An Essay on Informetrics: a Study on Growth and Development

Annals of Library Science and Documentation 1986, 33(1-2), 1-12

AN ESSAY ON INFORMETRICS: A STUDY ON GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

T.N. RAJAN B.K. SEN INSDOC New Delhi 110067

Examines the scope of 'informetrics' in relation applying statistical methods and called it 'sta- to metric studies of infonnation and publica- tistical analysis' [2]. Hulme used the term tions such as bibliometrics, scientornetrics and 'statistical bibliography' in 1923 for such lib ram etries. Suggests a comprehensive defi- studies [3]. Ranganathan used the term 'Iibra- nition of informetrics to cover all aspects of metric studies' [4]; he implied the measure- study given in definitions of other writers, ment of various library activities and services particularly Morales. Gives a brief account of using mathematical and statistical techniques. the growth of literature in informetrics. Surveys Pritchard coined the term 'bibliometrics' measurement techniques in a number of areas to denote a new discipline where quantitative such as growth of literature, efficiency scale methods were employed to probe scientific for a) document supply, b) translations, c) communication processes by measuring and bibliographies, d) SDI services, e) information analysing various aspects of written docu- products and services. Mentions the usefulness ments [5]. The term 'bibliometrics' has found of information in decision making. wide acceptance.Diverse interpretation of the term have been put forward by some authors [6]. Schinidmeir defined it as the application of Man invented methods of measurement perhaps mathematical methods to bibliographical, infor- at the very dawn of civilisation to meet his mation and library activities [7]. Kerius [8], day-to-day needs. In the beginning, measure- Lawani [9], Hjerppe [10] also tried to show ment was related mainly to length, breadth, relationship of bibliometrics with library and weight, and volume. With the progress of civilisa- information science and in certain cases with tion, man understood the concept of time, and science of science. We shall also discuss about invented devices to measure it. As science pro- th~ definition and scope of bibliometrics later gressed, need arose to measure innumerable in the article. physical phenomena like heat, light, electricity, In 1979 Nacke for the first time, defined and so on. Devices were invented and standards informetrics as 'the application of mathematical of measurement were determined for all. methods to the investigation of information For a long time measurement was the field science objects, with the aim of describing and of study mainly of physical scientists and mathe- analysing their properties and laws in order maticians. Gradually, it started spreading to to optimise these objects in decision making other areas. Slowly various measurement [11] . This definition is inadequate, as the defini- methods sprawled to social sciences as well, tion . considers only the investigation of 'in- and subjects like econometrics and sociometries formation science objects' and not information developed. science activities and information itself. Accor- The studies on 'informetrics' started way ding to the definition, informetrics aims to des- back in 1896, when F Campbell advanced the cribe and analyse properties and laws of infor- idea for the first time of the scattering of mation science objects. information [1]. However, he did not coin any It needs to be pointed out here that infer- term for such studies. Cole and Eaeles in their metrics not only describes and analyses the publication on the history of comparative properties and laws of information science anatomy analysed the literature on the subject objects, but also establishes laws employing

