INFO 532: Scholarly communication

Chapter Two: The Scientific Literature and

scholarly communication
Instructor:
DR. LAWRENCE ABRAHAM GOJEH
(ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR)
 Chapter Two: The Scientific
Literature
• Growth of Knowledge
• Bibliometrics
• Publication Patterns and Citation Connections
• Bibliography
 Chapter Objectives
• Define Scientific literature
• Discuss Growth of knowledge and growth of journal
literature
• Define bibliometrics as it relates to scholarly
communication
• Discuss publication patterns and Citation
Connections
• Discuss bibliography as it relates to scholarly
communication
 The Scientific Literature
• Scientific literature-defined
• Scientific literature refers to scientific publications
that report original, empirical and theoretical work
within a scientific field, which could be Physics,
Chemistry, etc.
• Types of scientific literature
• Scientists communicate the results of their research
to other scientists primarily through the scientific
literature
• This constitutes a permanent repository of scientific
knowledge and a record of progress in scientific
 The Scientific …(cont.)
• Different types of scientific literature exist, normally referred to as
the:
– primary,
– secondary,
– Tertiary, and
– grey literature.
• The Primary literature refers to accounts of research carried out
personally by an individual scientist or as collaboration by a group of
scientists, which is published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal,
– e.g.: “Ethiopian Journal of Education and the Sciences”; published by College of
Natural Sciences Jimma University Ethiopia.
• These accounts, commonly called ‘papers’, are written in the
particular format specified by the journal to which it is submitted for
publication.
 The Scientific …(cont.)
• Normally journals require a paper to consist of:
– a title,
– abstract,
– keywords,
– introduction,
– material & methods,
– results,
– discussion,
– Acknowledgements, and
– references.
 The Scientific …(cont.)
• Papers are submitted to the journal editor; who then asks a number
of recognized experts in the area of study addressed by the paper
(called ‘referees’ or ‘peer reviewers’), to give an opinion; on whether
the work reported presents new scientific information, and to report
on the merits and deficiencies of the work.
• On the basis of the referees or peer reviewers’ reports, the editor:
– may accept the paper as it was submitted, or
– may require minor revision from the authors, or
– may require major revision, or
– the paper may be refused/rejected outright.
• This formal reviewing process is known as ‘refereeing or peer
review’.
 The Scientific …(cont.)
• There are different types of journals that range from international to
regional to local. There are also systems that grade the importance of
journals on the basis of how often papers carried by the journal are
cited in other scientific papers. This system of grading is called
‘impact factor’.
• Most primary literature are published in scholarly journals, while
others are published as:
– monographs,
– theses or dissertations,
– conference papers, and reports.
• In the world of science, the contribution of an individual scientist to
the advancement of knowledge is usually gauged partly on the
number of publications that the scientist has contributed to,
especially those published in international peer-reviewed journals
with high impact factors.
 The Scientific …(cont.)
• The Secondary literature consists of publications that rely on
primary sources for information.
• Here it is not a requirement for the authors to have done the work
themselves, since the purpose of the publication is to summarize and
synthesize knowledge in a specific area for other scientists who
already have an understanding of the topic.
• However, the authors of secondary publications would normally have
worked and published primary literature in the area they are writing
about.
• The secondary literature includes review journals, monographic
books and textbooks, handbooks and manuals.
• Although normally written in a scientific style, secondary publications
are not organized in the same way that primary publications are;
however, it is a universal requirement that they are fully referenced
and that most of these references are to the primary literature.
 The Scientific …(cont.)
• Scientists use the secondary literature to gain an overview of
research areas that are close to or relevant to their own, or to
familiarize themselves with existing research in new topics on which
they plan to start working.
• The Tertiary literature consists of published works that are based on
primary or secondary sources and that are aimed at scientists who
work in different areas from the subject matter of the publication, or
towards an interested but lay audience.
• Such publications are normally written in a popular rather than a
scientific style and while such publications may include a short
bibliography, they do not usually include references to the primary
literature.
