    General:
    i. Conference Papers Index, Monthly. Bethesda, Cambridge Scientific Abstracts, 1973-.
    ii. Indian Science Index, Annual. New Delhi, Indian Documentation Service, 1975-
    iii. Index to Scientific and Technical Proceedings. Monthly. Philadelphia, Institute for Scientific Information. 1974-
    Specific subject indexes:
    i. Current Papers in Physics. London, Institution of Electrical Engineers. 1966-. It  indexes        
    65,000 papers annually from over 900 physics periodicals of the world.

    ii. Index Medicus, Monthly. Washington, National Library of Medicine, 1960- . It indexes about    5051 periodicals by author and subject giving a citation under each entry. It is cumulated annually. The subjects covered include veterinary medicine, sociology, zoology, biology, chemistry, psychology besides medicine and health. In the subject section, references are grouped according to the language of the articles, with English articles getting preference, followed by articles in other languages, all arranged alphabetically by language. Titles in foreign language are translated into English.
                     The Cumulated Index Medicus was brought out by American Medical Association since 1960- to 2000 and was stopped after 41 volumes due to lack of demand. MEDLINE (1965) is made available through OCLC (the online vendor) and now as PubMedhttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/

    iii. Index to Indian Agricultural Periodicals. Monthly, Pant Nagar (UP), G.B.Pant University of Agriculture and Technology. 1969-. 

    iv. British Education Index. Three issues per year (cumulated annually). London, Library Association, 1955- . It covers about 70 periodicals from UK on Education. It is compiled by librarians of the British University Institute of Education, Leeds. Index is in two parts: Author and subject, each arranged alphabetically.http://www.leeds.ac.uk/bei/index.html. Now the index is available through ProQuest Dialog

    2.3.3 Citation Indexes: The citation indexing is based on two factors:
    1. A document giving citations of the previously published document indicates subject    
        relationship between the current document and old document and
    2. The documents which cite the same publication have some subject relationship with
        each other.

    A citation index has its own merits because in this type of indexing the relevance information is very high. Multi-disciplinary coverage, convenience and speed are the advantages. Its success depends on the efficiency of citation practice of authors. If the authors cite proper references then the relation between cited and citing documents will be reflected correct and citation index will function properly. Otherwise, citation index will lose its effectiveness. Best examples of citation indexes are
    i. Science Citation Index: Quarterly. (Cumulated annually) Philadelphia, Institute for Scientific Information. 1963- . The Science Citation Index (SCI) provides access to current and retrospective bibliographic information, author abstracts, and cited references found in 3,700 of the world's leading scholarly science and technical journals covering more than 100 disciplines. The Science Citation Index Expandedformat, available through the Web of Science and the online version, SciSearchcover more than 5,800 journals.
    SCI provides an integrated search system for a comprehensive coverage of the periodical literature of science. It consists of three separate but related indexes: Citation index, Source index, and Permuterm subject index. Each of these covers the same articles adopting different approaches to the information. SCI is based on the principle that scientists can determine much about the subject content of as new article by examining its reference citations to earlier articles. This index claims many advantages. It draws together related articles more effectively than any other system. And it is achieved without the logical inconsistencies of human indexers, without the use of indexing terms that may become obsolescent, and without delay as occur in other indexing methods.
    Key Advantages & Capabilities:
    • Allows researchers to conduct broad-based, comprehensive searches that uncover all the relevant information they need
    • Provides cited reference searching, the unique ISI search and retrieval feature that lets users track the literature forward, backward, and through the database, breaking through disciplinary and geographic boundaries
    • Enables users to conduct multidisciplinary searches to discover hidden subject relationships
    Other important publications from the same publisher are Social Science Citation Index; Arts and Humanities Citation Index.

    ii. Indian Citation Index: Indian Citation Index (ICI) is developed by "The Knowledge Foundation" (a registered society) with the required support of M/s DIVA ENTERPRISES Pvt. Ltd.
                                 ICI provides a multidisciplinary research platform covering about 1000 scholarly journals from India. The ICI database also produces other useful byproducts like Indian Science Citation Index (ISCI), Indian Social Science and Humanities Citation Index (ISSHCI), Indian Journals Citation Reports (IJCR), Indian Science and Technology Abstracts (ISTA), and Directory of Indian Journals (DOIJ). (Source:  http://www.indiancitationindex.com/ici.aspx) 

