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The wonderful world of informetrics

Informetrics is an area of information science which is thriving. It provides us with alternative qualitative and quantitative means of measuring scientific output.

Informetrics (a.k.a. infometrics) is the broad term comprising all '-metrics' studies related to information science, including bibliometrics (e.g. bibliographies, libraries), scientometrics (e.g. science policy, citation analysis, research evaluation), webometrics (metrics of the web, the Internet or other social networks, such as citation or collaboration networks), etc. {1}.

An interesting paper within this field, by Judit Bar-Ilan {2}, highlights some of the key literature covering the main issues and difficulties that have been facing informetrics since the beginning of the 21st century. In his review, Bar-Ilan covers developments regarding the advantages and disadvantages of the h-index, citation analyses, debate over the impact factor and other multiple indicators and measures currently used to give a bigger picture of scientific output and quality across the different mediums.

It's great to see these areas being explored in more detail, as these different measures of scientific output provide a more objective means of analysing the ever-increasing amount of medical literature.

References:
1.    Egghe, Information Processing & Management 2005, 41:1311-1316. Expansion of the field of informetrics: origins and consequences.
2.    Bar-Ilan, Journal of Informetrics 2008, 2:1-52. Informetrics at the beginning of the 21st century ? A review.

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Posted by Sean Porazinski on Thursday May 08, 2008, Category: Impact factor versus... | Permalink