• Examples of the tertiary literature include science magazines,
newsletters, science articles in newspapers, introductory textbooks
and encyclopaedias.
 The Scientific …(cont.)
• The Grey literature refers to sources of scientific information that are
not published and distributed in the usual manner and which
therefore may be difficult to obtain.
• Grey literature includes:
– theses and dissertations,
– technical reports with a limited distribution,
– journals published by special interest groups that have a limited distribution,
– abstracts of conference papers and conference proceedings that are only made
available to conference participants,
– Environmental Impact Statements,
– some types of Government documents,
– working papers, and
– some types of online documents.
• Note that being classified as ‘grey literature’ in no way implies that
the publication has little scientific merit.
 The Scientific …(cont.)
• It is important to note that the form that a publication takes does
not guide to its classification as:
– primary,
– secondary or
– tertiary literature.
• For example,
– Books may belong to any of these three categories.
– A monograph that presents new ideas as a result of scientific
research that has been reviewed by a number of referees
(usually called ‘readers’ in the case of a book), will count as
primary literature (in effect, a very long scientific paper),
– Whereas an encyclopaedia or science magazine article, even if
written by a Nobel laureate, is still tertiary literature.
 The Scientific …(cont.)
• Another example is the case of conference proceedings.
• Papers presented at international, regional or national conferences,
workshops or symposia are considered as primary literature if they
are peer-reviewed and published, either as a book or conference
proceedings, or as a special issue of a scientific journal.
• On the other hand, abstracts of papers presented at a conference, or
the papers themselves, which have not been peer-reviewed, do not
count as primary literature even if they are published in book form.
• An in-between case is that of conferences where the papers
presented are published as peer-reviewed ‘extended abstracts’ (in
effect, long summaries of the work that may be formatted in the
same way as a journal paper).
 The Scientific …(cont.)
• Normally, such papers present work that is in an advanced stage but
not yet complete to an audience of peers for comment and criticism.
• Most such work is later published in full form in primary scientific
journals.
• The situation is further complicated by the Internet.
• Scientific information available on the Internet ranges from absolute
rubbish to high quality.
• There are very authoritative looking sites that present completely
wrong information, sometimes deliberately, whereas at the other end
of the spectrum, there are primary peer-reviewed scientific journals
that are published online (normally, but not always, with at least a
limited print edition as well).
 The Scientific …(cont.)
• Professional looking websites are no guarantee of
quality information.
• Users of the Internet should very carefully evaluate
the source, quality and accuracy of any information
that they plan to use.
– (See ‘Evaluating WWW resources’ on the website at:
http://home.um.edu.mt/biology/12_links.html ).
 Growth of Knowledge and of Journal Literature
• Scientific knowledge refers to the body of facts and principles that
are known in a given field.
• Modern civilization is built on the knowledge that humans have
acquired about the world they live in, and the future of the human
species and society critically depends on further accumulation of
scientific knowledge.
• Patterns and mechanisms of human knowledge growth are jointly
determined by the intrinsic structure of knowledge and human
behaviors in knowledge exploration.
• The growth rate of scientific publication has been studied from 1907
to 2007 using available data from a number of literature databases,
including:
– Science Citation Index (SCI), Arts and Humanities Citation Index as well as Social
Sciences Citation Index (SSCI).
 Growth of Knowledge…(cont.)
• Traditional scientific publishing, that is publication
in peer-reviewed journals, is still increasing
although there are big differences between fields.
• There are no indications that the growth rate has
decreased in the last 50 years.
• At the same time publication using new channels,
for example conference proceedings, open archives
and home pages, is growing fast.
• The growth rate for SCI up to 2007 is smaller than
for comparable databases.
 Growth of Knowledge…(cont.)
• This means that SCI was covering a decreasing part of the traditional
scientific literature.
• There are also clear indications that the coverage by SCI is especially
low in some of the scientific areas with the highest growth rate,
including computer science and engineering sciences.
• The role of conference proceedings, open access archives and
publications published on the net is increasing, especially in scientific
fields with high growth rates, but this has only partially been
reflected in the databases.
