Publication and citation patterns among LIS faculty: Profiling a “typical professor.”

Abstract

Research on publication and citation patterns generally focuses on prolific or highly-cited authors or on highly-ranked programs. This study investigates the work and influence of a cross section of library and information science (LIS) researchers at various stages of their academic lives, using a random sample of faculty members at programs accredited by the American Library Association. The analysis shows that the number of publications increases steadily as faculty rank advances. Assistant professors publish more conference papers and fewer journal articles, a pattern that is reversed with associate and full professors. Web of Science reports no citations for most LIS faculty publications. With its broader scope, Google Scholar locates more citations, revealing that the works of professors are cited significantly more frequently than publications by assistant or associate professors. When faculty profiles are compared by type of program, faculty members at schools granting doctoral degrees publish significantly more than their counterparts at schools with no doctoral program or where the doctoral degree is offered jointly with other academic units. When the comparison is made across ranks, full professors publish significantly more than faculty members at other ranks but there is no significant difference between assistant and associate professors.