Vol 33 Nos 1-2 March-] une 1986 j RAJAN & SEN mathematical and statistical methods relating products. It is not necessary that all laws per- to the growth, propagation, use 'and decay of taining to a fie1-{ of knowledge should be equally information. Morales defines informetrics 'as applicable to all its branches. Some laws will the metric discipline concerned with the study be applicable to all its bi .mches and some will of mathematical and statistical r:\lethods and have restricted applications. We can take the models and their application to che quanti- examples from biology. Here some laws are tative analysis of the structure and properties equally applicable to both plant and animal of scientific information and the patterns and sciences, and some are applicable only to plant laws of scientific communication processes sciences or animal sciences. For, the growth of including identification of the laws' proper' animal body takes place according to a fixed f12] . pattern which is not the case with plant bodies. According to Morales, informetrics is Animals always inhale oxygen and exhale concerned with the study of mathematical and carbon-di-oxide, but the plants do the same at statistical methods and models and hence is night, reverse during the day. Nevertheless, an integral part of mathematics. However, both plants and animals are covered by biology. we feel that informetrics should be concerned Hence informetrics also should cover scientific mainly with the application of mathematical as well as non-scientific information. and statistical methods and models to measure From the foregoing discussion, it is dear the diverse aspects of any subject/discipline. that both the definitions suffer from certain Indeed in the application of these methods and limitations. We are trying to put forward ano- models to various subjects, a knowledge of the ther definition covering all aspects of inforrne- subject is a prerequisite or required at an equal tries, We, however, do not claim that our defini- measure with the methods of application. tion is absolutely free from limitations. We Specific courses on mathematical methods have only tried to, remove obvious limitations and models would be forming part of a course and to make the definition comprehensive. of study on informetrics when inforrnetrics We intend to define informetrics as that branch is fully developed as an independent discipline. of knowledge which employs mathematical The next point in Morales' definition is and statistical techniques to measure publica- the analysis of the structure and properties of tions and concepts, their growth, propagation, scientific information using mathematical use and decay of information; establish laws and statistical methods and models. Now, governing these factors, and study the effi- the question arises should we only analyse the ciency of information systems, services and structure and properties of information without products, as well as explore the intra - and any objective? If not, then what is the objective? interrelationship of disciplines. The main objec- The objective is missing in the definition. More- tive in metric studies of information (concepts over, Morales considers only scientific informa: and documents) are to provide processed data tion * in his definition. Some laws like the law ot leading to reliable indicators for a) research scattering of publications and law of obso- and development in all disciplines, b) policy lencence of publication are based on scientific making and planning, and c) management of publications. If these laws are exte~~ed to n~)ll- institutions, projects, programmes and acti- scientific publications (e.g. humanities publica- vities. tions) they may fail. But, laws relating to the Now, let us examine this definition keeping propagation of information may be equally in view the eleven aspects of informetrics applicable to non-scientific publications as they enumerated by Morales. The eleven aspects are applicable to scientific publications. The enumerated by Morales are:- way the efficiency of scientific information systems, services and products can be studied, "i) quantitative growth of literature the same methods can be employed for non- ii) information obsolescence and scat- scientific information systems, services and tering -;' , iii) efficiency of information products *Scientifie information here is construed as= and services in science, technology information relating to science in the conven- and production tional meaning of science, as is understood in iv) efficiency of information systems and most u/estern countries, information establishments in general