• The new publication channels challenge the use of the big databases
in measurements of scientific productivity or output and of the
growth rate of science.
 Growth of Knowledge…(cont.)
• Because of the declining coverage and this challenge it is
problematic that SCI has been used and is used as the
dominant source for science indicators based on
publication and citation numbers.
• The limited data available for social sciences show that the
growth rate in SSCI was remarkably low and indicate that
the coverage by SSCI was declining over time.
• National Science Indicators from Thomson Reuters is based
solely on SCI, SSCI and Arts and Humanities Citation Index
(AHCI).
• Therefore the declining coverage of the citation databases
is a problem in the use of this source.
 Bibliometrics
• Bibliometrics may be defined as a quantitative and statistical analysis
of a research method used in library and information science to
describe patterns of publication within a given field or body of
literature.
• Researchers may use bibliometric methods of evaluation to
determine the influence of a single writer or to describe the
relationship between two or more writers or works.
• The goals of bibliometrics are to:
– describe, explain, or identify a cause, or interpret the meaning imparted by the
participants.
• Bibliometrics is good for:
• conceptual mapping,
• delineating scholarly communities and intellectual structures,
• determining the "importance" of a particular author,
 Bibliometrics…(cont.)
• illuminating trends in the literature of a particular field, and
• search engine effectiveness.
• Bibliometrics can be applied in:
– collection development,
– amount of interdisciplinary cross-pollination,
– delineating disciplinary boundaries in information space,
evaluative link analysis:
• research is better from who, what, and where?
• Bibliometrics typically operate in two major areas or domains as:
– set of methods used to study or measure texts & information; and
– bibliometric laws.
 Bibliometrics…(cont.)
• Methods used to study or measure texts & information
– Bibliometrics is derived from two words: biblio & metrics
• biblio - combination of the Latin & Greek word biblion,
meaning “book” or “paper”
• metrics – “measurement”
– derived either from the Latin word metrics or the Greek
word metrikons, both mean “measurement”
– Therefore, bibliometrics connotes the science of measurement
pertaining to books/documents/ information.
• This implies that:
– information science is an extension of library science, or
– an expansion of reference services
 Bibliometrics…(cont.)
• Put differently:
– bibliometrics is a branch of science, which studies the
behavior of information
– Traditionally, it is associated with quantitative measurement of
documentary materials.
• emerged as an interesting area of research in library and
information science, which is defined as a discipline that
investigates the properties & behavior of information
• A bibliometric analysis:
– employed by many researchers to study the literature in a
given field
– Such a study is often carried out by counting the publications,
references, citations, co-citations, etc by a number of
researchers in their papers.
 Bibliometrics…(cont.)
• The term “bibliometrics” was coined by Pritchard in 1969.
• An early example of a bibliometric study was statistical analysis of
the literature of comparative anatomy from 1543 to 1860, done
by counting book & journal titles, & grouping them by countries
of origin & periods.
• The concept
• The concept or the subject of ‘Bibliometrics’ include:
– typologies of citations,
– historiography,
– citation errors,
– author collaboration,
– the hard-life concept,
 Bibliometrics…(cont.)
– the hard-soft concept,
– the epidemic analogy,
– citing patterns, and
– the style manuals of referencing in the:
• humanities and social sciences versus the sciences,
• empirical (bibliometric) analysis of a journal or monograph,
and
• author productivity.
• Bibliometric studies reveal the:
– significance,
– contributors' characteristics, and
– forms of literature.
 Bibliometrics…(cont.)
• Other revelation of bibliometric studies include:
– language,
– publisher,
– subject distribution, and
– exhaustive coverage of disciplines.
• Significance
• In the study of significance, the bibliometrician tries to know the
development in the field; in terms of:
– the decline, emergence or exhaustive coverage of the field
studied.
• The measurement can be done through a graphic representation of
the statistical data used.
 Bibliometrics…(cont.)
• In which case, when the graph rises then there is emergence but
when it falls then there is decline and also if the graph shows a
continuous rise then it infers an exhaustive coverage on the field.