3. Abstracting sources

The abstracting sources are important links in the chain of communication between the originator of information and the user. It represents or surrogates the original information as brief summary. You might be knowing about annotated bibliography that are prepared for macro thought i.e. books. Similarly for journal articles i.e. micro thought abstracts are prepared.
There are various definitions of an abstract. An abstract is the “presentation in the author’s own language, of all the points made in the same order as in the primary documentary information – that can be a book, a research report, a periodical article, a speech, the proceedings of a conference, an interview, etc.” (Robert L Collinson)
According to Librarian’s Glossary, it is “a form of current bibliography in which sometimes books, but mainly contributions to periodicals are summarized.  They are accompanied by adequate bibliographical descriptions to enable the publications or articles to be traced and are frequently arranged I classified order.”
According to Maizell “An abstract, simply defined is a condensation that presents succinctly, the objectives, scope and findings of a document.  This information is usually conveyed together with an indexing system, which further helps to identify document content.  An abstract as a rule, is aimed at a specific group of users who either may not have easy access to the original document.” 
In simple words, an abstract is a summary of document along with adequate bibliographical details so that one can trace the document.  The concerned document may be a book, an article from a periodical or some other form of recorded knowledge, but mainly the contributions to periodicals are listed.  The abstracts are arranged in some systematic order, mostly in classified order.
Like other bibliographies, the abstracts may be selective or comprehensive, and may be prepared by an individual or an organization or it may be a project some commercial organization supplied regularly against subscription.,  Often, the special libraries prepare abstracts in limited field for use of its own clientele, to keep them aware of current progress in their subject of interest,  These are brought out in mimeographed form as ‘Abstract Bulletin’, though it is rather a costly affair and its scope is limited to the range of periodicals subscribed by the library.   On the other hand, a comprehensive abstracting journal covers the maximum number of periodicals on the subject and its allied fields, irrespective of language. 
Structure of abstract: Basically the abstract is having three parts:
  • Searching mechanism – keyword, subject, title, author that represents the original     
document and used a tool for search
  • Citation – brief information of the document that facilitates identification of the original    
Document
  • Abstract – a brief summary of the original article

3.1. Difference between Indexing and abstracting sources

Indexing and abstracting periodicals provide modern research libraries with ample facilities to collect and disseminate information or articles published in a wide range of periodicals, all of which can never be possessed by a library.  This has lead to the development of indexing and abstracting periodicals that are available in thousands at present in both print and online.
            An index is only a key to find out where a specific data or information is located in various types of documents with focus on periodicals.
Abstracting sources are an extension of indexes.  They perform the same function in locating and recording the contents of periodicals, books and various types of documents; they differ from indexes in that

  1. By definition, they include a summary of the material indexed; they tend to be confined to relatively narrow subject areas;
  2. The abstract covers the main points of a piece of writing that follows the same language and terminology as used in the original. Indeed it is a brief representation of the original. The added value helps the user to determine the usefulness of the full article. 

3.2 Uses of abstracting sources

By now you might have guessed that abstracts are more advantageous than indexes as they are providing a brief summary of the original in addition to the information details provided in an index. In other words the abstract is a surrogate to the original and the reader can get an overview of the original article information. The uses of abstracting journals can be summarized as follows:
  1. They serve those users who either may not read or may not have an easy access to original document with an outline for reading.
  2. It helps the reader to decide whether to read the entire article or not i.e. the contents of the article are suitable or not.
  3. It overcomes the language barrier and to prevent duplication.
  4. It gives up-to-date information and is useful for current and retrospective literature search.  One can select papers for study and it is a time saving device.  

    3.3 Types of Abstracts

    There are various types of abstracts on the basis of information supplied by them. These are
    1. Title only Abstract: The title of a document is used without amplification to describe the contents of a document. Thus, it usually states subject and not findings.
    2. Annotated Abstract: A clause or a sentence is added to amplify the title of an article.   Annotated and indicative abstracts differ only in length.
    3. Indicative or Descriptive Abstract: It displays a general statement of the nature and scope of a document. It does not serve as a substitute for reading the original document.  The primary purpose is to give the user several clues to the information contained in the source document and help him to judge whether it is same that he is sought after. Generally these abstracts include procedures, findings and information about the illustrations, tables etc.
    4. Informative or Comprehensive Abstract: It provides details of the significant contributions to knowledge contained in a document like problem, methodology, major findings and conclusions.   However on many occasions it serves as an adequate substitute for the original information and sometimes users rely on informative abstract alone for the purpose of obtaining a specific item of information. For example Dissertation Abstracts International provides informative abstracts.
    5. Slanted Abstract: Information or description reported in a document is oriented to a specific discipline to which the abstracting service e is devoted
    6. Auto-Abstract: It is produced by a computer analysis of the frequency of use of significant use words in a document and of the frequency with which these high-use words appear in the same sentence.   The high frequency words are then traced back to the sentence in which they occurred and their position noted. A score is then assigned to each sentence based on the number and position of the high frequency words it contains.  The resultant auto-abstract is a collection of typical sentences forms the original document.
    7. Telegraphic Abstract: It is a detailed index to a graphic record, which is composed of
      • Significant words selected from the document.
      • Coded symbols called role indicators which supply a context for the selected words, and
    • Punctuation symbols which separate and group the words and role indicators into various units in somewhat the same fashion as conventional punctuation does. e.g. a portion of telegraphic abstract might have this appearance: “Propenoyl Chloride; preparation; reaction; use.”
    8.   Graphic Abstract:  In the field of Chemistry where a precise language of communication is available, a new type of abstract has been introduced by the “current abstracts of chemistry and index chemicus” make full use of this language.  This has been named graphic abstract. Instead of naming the substances and compounds and their treatments a graphic abstract indicates them by molecular and structural formulae.  A chemist finds it easier to get the essence from such an abstract.

