The purposes of bibliometric research (another newbie / outsider question)

[Jonathan Levitt]

Hi All,

Encouraged by the response that Christina Pikas received to her posting, I
have decided to follow her example and posted a message.  In common with
Christina, I hope you'll forgive this question (and maybe answer it!).

As part of my postgraduate research, I am conducting a three-stage
investigation of the purposes of bibliometric research:
Stage 1: I emailed a sample of bibliometric researchers asking ‘What do you
consider to be the main purposes of bibliometric research?’
Stage 2: I collated these responses to form a set of purposes that contains
all the purposes that I received in Stage 1.
Stage 3: I plan to survey a larger sample of bibliometric researchers than
in Stage 1 asking them to rate on a Likert scale my list of purposes.

I have completed Stages 1 and 2 and, before implementing Stage 3, would be
very grateful for feedback on my purposes of bibliometrics (for instance,
purposes that I have omitted or revised wording of my purposes).

I suggest (in alphabetical order) nine purposes:
“Bibliometric research seeks to develop and use tools for measuring and
mapping:
(a)  Interrelationships between different branches of knowledge.
(b)  The development of knowledge.
(c)  The extent of internationalisation of research.
(d)  The extent of research collaboration.
(e)  The literature in research topics.
(f)  The research productivity of countries.
(g)  The research productivity of individuals.
(h)  The research productivity of teams.
(i)  The use of knowledge.”

I would be very grateful to receive any feedback that cannot prejudice
Stage 3 of my investigation (for instance, please don’t send your Likert
scale rating of my purposes to this list).

Thank you very much,
Jonathan Levitt,
Research Student,
University College London.