Ann Lib Sci f)(" ESSAY ON INFORMETRICS

v) the role of different kinds of docu- i) documents used by the citer and ments as means of scientific communi- ii) documents may be used by others cation vi) the role of information channel in Citation analysis (aspect x) is a method scientific communication employed in informetrics for determining vii) information relevance and pertinence the propagation, use, decay etc. of information. viii) ranking of periodicals and serials Determination of intra- and interdisciplinary by various parameters relations has also been covered in our defini- ix) overlapping of subject contents bet- tion. ween periodicals and serials Moralesj l Z] considers informetrics as a x) citation habits of scientists and the scientific in:formation aCtiVlty. Some laws growing role of citation analysis like the law of scattering of publications and xi) intradisciplinary and interdisciplinary laws of obsolescence of publications are based relation as determined on the basis on scientific .publications. If these laws are of bibliographical reference."[ 12) extended to .non-scientific publications (e.g. humanities publications) they may fail. But, The. growth aspect of literature has been it has already been mentioned that laws rela- taken well care of in our definition. The second ting to the propagation of information may be aspect relates to information obsolescence equally applicable to non-scientific publications and scattering. This aspect has been covered by as they are applicable to scientific publications. the term propagation and decay. These terms are obviously more comprehensive than obso- RELATIONSHIP WITH OTHER SUBJECTS lence and scattering. The third and fourth aspects cover the lnformetrics and Bibliometrics efficiency of information systems, services and products. These also have figured in our defini- Informetrics and bibliometrics seem to be very tion. . close to one another. Etymologically biblio- The fifth and sixth aspects relate to the metrics is composed of two distinct parts, i.e. role of documents as well as information chan- biblio and metrics. The prefix biblio is a loan nels in scientific communication. Documents word from Greek and means book, and the suf- and other information channels are, in fact, the fix metrics, coined from the Greek word 'rnetri- means of propagation of information. Hence, k~s' means the science of meter i.e. measure- they are well-covered in the definition. ment. Combining the two, we find that biblio- The seventh aspect deals with the rele- metrics connotes the science of measurement vance and pertinence of information. The pertaining to books. In our context, we can relevance and pertinence of information are replace the word 'book' with 'document' and invariably linked with the use of information. bibliometrics turns out to be the science of This aspect has also been included in the defi- measurement relating to documents, especially nition. the number of documents; whereas informetrics Ranking of periodicals and serials and cover the metric studies relating not only to overlapping of subject contents in periodicals documents put also to concepts. As such biblio- and serials (aspects viii &. ix) are again the metrics becomes a subset of inforrnetrics. phenomena of propagation. Informetrics comprises informetric studies per- Citation habits of scientists is the mani- taining to all disciplines. festation of the use of information. It may be argued that all the articles cited by a scien- lnformetrics & Librametrics tist in an article might not have been used by him. In many cases this may be true. To what Library science is a well-recognized discipline extent this is true, inforrnetrics attempts to and the metric studies pertaining to library find out that. Even though, some articles etc science can be termed as librametrics. Various referred by a scientist have not been used by library activities are measurable. For example, him, but he refers to these documents with the the average number of books, that a person can intention that others may use them. So, citation classify, catalogue, accession, or even shelve habit reflects two things: within a given span of time (e.g. an hour, a day

Vol 33 Nos 1-2 March-June 1986 \ RAJAN & SEN etc) can be determined. Similarly, the average port TRIT A - LIB 2013) [13] and a supplement time required for charging or discharging a book, to this bibliography appeared in Scientometrics writing a call number on the book, putting [14] and also a bibliography on the subject various labels and stamps on a book, all can compiled by R Pal and others, INSDOC covering be determined employing mathematical and the period 1980-84 [15]. The graphical re- statistical techniques. The number of books presentation of the literature indicates a steady issued or the number of queries answered per growth and peak in 1977 and thereafter a slight day can also be measured. Here the term book fall and again a steady rise. According to Morales can be used, because till now, books remain the [12] the slight fall during 1977-1980 is due to most predominant factor in libraries. In the case the fact that the coverage during the period of metric studies, what is true of books is also is not comprehensive. It should also be pointed true for other documents in a library. The out that the works of Eugene Garfield published library activities discussed above and certain in his Essays of an Information Scientist were other activities are measurable. All such library not included in the two bibliographies covering activities as are measurable are encompassed the period 1917 to 1980 [13,14]. by librametrics. The study of the number of books issued, or the number of queries MEASUREMENT TECHNIQUES answered within a given length of time is cover- ed by librametrics as part of informetrics. Growth of Literature

