Scholarly communication of The Electronic Library from 2003‐2009: a bibliometric study

Abstract

Purpose

The study aims to divulge the patterns of scholarly communication of The Electronic Library from 2003 to 2009 and to measure the coverage and quality of contributions of this journal towards LIS literature.

Design/methodology/approach

Seven volumes of The Electronic Library (TEL) published during the years 2003‐2009 collected from Emerald Management Xtra, that constituted 42 issues and a total number of 417 articles carrying 7,442 citations, have been taken up for the analysis. The study analyzes bibliographical forms, types of articles, authorship pattern, geographical distribution of contributors, chronological distribution of citations, length of articles, and ranking of journals. The study employs Bradford's Law of Scattering.

Findings

The majority of articles published in TEL fall under the category of research papers, followed by case studies, and general reviews. Regarding the bibliographical distribution of citations, it is found that the majority of citations are from journals, followed by web resources and books. The study further reveals that the average length of articles is 13.017 pages and the scattering of contributors is limited within a few countries.

Originality/value

The paper is relevant and useful to those who are interested in bibliometrics and it provides a comprehensive study of scholarly communication of The Electronic Library from 2003‐2009 for comprehending essential publishing traits of this journal during the stated period.

Citation

Lochan Jena, K., Swain, D.K. and Bihari Sahu, S. (2012), "Scholarly communication of The Electronic Library from 2003‐2009: a bibliometric study", The Electronic Library, Vol. 30 No. 1, pp. 103-119. https://doi.org/10.1108/02640471211204097