Obsolescence Study of Literature in LIS PhD Theses: A Bibliometric Method

Abstract

Obsolescence studies are one of the main areas of bibliometrics and One of the important and useful methods in bibliometrics is obsolescence study which is a vital aspect of scientific output or literature. The method of obsolescence study is useful for the citation analysis of journal articles The present study attempts to discover the obsolescence rate of Library and Information Science (LIS) literature cited in the doctoral theses awarded from 1982 to 2010, at nine universities in the Maharashtra State of India. In the present study, the source publications, i.e. 138 theses of nine universities in Maharashtra does not share the common publication year. The study focuses on the citations included in doctoral theses awarded in LIS. The citations of journals and books were analyzed to study obsolescence of literature in the LIS discipline and its sub-disciplines. The obsolescence periods for the journals and books were calculated separately. Obsolescence periods were measured in terms of the half-life period. In the present study, obsolescence rate differs from one subject to another and also from one bibliographic form to another one. It is noticed that the half-life period is longer for books than for journals.

Keywords: Bibliometrics, Citations, Half-Life, Journal Literature, Quarter Life

View PDF