ABS:Ding, Mapping the intellectual structure of information retrieval studies

[Gretchen Whitney]

TITLE:          Mapping the intellectual structure of information
                retrieval studies: an author co-citation analysis,
1987-1997 (Article,
                English)
AUTHOR:         Ding, Y; Chowdhury, G; Foo, S
SOURCE:         JOURNAL OF INFORMATION SCIENCE 25 (1). 1999. p.67-78
                BOWKER-SAUR LTD, E GRINSTEAD

SEARCH TERM(S):  TW CO CITATION/; TW CITATION ANALYS/; TW CITATION/;
                 CA GARFIELD E

KEYWORDS+:       DOCUMENT-RETRIEVAL; SEARCH KEYS; COCITATION ANALYSIS;
                ONLINE CATALOGS; SYSTEM-DESIGN; MODEL; SEEKING; TEXT;
                PROBABILITY; RELEVANCE

ABSTRACT:       Author co-citation analysis (ACA) has been used to
explore changes in the intellectual base of the information retrieval
(LR) held over two consecutive time periods: 1987-1991 and 1992-1997.
Thirty-nine highly cited IR researchers were selected as the research
sample. Multidimensional scaling (MDS) and clustering techniques (CT)
were used to create the two-dimensional maps to display the dynamic
intellectual structure of IR, based on scholars citing their work over
these two time periods. Factor analysis (FA) has been used to reveal the
'breadth' of the authors' research areas. ACA offers a good technique
that contributes to the understanding of intellectual structure in the
sciences and possibly in other areas to the extent that those areas rely
on formal scholarly communication such as serial publications.
Nonetheless, obvious drawbacks exist in ACA. These include the
subjective
nature of the interpretation of results, the difficulty of readily
identifying clusters and the inability to distinguish collaborative
research relationships between authors, Thus, ACA by itself is
insufficient. However, ACA can be enhanced significantly when combined
with FA to give a more accurate acid useful picture of the MDS results.

AUTHOR ADDRESS: Y Ding, Nanyang Technol Univ, Sch Appl Sci, Div Informat
                Studies, Nanyang Ave, Singapore 639798, Singapore


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