• Contributor’s characteristics
• The measurement will indicate the characteristics of contributors on
the field as whether increasing, declining or predominantly males or
females.
• It will also show the direction of research on the field or what are the
issues of concern of contributors on that field.
• Forms of literature
• Using the method the importance of the predominant form of
literature could be found in a field or the literature of a country.
 Bibliometrics…(cont.)
• For example, where you find out whether journals are the dominant
forms of publications or books in library literature in a country.
• For example, in a country like Nigeria the form of literature output
might reveal that:
– 80% library literature output are periodical articles,
– 10% books, and
– 10% conference papers.
• While in science, the emphasis is on science journals and not books.
• Language
• The predominant language of publication will be found.
• For example, if materials to be distributed by language factor, the
commonly used language should be acquired for a library indicating
the predominant use by the readers.
 Bibliometrics…(cont.)
• Publisher
• Using the bibliometric study, a publisher who publishes most of the
materials on a field could be ascertained.
• For example, McGraw-Hill publisher publishes the bulk amount of
science periodicals.
• Subject distribution
• Discovering the subject distribution of a discipline is very important,
because knowledge of the subject areas covered by writers would
help to identity areas that are most concentrated or neglected in a bit
to pointing out for more intensive researches on the neglected areas.
• Exhaustive areas
• The exhaustive area of a discipline may be called the "research front"
that everybody is contributing to.
 Bibliometrics…(cont.)
• For example, to identify:
– which specific journals contribute to the subject field;
– what is the growth of the literature of the subject like;
– are the contributions increasing or decreasing annually.
• Also, what are the utility of the literature by age or how current are
the works.
• It has been proved that in science more current materials are used
than retrospective.
• Bibliometric methods are used generally to explore the impact of
fields, the impact of a set of researchers, or the impact of a particular
paper.
• It traces the relationships amongst academic journal citations.
 Bibliometrics…(cont.)
• Other bibliometrics applications include:
– creating thesauri;
– measuring term frequencies;
– exploring grammatical and syntactical structures of texts;
– measuring usage by readers.
• Laws of Bibliometrics
• One of the main areas in bibliometric research concerns the
application of bibliometric laws.
• The three most commonly used laws in bibliometrics are:
– Lotka's law of scientific productivity,
– Bradford's law of scatter, and
– Zipf's law of word occurrence.
 Bibliometrics…(cont.)
• This means that out of all the authors in a given field, 60 percent will
have just one publication, and 15 percent will have two publications
(1/2² times .60).
• 7 percent of authors will have three publications (1/3² times .60), and
so on.
• According to Lotka's Law of scientific productivity, only six percent of
the authors in a field will produce more than 10 articles.
• Lotka's Law, when applied to large bodies of literature over a fairly
long period of time, can be accurate in general, but not statistically
exact.
• It is often used to estimate the frequency with which authors will
appear in an online catalog (Potter 1988).
 Bibliometrics…(cont.)
• Lotka's Law
• Lotka's Law describes the frequency of publication by authors in a
given field.
• It states that:
– " . . . the number (of authors) making n contributions is about
1/n² of those making one; and the proportion of all contributors,
that make a single contribution, is about 60 percent" (Lotka 1926,
cited in Potter 1988).
• Bradford's Law
• Bradford's Law serves as a general guideline to librarians in
determining the number of core journals in any given field.
• It states that journals in a single field can be divided into three parts,
each containing the same number of articles:
 Bibliometrics…(cont.)
– 1) a core of journals on the subject, relatively few in number, that
produces approximately one-third of all the articles,
– 2) a second zone, containing the same number of articles as the
first, but a greater number of journals, and
– 3) a third zone, containing the same number of articles as the
second, but a still greater number of journals.
• The mathematical relationship of the number of journals in the core
to the first zone is a constant n and to the second zone the
relationship is n².
• Bradford expressed this relationship as 1:n:n².
• Bradford formulated his law after studying a bibliography of
geophysics, covering 326 journals in the field.
 Bibliometrics…(cont.)
• He discovered that:
– 9 journals contained 429 articles,
– 59 contained 499 articles, and
– 258 contained 404 articles.
