Information use in history research: A citation analysis of Master's level theses

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Volumn 10, Issue 2, 2010, Pages 165-183

  Sherriff, Graham ^a  

^a YALE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 77951152558     PISSN: 15312542     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (34)

1. P. L. K. Gross and E. M. Gross, "College Libraries and Chemical Education," Science 66, 1713 (October 28, 1927): 385-9.
2. This paper does not take a position on whether history is better described as a humanities discipline or a social science. History has some of the qualities of each disciplinary type, and this ambiguity is reflected in the fact that SCSU offers both MA and MS programs in history.
3. National Center for Education Statistics, "Southern Connecticut State University," U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, http://nces.ed.gov/Globallocator/ (accessed December 17, 2009).
4. Southern Connecticut State University, "History Department," Southern Connecticut State University, http://www.southernct.edu/history/ (accessed December 17, 2009).
5. Hilton C. Buley Library, "Collection Development Policy," Hilton C. Buley Library, http://www.library.southernct.edu/subjects.htm#policy (accessed December 17, 2009).
6. National Center for Education Statistics.
7. Hilton C. Buley Library.
8. "Descriptive analysis shows that the 40 titles most heavily cited in theses and dissertations consistently contained about 70 percent of the top 40 titles cited by faculty, including most of the 12-15 top titles." Louise S. Zipp, "Thesis and Dissertation Citations as Indicators of Faculty Research Use of University Library Journal Collections," Library Resources & Technical Services 40, 4 (October 1996): 335.
9. Erin T. Smith, "Assessing Collection Usefulness: An Investigation of Library Ownership of the Resources Graduate Students Use," College & Research Libraries 64, 5 (September 2003): 344-55.
10. Angela M. Gooden, "Citation Analysis of Chemistry Doctoral Dissertations: An Ohio State University Case Study," Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship 32 (Fall 2001): 1-16, http://www.istl.org/01-fall/ refereed.html (accessed January 20, 2010).
11. Ibid.;
12. Bradley Brazzeal and Robert Fowler, "Patterns of Information Use in Graduate Research in Forestry: A Citation Analysis of Master's Theses at Mississippi State University," Science & Technology Libraries 26, 2 (2005): 101;
13. Arjun Lal and K. C. Panda, "Research in Plant Pathology: A Bibliometric Analysis," Library Science 33 (September 1996): 137.
14. Anne L. Buchanan and Jean-Pierre V. M. Herubel, "Profiling PhD Dissertation Bibliographies: Serials and Collection Development in Political Science," Behavioral & Social Sciences Librarian 13, 1 (1994): 3;
15. Sherri Edwards, "Citation Analysis as a Collection Development Tool: A Bibliometric Study of Polymer Science Theses and Dissertations," Serials Review 25, 1 (1999): 11-20.
16. Mark J. Slutz, "A Citation Analysis of Master's Level English Theses Submitted to the Department of English-Kent State University, 1985-1995" (Master's thesis, Kent State University, 1997): 18.
17. Jeffrey D. Kushkowski, Kathy A. Parsons, and William H. Wiese, "Master's and Doctoral Thesis Citations: Analysis and Trends of a Longitudinal Study," portal: Libraries and the Academy 3, 3 (July 2003): 467; Smith, 348; and Slutz, 18.
18. Steven Black, "Using Citation Analysis to Pursue a Core Collection of Journals for Communication Disorders," Library Resources & Technical Service 45, 1 (2001): 6; Kushkowski, Parsons, and Wiese, 466; and Smith, 349-50.
19. Kushkowski, Parsons, and Wiese, 465-6. The sciences with a reported median citation age of 10 years in this study are "biological sciences."
20. Ibid., 467.
21. Black, 7; Dictionary of Bibliometrics, s.v. "Trueswell's 80/20 rule."
22. Joy Thomas, "Never Enough: Graduate Student Use of Journals: Citation Analysis of Social Work Theses," Behavioral & Social Sciences Librarian 19, 1 (2000): 8; Brazzeal and Fowler, 99; and Gooden.
23. Juris Dilevko and Keren Dali, "Improving Collection Development and Reference Services for Interdisciplinary Fields through Analysis of Citation Patterns: An Example Using Tourism Studies," College & Research Libraries 65, 3 (May 2004): 235.
24. Brazzeal and Fowler, 100; Thomas, 9.
25. Rosalind Walcott, "Characteristics of Citations in Geoscience Doctoral Dissertations Accepted at United States Academic Institutions 1981-1985," Science & Technology Libraries 12, 2 (1991): 8.
26. Ibid., 10.
27. Kushkowski, Parsons, and Wiese, 465; Gooden.
28. However, this leads to the question of what should be the appropriate date for an older text republished with new critical additions, such as introduction, commentary, annotation and so on.
29. "Monographs constituted 46.7 percent of citations." Buchanan and Herubel, 7.
30. Kushkowski, Parsons, and Wiese, 472.
31. There is an argument to be made that research papers should cite all resources consulted, including those not cited, for example in a broadly defined bibliography or a separate list of "sources consulted." Greater description or categorization of resources would provide more information regarding usage. Weighed against this are the issues of what level of detail is needed to describe accurately the use of a particular resource, and what level of citation description or categorization can reasonably be demanded of the author(s).
32. Diodato, 24.
33. Dilevko and Dali, 19.
34. Walcott, 10.