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In addition to quantitative analysis, the purpose of this paper is to measure the quality of articles published in foreign LIS journals by Pakistani authors based on their Impact Factor (IF) scores reported in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) of 2010; also to discuss the significance and implications of this study for the current and potential authors in Pakistan and other developing countries.

The data for this study were collected from two sets of sources: first, online sources of Google Scholar, LISA, LISTA, an online 50‐year cumulative index of Pakistani LIS literature, and web pages of several authors; and second, printed indexes and bibliographies. The data collected were manually entered into MS Excel for tabulation and created nine tables, which formed the basis of discussion in the paper.

The contribution of Pakistani authors to foreign LIS journals is reasonable in number and below average in quality, according to the JCR IF scores. The authorship patterns show that there is a shift from single‐authorship to collaborative authorship. The contribution of academics is several times higher than that of library practitioners. Likewise the non‐resident Pakistani authors' share in the global LIS literature is much larger as compared to their counterparts living in Pakistan.

This is the first study that evaluates the quality of Pakistani LIS literature using the more popular journal ranking method, JCR IF. The results of this study are expected to have a positive impact on Pakistani authors as they start preparing articles according to the quality requirements of JCR‐ranked journals in the future.

This study aims to provide guidelines for exploring the research landscape in developing countries by gauging the prospects of growth, research impact and innovation. This study interrogates, analyses and visualizes the impact, nuances and evolution of stated research themes. For this purpose, this study presents an in-depth analysis of publications and citations indexed in Pakistani journals as a case study.

A bibliometric analysis of 46,034 publications published in Pakistan-based journals uncovers the research landscape of Scopus-indexed scientific literature – using various statistical and network-based approaches. Using VOSviewer and SPSS tools, the publication data has been analysed in relation to the open access status of papers, the number of authors, discipline, research theme and international co-authorship.

This study’s analyses reveal that while Pakistani journals are attracting international contributions from several countries, including India, Malaysia and Indonesia, no journal falls into the Scopus-defined top Quartile, i.e. the Q1 category. The analyses also highlight that only half (47%) of the publications received citations, whereas the other half remained uncited. Furthermore, open access publications received significantly higher citations than subscribed/traditional publications (print/online subject to toll access).

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first impact study of its kind that critically analyses the research landscape of Pakistani journals, especially in the context of the efforts of the higher education commission of Pakistan to promote research culture in the country. This study also provides analytical insights and policy guidelines for improving the quality of research published in Pakistani journals. This study can be replicated for other developing nations to provide guidelines and sustainable pathways for scientific growth in pursuit of uplifting nations by allocating resources for developing science and technology.

This study aims to explore the status of collaborative research productivity, major library and information sciences (LIS) research trends and the level of research among the LIS academicians as principal authors in Pakistan during 1975–2021 (47 years).

A quantitative research method was adopted to collect the required data using bibliometric patterns. The data of all faculty members working in LIS schools of Pakistan was collected from the official website of their employers/institutions. Different strategies were used to acquire respondents’ bibliographic/publication records such as faculty members’/employers’ official websites and faculty members’ Google Scholar profiles; advanced searching techniques were also used to retrieve their bibliographic records.

The results revealed that a total of 74 regular faculty members comprising 78.38% males and 21.62% females are working in 12 LIS Pakistani schools. A total of 1,787 papers were produced by LIS faculty, among which 702 were written by Pakistani LIS faculty as principal authors during the selected period. The results revealed that 60.72% of the principal authors’ work was produced in collaboration. The collaboration between faculty members and other faculty was 81%, while two authors' work productivity was on the top. No attention has been given to produce research in collaboration with international/foreign LIS experts, especially from developed countries.

The findings of this study are useful for faculties to have a richer understanding of the various elements of collaboration at national as well as international levels, and then discover the ways to begin and maintain effective partnerships to research emerging trends in LIS.

This study is a unique bibliometric study that systematically and quantitatively combined the research productivity of LIS academicians in Pakistan and provided a holistic sketch of the literature produced on various themes of LIS during 1975–2021.

Statistical methods are important for meaningful analysis, critique and interpretation of results. The current study aims to investigate the use of statistical methods used in LIS research articles produced by Pakistani authors during 2001–2016.

Content analysis method with both the qualitative and quantitative components was used. LIS articles published by Pakistani authors in national and international journals from 2001 to 2016 were selected. The descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the usage of statistical techniques.

The findings show that use of descriptive statistics remained higher as compared to inferential statistics in the LIS research produced by Pakistani authors. However, a visible growth trend in the use of inferential statistical techniques is found. Males are two times more likely to use inferential statistics as compared to female authors. Articles published in foreign journals and impact factor journals used more inferential statistics as compared to local and nonimpact factor journals. Parametric inferential statistics is more popular among Pakistani authors as compared to nonparametric. Faculty was more inclined toward using parametric statistic. The percentage of collaboration was higher in the papers using parametric statistics. Few articles reported the tests to fulfill the assumptions of parametric and nonparametric statistics.

This study can be used to better understand the trends of statistical techniques used in LIS research and authors' orientation in this regard. It will be helpful for future researchers in the selection of appropriate statistical techniques to be used.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the use of Google Scholar Citations’ profiling platform by library and information science (LIS) scholars in Pakistan.

Purposive sampling was used to collect Google Scholar Citations profiles between 15 November 2017 and 31 January 2018. Resultant data were analyzed in SPSS Version 21.

In terms of demographical data, the study results were consistent with previous studies of Pakistani LIS scholars. There were strong correlations between Google Scholar Citations metrics (publications, citations, h-index and i10-index). The results indicate that, compared with a 2011 survey of LIS academics in Pakistan, the overall uptake for this cohort remains relatively low. This cohort is not maximizing the opportunity provided by this specific online profiling system to increase research visibility.

