Information use in Sociology Research: A

case Study of the Library, University of

Peradeniya, Sri Lanka.

Chamani Gunasekera
Senior Assistant Librarian
University of Peradeniya
Sri Lanka
On 11 /12/2013
At
NACLIN 2013- Jaipur,India
 Introduction
• Citation analysis is a branch of bibliometrics that
examines the citations found in publications such
as journals and books to look for patterns of use
• This type of study typically involves recording the
details of the reference lists of a number of
publications to determine what materials are
being consulted and
• then analyzing those materials by type,
frequency, age, local holdings, or other factors
 Use of citation analysis
• By conducting a citation analysis, a researcher
can better understand scholarly
communication trends within a discipline,
• create bibliographies,
• analyze citation trends of specific user groups,
• determine the extent to which a library’s
collection meets researchers’ needs
 Use of citation analysis
Citation analysis are used ;
to rank publications according to their
importance,
to identify core collections,
to measure the impact of publications,
and to study subject interrelationships
 Citation analysis for theses
• Common approaches in the literature are to analyze
faculty publications or graduate student theses for a
particular department at a particular institution.
• Items cited in students’ dissertations show the
resources they used in their dissertation research and
writing
• This type of analysis can yield valuable insights into
local citing trends, such as types and number of
documents cited, accuracy of citations, and changes in
citation patterns over time.
 Use of Citation analysis for collection
development
• Effective collection development requires an
understanding of the research needs of users.
• Acquisition librarian should have an
understanding of faculty and student research
needs with academic background or
professional expertise in the field
 Use of Citation analysis for collection
development
• Faculty research interests may be identified
from lists of faculty publications, faculty
handbooks, and faculty requests for material
purchases.
• Research needs of graduate students can be
more difficult to discern, but citation analysis
of theses can provide insight into the research
needs of graduate students.
 Objectives of the study
• This study analyses citations from 14 master’s and
doctoral theses submitted to the University of
Peradeniya , Sri Lanka between 1995 and 2012
• It is undertaken to analyse the characteristics of
literature used by researchers in the field of sociology.
• The present study will help the faculty and the
librarians in selection of core journals and other
sources in sociology.
 
University of Peradeniya, Library
University of Peradeniya, Library
Palm leaf Manuscripts with Wooden Boards – 2360 Approx.
Reading Room II
 Specific objectives of the study

To understand the citation potential of the

Sociology theses and to know the various
sources of information used by the
researchers in Sociology
 To find out the chronological distribution
and the language of the citations
To observe the nature of authorship
pattern in the literature of sociology
 Specific objectives contd…..
 To examine the applicability of Bradford's Law
of scattering to the pattern of journals used by

the researchers in Sociology

 To examine the core journals of Sociology and
compile a ranking list of journals cited
   To study the distribution of journal citations
by subject and the country of origin
 Methodology
• This citation analysis study focused on
Sociology Master and PhD dissertations
submitted to the University of Peradeniya
during period from 1995 to 2012.
• It has identified twelve(12) sociology master's
and two (2) PHD theses accepted at PDN
Library during the period
• Fourteen theses have total of 1603 citations
 Methodology contd.
• Citations were extracted from the title pages
and reference lists of each of the dissertation 
• The information relating to each citation i.e.,
number of citations, bibliographic form,
number of authors, name of the journal,
subject, country of origin and language were
concerned
 Methodology contd.
• The data is fed into the computer using MS-
Excel software and the Statistical Package for
Social Sciences (SPSS) for analysis
• The data were analysed using descriptive
statistics which includes frequency and
percentage presented in the tables
 Data Analysis:
Frequency of citations
• Frequency distribution of citations potentials
is given below

No. of No. of % of theses

citations theses
51-100 5 36 51-100
101-150
101-150 6 43
151-200
151-200 1 07 201-250
201-250 2 14
Total 14 100
 Data Analysis:
Formats Used

