Vol. 7(9), pp. 161-172, November 2015 DOI: 10.5897/IJLIS2015.0584 Article Number: C3192D155901 International Journal of Library and Information ISSN 2141-2626 Copyright © 2015 Science Author(s) retain the copyright of this article http://www.academicjournals.org/IJLIS Full Length Research Paper Development of bibliometrics in Colombia Cristina Restrepo Arango1* and Rubén Urbizagástegui Alvarado2 1Programa de Posgrado en Bibliotecología y Estudios de la Información Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México. 2Library and Information Science, University of California at Riverside, Science Library, Riverside, CA 92521 – 5900, USA. Received 8 April, 2015:Accepted 6 October, 2015 The literature on bibliometrics published by Colombian and foreign authors who selected Colombian academic journals or events held in the country to communicate their findings is analyzed. The publications by Colombian researchers published abroad were also collected and analyzed. The type of documents used by researchers, the journals most used, and the languages used for communicating their findings were also studied. The growth of the literature, the network of co-authorships, the more productive authors, and scientific fields most researched were also analyzed. It was found 255 papers were published in academic journals, most of them in Spanish language; 77% of authors have published just one document, while 23% of them made between 2 and 24 contributions. The production of this kind of literature is concentrated in the last decade as well as the collabortion behavior of authors. The literature is growing in an exponential form at a rate of 20% per year and doubling in size every 4 years. Network analysis identified six research groups in the country. Key words: Bibliometrics, scientometrics, informetrics, Colombia, co-authorship. INTRODUCTION The publication of a document is the materialization of conferences) represent valuable opportunities to “share the results of a research carried out by an individual or ideas and discoveries where the presentation of the group of individuals in a given field of knowledge. The progress of the research to the academic community of publication of a document allows a researcher's work be pairs follow the rigor expected for the legitimization of the read, criticized and then cited by other scientists in the form and content of scientific research findings” (Chan et same field or associated areas. Before the publication of al., 2007). Thus, scientific communication is a social a document, a scientist may choose to present the results process that allows the dissemination and exchange of of his/her research in a national or international event information among scientists, since a scientist must looking for criticisms and comments from colleagues. submit his/her document to a review process by “blind These comments and criticisms can often help him/her to peers”. This is the mechanism for evaluating documents enrich some aspects of the paper (Fox, 1983), since for publication, adopted by academic journals. scientific events (roundtables, seminars, meetings, Castro et al. (2009) suggest that “scientific publications *Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected] Authors agree that this article remain permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License 162 Int. J. Lib. Inf. Sci. play a role in the different stages of the research activity; have studied and applied bibliometric techniques in they are the starting point of any inquiry, therefore, show different disciplines, but as far as it is known by the the state of knowledge in a given subject, and are the authors of this paper there is no research that have preferred channels that announce the results of studied the development of bibliometrics, scientometrics, researches completed. It also helps spread knowledge, and informetrics field in Colombia, neither the application which will be the basis for further research of other of these techniques in the country. For that reason, the scientists, so that the contributions of successive purpose of this paper is to analyze the development of generations of researchers make possible the cumulative bibliometrics in Colombia, following up national or foreign growth of science and, ultimately, scientific progress”. authors who have made publications in journals and at Consequently, researchers through their publications national events, and to Colombian authors who have directly contribute to development of a discipline in made publications in foreign journals or events using theoretical, practical and methodological aspects; bibliometric techniques, i. e. the study of scientific therefore, for bibliometrics, publications have become the production on Colombian bibliometrics. To date, this object of study (Mueller, 2007; Fox, 1983). monitoring is absent in the applied sciences, pure The idea of using published scientific literature as an sciences, social sciences and the humanities. This paper object of study dates back to the mid-1930s when Wilson aims to fill up this void and open space for future and Fred (1935) claimed that a census of publications in exploration on this issue, especially by the importance a given field could give valuable information to interpret that it has to characterize the national scientific past production and enough basis for predicting future production identifying trends on more productive authors, trends. Hence data collected of the literature have been more productive journals and by this way contribute to used as conventional tools for strategic planning, understand the evolution and development of science in performance evaluations, and trends of scientific fields. Colombia. For that reason, this article will describe and This analysis is done through bibliometric techniques, an analyze the literature produced on bibliometrics in area of information science that was introduced in the Colombia trying to answer the following questions: scientific world in the early twentieth century, to study the What kind of document predominates in this published scientific literature and create productive production? What are the most often used journals to performance indicators of a scientist. It is interested in communicate the results of research? What are the knowing, with the use of mathematical models and languages chosen to disseminate the results of applying descriptive and inferential statistics, what and researches? What are the areas of knowledge where how to publish, and how to characterize trends of the Colombian scientists are using bibliometric techniques? behavior of the scientific output of a field of knowledge Who are the authors who are applying bibliometric (Mueller, 2007). Thus, it has become a technique that is techniques in the country? Who are the more productive applied not only by library information science pro- authors? Do these authors collaborate with each other fessionals, but by psychologists, physicists, accountants, and are they forming networks? What are the more managers, etc. who are interested in measuring “levels of representative groups? What is the form of growth of this scientific production of a country, an institution, an author, literature? or journal” (Ríos et al., 2011, p. 304), to find thematic This paper seeks to answer these questions. To trends, most productive authors, basic core of scientific achieve this goal it is organized as follows: the first journals, etc. section gives a brief introduction to the research problem Bibliometrics is a discipline that is also being developed and asks the questions to be answered. In the second and applied in Colombia. For example, in 1999 the part we review the literature relevant to the issue. Then, Colombian Observatory of Science and Technology was we describe the methodology, the units of analysis, the created with the purpose of reaching “the production of form of data collection and form of measurement of data. statistics and indicators, support strategic planning and Subsequently we provided the results and discuss their decision-making processes through a comprehensive findings. Finally conclusions are presented and the understanding of the dynamics of science, technology, literature reviewed in the writing of this paper is listed. and innovation -CTI- in the country, and its place at the regional and global levels” (Colombian Observatory of Science and Technology, 2012). Since its inception it has LITERATURE REVIEW made extensive use of bibliometric techniques for technology monitoring and measuring the bibliographical Bibliometrics is a research line of library and information productivity of Colombian scientists. The Colombian science which plays an important role in the analysis of Observatory of Science and Technology institution scientific production in different areas of knowledge of a annually publishes a text titled “Science and Technology country. For example, its evolution and development in Indicators” that includes various aspects of bibliographical Brazil has been studied by Urbizagástegui (1984). Its production, investment in science, technology and incorporation as a research line at graduate programs in innovation, and industrial property rights, among others. Brazil was analyzed by Araújo and Alvarenga (2011). The There are also professionals from various fields who subjects studied and communicated through five Brazilian Arango and Alvarado 163 academic journals in the field of information science journals, papers