• So it took:
– 9 journals to contribute one-third of the articles, 5 times 9, or 45;
– to produce the next third, and 5 times 5 times 9, or 225, to
produce the last third.
• As may be seen, Bradford's Law is not statistically accurate,
strictly speaking.
• But it is still commonly used as a general rule of thumb
(Potter 1988).
 Bibliometrics…(cont.)
• Zipf's Law
• Zipf's Law is often used to predict the frequency of words
within a text.
• The Law states that in a relatively lengthy text, if you "list
the words occurring within that text in order of decreasing
frequency, the rank of a word on that list multiplied by its
frequency will equal a constant.
• The equation for this relationship is: r x f = k where r is the
rank of the word, f is the frequency, and k is the constant
(Potter 1988).
• Zipf illustrated his law with an analysis of James Joyce's
Ulysses.
 Bibliometrics…(cont.)
– "He showed that the tenth most frequent word
occurred 2,653 times, the hundredth most
frequent word occurred 265 times, the two
hundredth word occurred 133 times, and so on.
Zipf found, then that the rank of the word
multiplied by the frequency of the word equals a
constant that is approximately 26,500" (Potter
1988).
• Zipf's Law, again, is not statistically perfect, but it is
very useful for indexers.
 Publication patterns and citation connections
• Publication patterns
• Academic and research publishing in recent times have experienced
emergence of electronic platforms for effective research
collaborations and research disseminations.
• Research communication and more particularly academic publishing
processes require effective integration of information and
communication technologies (ICT) for harnessing production of
qualitative knowledge and dissemination to audiences globally.
• Peer-reviewed scholarly journals around the world are gradually
migrating to electronic platforms, to make their contents globally
visible, accessible, searchable and citable.
• Many peer-reviewed journals are now migrating from print edition to
open access edition to make their knowledge resources freely
accessible by the global researchers’ communities.
 Publication patterns…(cont.)
• On the other hand, exponential growth of scientific literature also has
led to rapid disappearance of produced literature before it actually
gets noticed by the scientific communities.
• Here, journal aggregators and online full-text databases help in long
term digital preservation of journal contents in online environment,
where multiple publishers make their contents available through
third party service providers.
• Many publishers also collaborate with more than one journal
aggregators and full-text databases for making archived contents
available from multiple service points.
• Emergence of e-journals
• Till the last quarters of the twentieth century, the scholarly journals
were mostly distributed globally in print format through postal
networks.
 Publication patterns…(cont.)
• Due to snail mail, many important research findings got delayed
reaching to researchers located in distant countries.
• In print format, journal has limited readership as only one person can
read a particular issue at a point of time.
• Other readers have to wait until their turn comes to have a glance at
the latest issue of the journal.
• In the last quarter of the twentieth century, the publishers got
interested in integrating information and communication
technologies (ICT) in scholarly journal publishing for rapid global
dissemination, expanding their markets to emerging nations and
other developing nations.
• The for-profit as well as non-profit journal publishers then made
extra efforts to reach the unreached through electronic journals or e-
journals available through publishers’ websites.
 Publication patterns…(cont.)
• An e-journal not only provides same contents as of a print journal,
but can also provide material not possible in print journals.
• E-journals can be distributed through journals’ website, publishers’
portal, ejournal gateway, and full-text databases of journal
aggregators.
• Nowadays, many online bibliographic databases and online indexing
& abstracting (I&A) services provide external full-text links to journal
contents available on publishers’ portal.
• Publishers provide unique document identifier to each published
article, which is known as DOI or Digital Object Identifier.
• Every DOI is registered with Digital Object Identifier System at
www.doi.org and www.crossref.org.
 Publication patterns…(cont.)
• Bibliographic databases and I&A services interlink every article
recorded in their databases with the unique DOI, so that users can
easily identify and obtain full-text of relevant articles.
• Table of contents (TOC) alert service is one of the major useful
services for researchers to know and identify relevant articles in their
areas of interests.