• Materials were grouped into eight format categories for analysis:

1. journals (serials other than monographic series)

2. books,
3. conference proceedings
4. web resources,
5. reports (including government technical reports),
6 .government publications ,
7. theses and dissertations, and
8. miscellaneous (patents, personal communications, product
literature, software and software manuals, unpublished
materials, and other).
 Results:
Citation According to format type 

S Material type No. of citations Percentage Cumulative

/
N
percentage
1 Journals 356 22.2 22.2

2 Monographs 926 57.8 80.0

3 Conference proceedings 52 3.2 83.2

4 Reports 118 7.4 90.6

5 Theses & dissertations 29 1.8 92.4

6 Web resources 69 4.3 96.7

7 Government publications 23 1.4 98.1

8 Miscellaneous 30 1.9 100

Total 1603 100

Types of resources cited

Government publications Miscellaneous

Web resources 1% 2%
4%
Theses & dissertations
2% Journals
Reports 22%
7%

Conference proceedings
3%

Monographs
58%
Difference between Print citations and Electronic citations

Form No. of
Print vs Electronics
citations percentag
Electronic
e 6%

Print 1485 94

Electronic 118 06

Total 1603 100

print
94%
Chronological distribution of citations

• The duration of the whole period was divided

into 12 sections as shown in the Table
 Chronological distribution of citations
S/N Period of citations No. of citations Percentage Cumulative
percentage

1 Before 1800 5 0.3 0.3

2 1801-1826 1 0.1 0.4
3 1853-1878 5 0.3 0.7
4 1879-1904 9 0.6 1.2
5 1905- 1930 22 1.4 2.6
6 1931-1956 53 3.3 5.9
7 1957-1982 458 28.6 34.5
8 1983-1988 209 13.0 47.6
9 1989-1994 282 17.6 65.2
10 1995-2000 284 17.7 82.9
11 2001-2006 223 13.9 96.8
12 2007-2010 22 1.4 98.2
13 Unknown 30 1.8 100
Total 100
Chronological distribution of citations
35

30

25

20
No.of citations

15

10

0
8 00 82
6
87
8
90
4
9 30 95
6
98
2
98
8
99
4
00
0
00
6
01
0
ow
n
r e1 1-
1
3-
1
9-
1 -1 1-
1
7-
1
3-
1
9-
1
5-
2
1-
2
7-
2 kn
fo 0 5 7 05 3 5 8 8 9 0 0 Un
Be 18 18 18 19 19 19 19 19 19 20 20

Year range
Chronological distribution of citations
- Results
• the highest citations were recorded in the
period from 1957 to 1982 with 458 citation
counts ( 34%)
• 94% of citations were published after 1957
• Five citations that published before 1800 were
found in the Sociology dissertations
• the oldest reference materials in the
dissertation was a monograph which
published in 1681 named “An Historical
Relation of Ceylon”
 Material Age

• Age is the length of time reference materials

have existed and it is usually measured in years
• For calculating the age the difference between
the date of the citation and the date of the
publication in which it was cited considered for
this study.
• Understanding the extent to which library users
rely on older materials can be useful in
determining which materials can be moved to
remote storage
 Age of citations

• The age of citations were put into 11

categories: same year, 1year, 2-5, 6-10, 11-20,
21-30, 31-40, 41-50,51-100, more than 100
and Unknown. The results on the age of
citations are presented in the next Figure
 Age of citations
500

450

400

350

300

250

No.of citations 200

150

100

50

0
ea
r ar rs rs rs rs rs rs rs 0 n
ye ea ea ea ea ea ea ea 10 ow
ey 1 5 y 0 y y 0 y 0 y 0 y 0 y n kn
m 2- 6-
1 -2
0 -3 -4 -5 0 ha un
Sa 11 21 31 41 -1 e t
51 or
m
 Age of citations by percentage
35

