Thesis and Dissertation Citations as Indicators of Faculty Research Use of University Library Journal Collections

Authors

  • Louise S. Zipp

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5860/lrts.40n4.335

Abstract

Citation analysis is a long-standing collection-evaluation tool often undertaken to investigate one aspect of library collection use. Citations from theses and dissertations are much more easily and comprehensively gathered than are citations voluntarily supplied by faculty. Using four studies in geology and biology, the Kendall coefficient of rank correlation tests the degree of association between journals most heavily cited by graduate students and those titles most heavily cited in faculty publications. Positive associations are confirmed in three data sets. Additional descriptive analysis shows that the 40 titles most heavily cited in theses and dissertations consistently contained about 70% of the top 40 titles cited by faculty, including most of the 12-15 top titles, If results are replicated, thesis and dissertation citations can be reliably used as a surrogate for faculty publication citations in evaluations of the research portion of library collection use.

Downloads

Published

2011-04-15

Issue

Vol. 40 No. 4 (1996): October

Section

Articles

License

Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC-BY-NC 4.0) that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.

Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.

Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) after it has been accepted for publication. Sharing can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.