• E-journals can disseminate TOC alerts through various modes such as
emails, mailing lists, RSS feeds, and social media to outreach their
global audience.
• Some search engines, viz. Google Scholar, facilitate users to set an
article alert on a specific search term or an author or an institution or
a journal, so they get informed almost immediately when new
contents become available on online platforms.
 Publication patterns…(cont.)
• The beginning of the twenty first century is also
marked by emergence of smart phones and mobile
digital technologies such iPad, Tab, or similar
devices.
• The researchers and academics are also increasingly
using these mobile devices for information access
and research collaborations.
• Many e-journals have started disseminating full-text
journal contents through special Apps suitable for
mobile devices.
 Publication patterns…(cont.)
• M-Science is growing now at much higher pace to
supplement efforts in e-science mode of science and
research communications.
• Open access journals are necessarily electronic journals
without any restriction of information access and content
sharing and replication with due acknowledgement
through researchers’ personal or professional networks.
• Open access journals are also upgrading their platforms to
make their full-text contents seamlessly accessible through
M-Science platforms and mobile devices.
 Bibliography
• A Bibliography had its original meaning (in Greek: biblio-graphia) as
the writing of books, which is obsolete in a discipline.
• However, a bibliography can be defined as a list of sources, usually
placed at the end of a document that you consulted or cited in
creating the document.
• A bibliography, sometimes referred to as References or Works Cited,
is an organized list of sources (e.g., books, journal/magazine articles,
Web sites, etc.) consulted in the research process.
• Each source in the bibliography is represented by a citation that
includes the author (if given), title, and publication details of the
source.
• The bibliography should provide enough information to allow the
reader to find the source.
 Bibliography (cont)
• It should give the full title, author, journal publisher,
including full issue number and date, and page numbers
where necessary.
• In the case of a text book, it should quote the name of the
publisher as well as the author(s).
• A weakness of many reports is inadequate citation of a
source of information.
• While there is no established page limitation for the
references, this section must also include bibliographic
citations. This will enable you to make a Works Cited list at
the end of your project (i.e.: a list of only the works you
have summarized, paraphrased, or quoted from in the
paper.)
 Bibliography (cont)
• There are different types of citation standard, these are:
– American Psychological Association (APA): Used in library an
information science, psychology, education, and other social
sciences.
– Modern Language Association (MLA): literature, arts, and
humanities.
– American Medical Association (AMA): medicine, health, and
biological sciences.
– Turabian: designed for use of with all subjects.
– Chicago: used with all subjects in the "real world" by books,
magazines, newspapers, and other non-scholarly publications.
– Vancouver System: used in the applied science such as chemistry,
physics and mathematics.
– Harvard System: this system is used in business research
 Bibliography (cont)
• It lists the sources in alphabetical order using the author's
last name. If a source has more than one author,
alphabetize using the first one. If an author is unknown,
alphabetize that source using the title instead.
• Arrange the items on your reference list alphabetically by
author, interfiling books, articles, etc.
• Indent the second and following lines 5 to 7 spaces or one
half inch.
• Use only the initials of the authors' first (and middle)
names.
• If no author is given, start with the title and then the date.
 Bibliography (cont)
• Article titles and book titles: capitalize only the first word of the title
and subtitle. (Capitalize all significant words of periodical titles.)
• If you are using a typewriter that cannot produce italics, then use
underlining instead.
• Magazine articles: include the month (and day) as shown under
"Magazine Article from a Database" and "Newspapers".
• Websites: if the date the page was created is not given, use (n.d.).
• Types of Bibliographies:
– Annotated bibliography; retrospective bibliography / current
bibliography; systematic / enumerative; descriptive / analytical (or
critical); general / subject; trade / directories; national /
international; bibliography of bibliographies; etc.
 Bibliography (cont)
• Methods of bibliography compilation are as follows:
• Annotated bibliography
– An annotated bibliography is a bibliography with an
additional description or evaluation (i.e., annotation) of
each source.
– It gives a summary of each of the entries.
– The purpose of annotations is to provide the reader with
a summary and an evaluation of each source.