    Technically, two types of abstracting methods are more popular - indicative and informative.
    The “indicative abstract” indicates the type of article and the authors approach and treatment, but does not usually include specific data.
    The “informative abstract” summarizes enough of the data finding to relieve the reader of the necessity of always reading the article. In neither case does the abstract, make any critical assessment.”


    Examples of abstracting sources


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    Biological Abstracts provides the latest information in every life science discipline, and contains more than 13.2 million archival records from as far back as 1969, with more than 370,000 citations added each year. Most of the records include informative abstracts written by the author. This database is produced by Thomson Scientific, Inc. Now Biological abstracts is accessible through Thomson Reuters Web of knowledge platform Source: http://thomsonreuters.com/web-of-knowledge/


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    Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS), a division of the American Chemical Society, is the world’s authority for chemical information. CAS is the only organization in the world whose objective is to find, collect and organize all publicly disclosed chemical substance information. A team of scientists worldwide curates and controls the quality of our databases, which are recognized as the most comprehensive and authoritative by chemical and pharmaceutical companies, universities, government organizations and patent offices around the world.  By combining these databases with advanced search and analysis technologies (SciFinder® and STN®), CAS delivers the most current, complete, secure and interlinked digital information environment for scientific discovery. Source: https://www.cas.org/



    Library and Information Science Abstracts, Bi-monthly. London, Library Association, 1950-. LISA, an international abstracting and indexing tool designed for library professionals and information specialists covers such subjects as library science, information science, publishing, book selling and reprography. About 440 periodicals, conference papers, books and pamphlets from more than 68 countries and 20 different languages are scanned for this. The references are arranged in a classified order according to CRG’s classification of library science. Under the class number and subject the entries are arranged by title, author, host document, volume, issue, year, and pages. These are followed by abstracts. Each entry has its serial number. Author and subject indexes are given for each issue. Both of these indexes are cumulated on an annual basis.
    The online version of LISA is hosted by ProQuest CSA athttp://www.csa.com/factsheets/lisa-set-c.php

4. Evaluation of indexing and abstracting sources

The check list for an evaluation of indexes and abstracting services should consist of
  • The Publisher
  • Scope
  • Duplication and gaps
  • Depth of indexing
  • Currency
  • Format
  • Subject heading
  • Description

  1. The Publisher: The Librarian should check out the authenticity and trustworthiness of publishers, preferably by talking to subject experts and to other librarian who may have knowledge of the field and by reading reviews.
  2. Scope: The indexing and abstracting periodicals should adequately cover the periodicals and other materials in the field of interest and the related areas.
  3. Arrangement: There should be uniformity in presentation of entries following standard pattern.  GENERALLY they are arranged in classified (subject) order. There should be different indexes to the content like subject, author, and title. The use of maximum number of subject headings should also be seen.
  4. Retrieval efficiency: The indexes and abstract are basically information retrieval tools hence they are expected to retrieve information with highest recall and precision ratio.
  5. Currency: The frequency of publication is a fair indication of the currency of service.  However the time lag between the publication and its inclusion in the index / abstract indicates the currency, hence the librarian has to check for the date of original publication and date of its inclusion in the secondary source.
  6. Format: The abstract must be checked for its ease of use of entries and readability. Readability of format, accuracy and completeness of biographical information, printing and font size are other considerations to be kept in view.
  7. Subject Headings: The type, number and form of subject headings used in an index / abstract are important.  The subject headings generally derived from a standard list like Sears, Library of Congress; in case of electronic databases they follow keyword indexing technique. Some may have developed their own lists like MeSH of Index Medicus/ Medline. In any case subject headings should be standardized and the plan of organization has to be suitable to the material indexed / abstracted. . There should be adequate ‘see’ and ‘see also’ references. 
  8. Description: It is also required to check whether the index / abstract adequately describe the document and whether it has been judiciously edited.

The best evaluation summary has been suggested by users’ attitudes towards indexes and abstracts as under:
  • Accuracy;
  • Ease of use;
  • Layout and presentation;
  • Choice of subject index-headings;
  • Optimum use of cross references;
  • Overall effectiveness in practical use;
  • Minimum amount of “noise”.

Louis Shores has suggested the following check lists for study and evolution of indexes:
  1.       i.        Period covered: 1. Date 2. Frequency 3. Cumulations
  2.      ii.        Material indexed:  4. Number-in terms of volumes, periodicals, or articles, 5. Kinds-books, periodicals, newspapers, documents. 6. Subject-general or special. 7. Style- popular or scholarly. 8. Country.
  3.     iii.        Form: 9. Complete or selective indexing (if latter, note basis of selection). 10.  Arrangement-dictionary, classified, author, title, subject.  11. Entry fullness-author, title, source, collation, date, etc. 12. Annotation- Information given.
  4.     iv.        Special features: 13. Distinctiveness-- anything characteristic of the index.

Now the indexing and abstracting sources are available as electronic databases on the Web. Therefore additional criteria to be considered include
  1.       i.        Accuracy and authoritativeness of information content
  2.      ii.        Regular updating of information and its reliability
  3.     iii.        Check for the ownership of domain
  4.     iv.        Error-free information
  5.      v.        Useful links to other Web Pages.