Chu H. "Taxonomy of inlinked Web entities: What does it imply for webometric research?" LIBRARY & INFORMATION SCIENCE RESEARCH 27 (1). 2005. p. 8-27.

[Eugene Garfield]

Heting Chu : hchu at liu.edu


TITLE:          Taxonomy of inlinked Web entities: What does it imply for
                webometric research? (Article, English)
AUTHOR:         Chu, H
SOURCE:         LIBRARY & INFORMATION SCIENCE RESEARCH 27 (1). 2005.
                p.8-27 ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC, NEW YORK


ABSTRACT:       Hyperlinks from other Web sites are, in some respect,
similar to bibliographical citations. Link analysis, like citation
analysis in bibliometrics, has emerged as a research area of webometrics
in recent years. But why are links made and where do they point? A sample
of inlinked Web entities (i.e., Web pages or Web sites) was randomly
selected from a group of academic institutions' Web sites. The inlinked
sites, along with the hyperlink data and outlinking sites, were analyzed
and categorized to form a taxonomy of inlinked sites. Based on this
taxonomy, a list of reasons for hyperlinking, grouped in four top-level
categories (teaching/learning, research, service, and home page), was
identified. Compared with bibliographical citations, hyperlinks were made
for a different set of reasons. Hyperlinking also has fewer dimensions,
less complexity, and little negative implication. On the whole, almost
50% of all the inlinks examined were created for pointing to resource or
directory information provided at the target Web sites. In addition,
nearly three fourths (73%) of all the inlinked sites analyzed in this
study were linked to for reasons relating to service or home page while
less than one third (27%) of the links were made out of research or
teaching/learning motivations. Yet, teaching and research are the two
major criteria traditionally used for evaluating academic institutions.
These findings, although by no means conclusive, suggest that evaluative
link-based studies should not only consider link counts but also reasons
for hyperlinking in order to ensure the validity of such research. (c)
2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

AUTHOR ADDRESS: H Chu, Long Isl Univ, Palmer Sch Lib & Informat Sci, CW
                Post Campus,720 No Blvd, Greenvale, NY 11548 USA