As the study was limited to those Pakistani LIS scholars who already had a profile on ResearchGate, it would be useful to broaden the research to encompass all Pakistani LIS scholars.

The role of the librarian as an adviser in scholarly communication and impact can be extended to support scholars in the adoption of new online platforms for scholarly communication and visibility.

There have been no published research studies on Google Scholar Citations metrics in the context of Pakistani LIS scholars as a whole.

This study presents quantitative analysis of 251 items contributed by 64 Pakistani LIS professionals culled from LISA‐PLUS. Volume of contribution, sources where published, periodic distribution, type of publications and topical coverage are dealt with in the analysis. Journal literature which represents 90.4 per cent of the citations is published in 43 periodicals, most of which are from the United States. However, more than half of the journal literature comes from one national journal. A wide range of topics is covered, but critical areas such as information needs, user education and collection evaluation receive very little attention.

The purpose of this paper is to find out firm, industry, and country level determinants of capital structure of Pakistani listed non-financial firms.

The authors use a fixed effects panel data model over a 39 years (1972-2010) unbalanced panel data of Pakistani non-financial listed firms to determine the factors that influence capital structure of these firms.

The authors find that Pakistani firms prefer retained earnings to finance their business projects, and debt is easily available for experienced firms. Moreover, socio-economic collusive networks, poor corporate governance mechanism along with weak legal system provide these firms an opportunity to pass on their risk to the creditors (banks).

The data set does not contain factors characterizing inter-industry heterogeneity, therefore, the authors use mean industry leverage and mean industry profitability to explore if any relationship exists between leverage of firms, and their respective industry leverage/profitability.

Pakistani non-financial firms are highly leveraged increasing their probability to face financial distress in erratic economic conditions. As such, the policy makers need to develop capital markets of Pakistan to enable a resilient corporate capital structure. Further, erratic economic conditions of Pakistan create uncertain business environment yielding short-term opportunities and to finance them Pakistani firms use short-term debt as a main financing source. The policy makers need to improve corporate governance mechanism and strengthen legal system that will go a long way to develop Pakistani capital market on sound and sustainable footing.

This is the first study that uses an extended number of variables and discovers financial behavior of firms in a bank-based economy having limited financing options, and facing erratic economic conditions.

Assessing the research performance of researchers offers inducement toward excellence in research. This study aims to analyze the research productivity of the most prolific authors of Pakistan considering their trends toward publications, citations and collaboration.

Top 100 authors from the top 10 Pakistani universities from Web of Science over the 10 years with the rigorous data cleaning process were selected. Scientometric analysis techniques were carried out to evaluate the research profile of these authors.

The findings revealed that majority of the productive authors were male working in the position of Professor in the physical sciences area. The publications and citations gradually increase with time. They preferred to collaborate for their publications, while first authorship publications were found less in number. Moreover, the propensity to collaborate at the international level increases double-fold from the first five years to the next five years period. In addition, the position of the authors was explored among different performance metrics. The finding exhibits variation in the ranking of authors among them. The impact of numbers of authors, funding status, publication of articles, presence of collaboration and international collaboration on the dependent variable and citation count was insignificant. However, the publication of review papers has a significant impact on the citation counts.

Findings have significant implications for policymakers to make maximum opportunities for researchers to strengthen linkages for collaboration and increase the funding prospects.

Studies on this topic are scarce, and therefore, this study provides useful recommendations to researchers and institutes to improve research productivity.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the research performance of Pakistani library and information science (LIS) scholars, using the altmetrics provided by ResearchGate (RG).

Purposive sampling was used to collect profiles between 15 January 2015 and 30 April 2016 of all members of RG who had self-identified as being an LIS scholar of Pakistani nationality. Additional demographic data were obtained through a small survey administered via Google Docs. Resultant data were analysed in SPSS Version 21.

Study results were broadly consistent in terms of demographical data with previous studies of this cohort. There was a positive correlation between publications, reads, and citations for scholars who had recorded at least one publication. The majority of publications had not been published in a high impact factor journal. Academic networking site profiles create the potential for collaboration, building connections, and exchanging information.

Some scholars eliminated from this study may have published at least one output but neglected to upload details to RG. It is a purposive, exploratory study that provides insights into future research.

The paper produces findings of relevance to researchers in other countries and/or disciplines who may wish to conduct a similar study of a defined cohort.

There have been no previous published research studies on altmetrics associated with Pakistani LIS scholars.

This paper is the part of PhD research of the principal researcher. This paper aims to describe current status of library software being used in the libraries of Pakistan, role of national and foreign agencies in the development of library software in Pakistan, problems faced by the libraries in implementation and to highlight the recommendations by the experts in the field to overcome the problems. It also attempts to provide a bibliography on the topic to researchers in the field of library and information science.

Available literature was reviewed. The articles were usually published in national and international journals of library and information science and contributed by Pakistani authors. Other sources consulted were books, conference proceedings, theses and dissertations and websites of libraries and professionals’ organisations.

The situation in Pakistan regarding library software cannot be compared with the that in advanced countries. Lack of standard library software, the multilingual nature of the library collections, poor budgets, computer illiteracy, software piracy and unavailability of support from local vendors are the main hindrances in the effective implementation of library software. In the available literature, experts have recommended the formulation of a consortium or a body under the umbrella of the Government of Pakistan which could provide standard library software, along with technical support, innovation and upgrades of the software, to meet the needs of Pakistani libraries.

This is the first paper that presents the current status of library software in Pakistan, problems faced by the libraries in implementation of library software and recommendations suggested by the experts to overcome the problems.