Use and trends of the bibliometric techniques in Social Sciences and Humanities on an international level

Abstract

The aim of the present paper is to place the results presented previously in the paper «Characteristics and trends of the bibliometric literature in Social Sciences and Humanities in Spain», in an international context in order to study the trends and charactcristics in other countries and in that way to be able to compare the results with those obtained earlier. The documents were obtained from the main international databases specialized in Library and Information Science-Documentation as well as in Social and Human Sciences (Sociology, Education, Psychology, etc.). The study covers the period 1981-1990. Scientific production, geographic origin, chronological evolution, thcmatic orientation are analyzed. Results are compared among the different disciplines. The studies published in journals specialized in Library and lnformation Science-Documenlation are analyzed in greater detail. Since a large part of those studies a re oriented lowards studies concerning productivity of authors and journals, and concerning the state of the art of one particular discipline or area, there exists a greal dispersion among the publications. The results also show that there exist differcnces among the various disciplines studied. The highest percentage of these type of studies can be found in the area of Sociology, Education and Psychology. The percentage of literature concerning the use, improvement and management of lnformation and Documentation Centers as well as Libraries is not as low as that obtained previously.