30

25

20

15
% of citations

10

0
ea
r ar rs rs rs rs rs rs rs 0 n
ye ea ea ea ea ea ea ea 10 ow
ey 1 5 y 0 y y 0 y 0 y 0 y 0 y n kn
m 2- 6-
1 -2
0 -3 -4 -5 0 ha un
Sa 11 21 31 41 -1 e t
51 or
m
 Age of citations-results
• the peak of the age of citations was 11 to 20
years.
• 29% of citations are 20 years old or less than
10 years in age.
• More than 70% of citations are 20 years old or
less in age and 83% of citations are less than
30 years
Distribution of citations in terms of Language

This study also examines the language of the

publications cited in order to find the
preferences of sociology researchers on local
or foreign literature.
The total number of 1603 citations was
distributed among 3 different languages
 Language wise distribution of citations
Language Frequency Frequency % Cumulative %

English 1404 87.58 87.58

Sinhalese 194 12.11 99.69

other 05 0.31 100

Total 1603
 Authorship pattern- degree of
collaboration
• Collaborative research is the effort of intellectual
sharing of two or more persons.
• The extent of collaboration can be measured with
the help of multi authored papers using the formula
given by Subramanym. (1983)
C=NM/ NM+ NS ( C=degree of collaboration in a
discipline, NM= No. of multi authored
papers, NS= No. of single authored papers)

• C=232/1603=0.144
 Degree of collaboration
• The degree of collaboration in the field of
sociology of the present study is 0.144 which
is contrast with the results of previous studies
carried out for the sociology theses. Degree of
collaboration of that study was 0.56.
(Zarunnisha,2012)
 Authorship pattern of literature cited

Number of Authors Frequency Frequency % Cumulative

%
Single Author 1372 85.5 85.6
Two Authors 164 10.2 95.6
Three 38 2.5 98.3
Four 22 1.3 99.6
Five 5 0.3 99.6
More than five 2 0.2 100.0
Total 1603
 Authorship pattern- Results
• As explicit in the above table the single
authorship is most prominent.
• More than 85% of the citations are single
authored with 10% having two authors and
2.5% having three authors.
• It further shows that only 1.7% frequency
from total citations had more than three
authors
 Journal Citations- Application of
Bradford’s Law
• Journals are vital resources for disseminating results of
new knowledge gained from the research in any subject
field.
• Therefore the journals were further analysed in order to
determine the most cited titles in the sociology theses.
• This Sociology thesis study contained 356 journal
citations from 139 journal titles. The journals were
placed into three zones according to Bradford’s Law of
journal scattering. (Bradford, 1948)
 
 Percentage of no. of journals and citations in
each Bradford zone
Zone No. of No. of % of % of
journals citations journal citations
1 12 127 8.6 35.7

2 21 88 15.1 24.7

3 106 141 76.3 39.6

Total 139 356 100 100

 Journals in the First Zone
S/N Journal Name No. of citations Cumulative Rank
1 Economic Review 31 31 1