– It may be one stage in a larger research project, or it may
be an independent project standing on its own.
– Each citation is followed by a brief descriptive and
evaluative paragraph, the annotation.
 Bibliography (cont)
• To inform the reader of the relevance, accuracy, and quality
of the sources cited.
• It is a piece of formal academic writing and follows the general rules
for all academic writing:
– Arrange in alphabetical order
– Write in a SINGLE paragraph (usually about 100-300 words,
depending on the format but check with your lecturer)
– Write in full sentences using academic writing style
– Use transition words (e.g. furthermore, moreover, however,
therefore …)
– Be concise – mention only significant details in your summary
– Use examples from other annotated bibliographies to guide and
check your writing style
– Do NOT repeat information (e.g. the title) that is already in your
citation
 Bibliography (cont)
– Do NOT cross reference i.e. use any in-text references as you are
only writing about a single text.
– Each summary should be a concise exposition of the source's
central idea(s) and give the reader a general idea of the source's
content
• Annotations versus abstracts
• Abstracts
– Abstracts are brief statements that present the main points of the original
work. They normally do not include an evaluation of the work itself.
• Annotations
– Annotations could be descriptive or evaluative, or a combination of both. A
descriptive annotation summarizes the scope and content of a work whereas
an evaluative annotation provides critical comment.
• What the annotation includes
• Generally, annotations should be no more than 150 words (or 4-6
sentences long).
 Bibliography (cont)
• They should be concise and well-written.
• See Appendix 1-3
• Annotations may include some or all of the following
information:
– Main focus or purpose of the work
– Intended audience for the work
– Usefulness or relevance to your research topic (or why it
did not meet your expectations)
– Special features of the work that were unique or helpful
– Background and credibility of the author
– Conclusions or observations reached by the author
– Conclusions or observations reached by you
 Bibliography (cont)
• Retrospective bibliography
– record of past publication as separately published
monograph, it may be compiled at a later date from
existing records, library catalogs of major libraries are
important sources of retrospective bibliographic control
• Current bibliography
– recording of publications at or close to their date of
publication record; usually cumulates in a publication
that is itself current (serialized), e.g. trade news
publications, trade bibliographies or directories, along
with national bibliographies and library catalogs are
important for the acquisition and identification of
available and “in print” materials.
 Bibliography (cont)
• Systematic / enumerative bibliography
– listing according to some system or reference scheme of books
that have a formal relationship (e.g. alphabetically or numerically
by dates of publication.
• Analytical (or critical)
– recording of the material aspects of the book by
concentrating on the physical appearance of books’
recording; and
– interpreting evidence about production processes as
preserved in the physical features of books of various
periods
 Bibliography (cont)
• Historical bibliography
– tracing provenance / history of ownership, or view of the physical
process of book manufacture in any century or culture.
• Textual bibliography
– textual work studies of the writing of particular authors or
particular texts in comparison, integrity and authority of works,
transmission of editions and variant versions over time as authors,
editors, compositors alter text deliberately or inadvertently.
• Descriptive bibliography
– accurate description of a copy, recording all relevant details, for
rare, unique or historically interesting items from the printing
trade.
 Advantages of Bibliographies
• Help the readers of your research find out
where you obtained your information.
• Instructors and others use it to assess the
validity of research findings
• Aid future researchers in locating sources on
similar research topics.
 Individual Assignment
• Each student should define and compile an
annotated bibliography of 20 (twenty)
bibliographical items on one of the list of topics
supplied in Appendix 4. Also, see your course
outline for guidelines.

• Submission date: 15/02/2020

• Score: 15%
 Group Assignment
Students in their 4 (four) groups should define and compile a type of bibliography of 10
bibliographical items on the subject area of their choice.

The choice of the area should be based on the following areas:

– Annotated bibliography – Analytical (or critical)

– Retrospective bibliography bibliography
– Current bibliography – General bibliography
– Systematic bibliography – Subject bibliography
– Enumerative bibliography – Descriptive bibliography
– National bibliography

Submission date: 15/02/2020

Score: 10%