2 World development 14 45 2

3 American Sociological Review 11 56 3

4 Gender and Society 10 66 4

5 American Journal of Sociology 09 75 5

6 International Migration Review 09 84 5

7 American Anthropologist 08 92 6
8 Modern Ceylon studies 07 99 7

9 Population & Development review 07 106 7

10 Development and Change 07 113 7
11 Sri Lanka journal of Social sciences 07 120 7
12 The Journal of Asian Studies 07 127 7
 Core journals of sociology
• According to the application of Bradford’s Law,
12 journals are considered as core journals.
• Journals in the second zones encompass 88
citations in 21 journals.
 Second Zone of the journals
S/N Journal name No. of citations Cumulative Rank
1 Feminist Review 6 6 8
2 JCBRAS 6 12 8
3 Samaja Wimasuma 6 18 8
4 Social Science Medical 5 23 9
5 American economic review 5 28 9
6 Asia Survey 5 33 9
7 American Jl. of public health 4 37 10
8 Ceylon Jl.of historical& social studies 4 41 10
9 Gender & society 4 45 10
10 Jl. of international development 4 49 10
11 Journal of peasant studies 4 53 10
12 Ceylon Antiquary 4 57 10
13 Jl. of contempary Asia 4 61 10
14 Jl.of development economics 4 65 10
15 American Ethnologist 4 69 10
16 Asia pacific migration Jl. 4 73 10
17 Ceylon medical Jl. 3 76 11
18 Marga 3 79 11
19 Pravada 3 82 11
20 Current Sociology 3 85 11
21 International Migration 3 88 11
Ranking and Scattering of Journals
• The rank list of journals in the field of sociology reveals that
journal citations cited by researchers are scattered among
139 journals.

• Among them, “Economic Review” secured the first rank for

being cited more number of times with 9 % of total journal
citations, followed by “ World Development (4%) and “
American Sociological Review (3%).

• The first 12 journals in the rank list contribute nearly 35% of

total journal citations.
Ranking and Scattering of Journals
• The first 32 journals in the rank list contribute
nearly 60% of total journal citations.
• These 32 journals can be considered as mostly
used journals by the sociology researchers.
• the third zone had the remaining 35 journal
titles with 2 citations each and 71 journal titles
with one citation each.
• 53% of the journal titles has only one citation
 Subject wise distribution of Journals cited

S/N Subject Frequency Percentage Cumulative percentage

1 Sociology 93 25.9 25.9
2 Economics 75 20.9 46.8
3 Anthropology 12 3.3 50.1
4 Social work 1 0.3 50.4
5 Psychology 1 0.3 50.7
6 Public administration 1 0.3 51.0
7 Geography 5 1.4 52.4
8 Medicine 18 5.0 57.4
9 Political science 13 3.6 61.0
9 Education 1 0.3 61.3
10 Science 4 1.1 62.4
11 Community development 13 3.6 66.0
12 Youth & adolescent 1 0.3 66.3
13 Family Planning 4 1.1 67.4
14 Humanities 6 1.7 69.1
15 Women Studies 8 2.2 71.3
16 law 2 0.6 71.9
17 History 21 5.8 77.7
18 Population studies 13 3.6 81.3
19 Agriculture 4 1.1 82.4
20 International development 6 1.7 84.1
21 Other 20 5.6 89.7
22 Unidentified 34 10.3 100
Total 356 100.0
 Subject wise distribution
• 26% of journal citations were on sociology
followed by 21% were on economics.
Geographical location of Journals cited
Geographical Frequency Percentage
location

Foreign 259 72.8

Local 97 27.2

Total 356 100

 Geographical location of Journals
cited-Results
• The foreign journals are predominating in the
sociology dissertations with having 73% of
journal citations
• The results give insight that sociology
researchers prefer to use foreign journals.
 Conclusion
• The findings indicate that the monograph is
the predominant format for sociology
research.
• They support the conclusion drawn in
previous studies that humanities and social
sciences research relies on monographs,
whereas research in the natural sciences and
technology relies on journal articles.
 Conclusion
• This study supports the conclusion of previous
studies that cited resources in sociology
research have a longer and flatter age
distribution than in the natural sciences.

•   The English language is predominating in the

literature.
 Conclusion
• The single authorship appeared most in the
citations while having 97% of cited items in
the print format.
• The findings further identified the core
journals in the sociology discipline
• The most of the journal cited in the theses
were published in foreign countries.
 References

 
• Bradford, S.C ( 1948) Documentation Crosby Lackwood: London
 
• Subramanyam, K (1983) Bibliometric studies of research
collaboration : A review . Journal of Information science 6(3):
23-26

• Zafrunnisha, N (2012) Citations in the Sociology doctoral

dissertations: A quantitative analysis. International Journal of
Information Dissemination and Technology 2(3): 212-218
 
Any questions please?
Thank you !