Informetrics & Scientometrics Usually two methods are being followed in the measurement of the growth of literature. If the Et&ymologically scientometrics means the study subject is broad, usually the number of entries relating to the measurement of science. Science per year appearing in the secondary services can be measured from a number of points of on the subject is determined, and on that view like the production of graduates, post- basis the growth is measured. For instance, graduates or Ph.ds of science; the establish- to measure the growth of chemical literature, ment of research institutions, the institutions the number of entries in the Chemical Abstracts of study and teaching of science; the deploy- is counted for a specific period, the difference mentof scientific manpower, brain drain; of entries for the two successive years which is expenditure of R&D; founding of the media always positive shows the growth. Chemical of scientific communication, e.g. primary and Abstracts being a comprehensive service on the secondary scinetific periodicals; scientific litera- field, there is little chance of any big error in ture; and scientific information systems, ser- the computation of the growth. However, vices and products. The metric studies of all it must be pointed out that even the coverage these aspects fall within the ambit of sciento- of Chemical Abstracts is not cent per cent. metrics. The area of scientometrics which deal A study of the coverage of Indian chemical with scientific information is also covered literature in the Chemical Abstracts indicated by informetrics. It is to be noted that a very that, the coverage on chemistry was about 90% large share of the literature of informetrics and of chemical technology was about 60% pertain to scientometrics. only. When the coverage of Chemical Abstracts is nearing 6 lakhs items a year, even if several Growth of Informetrics hundred or thousand items are missed, it does not affect the computation of overall growth From the foregoing discussion, we find that rate very much; of course, it affects the total bibliometrics is an integral part of informetrics, number. Most of the abstracting services in the part of librametrics and scientometrics are also world are not so comprehensive as the Chemical covered by informetrics, In fact, metric study Abstracts. For example, Physics Abstracts, of information pertaining to any field of know- Mathematical Reviews, Excerpt-a-Medica, Index ledge fall within the purview of informetrics. Medicus are not at all comprehensive. The The growth on informetrics can be measur- coverage of Indian literature in these services ed from the Bibliography of Ribliometrics and vary between 10% to 60% [16-18]. The cover- Citation Indexing Analysis published by the age from other developing countries may be still Royal Institute of Technology. Library (Re- low. Measuring the growth basing anyone of

4 Ann Lib Sci Doc ESSAY ON INFORMETRICS

these services in the respective fields may not i) Some technical reports also appear in the give a comprehensive and true picture. form of conference papers or research Nowadays, many countries are bringing out papers. their national abstracting or indexing services, India being one of them. The computation of ii) Papers presented in a conference sometimes the growth of national literature basing on these also appear in the form of articles in services, may at times lead to grave errors. periodicals. Studies r 19,20] have indicated that a great deal of Indian scientific contributions are being iii) Some authors get the same article publish- published abroad. As such, they are not getting ed in different journals with minor change reflected in the Indian Science Abstracts. What and no change. one finds in Indian Science Abstracts is not the true reflection of India's scientific contribution. (iv) An invention patented in various countries While measuring the growth of literature on of the world result in number of patent a broad subject, it is always risky to depend on a specifications. single international secondary service. Covering, of more services may yield better results, but v) When a conference proceedings is abstrac- there is huge amount of overlapping among the ted or indexed; an entry is given for the various services on the same subject which needs conference proceedings itself apart from to be taken care of; otherwise, the figures will the entries given for all the papers present- get terribly inflated. ed in the conference. As a result, the li- When the growth is measured on a narrow terary output gets an increase by one subject, usually several sources are consulted because of the entry for the conference to prepare a bibliography. As such, duplicate document. entries are eliminated. This method is more or less a foolproof method. For measuring the growth of knowledge, Measurement of the growth of literature on previews or short communications, comments a subject is different from the measurement of (not contributing to knowledge), translations, the growth of knowledge on the basis of litera- conference paper/s, technical reports, resulting ryoutput. from the same basic paper should be excluded. When a person or a group is engaged in conducting research on a topic, they send a Efficiency of Information Systems, Services and write-up in the form of short communication Products before the research is complete with a view to informing others about the research work under- The efficiency of information systems can be taken. As the research work progresses, a paper measured by taking into account the efficiency may be presented in conferences to have a dis- of its information servicessud products. cussion on the topic to get a direct feedback Information services~:()mprise supply of from the fellow scientists. Finally, when the documents i.e. books, photocopies, microfilms, research work is complete, a full-length paper microfiche, etc.; translations; bibliographies; is published which we may call the 'basic paper'. answers to queries; etc. After the publication of the basic paper, this may also appear in cover-to-cover translated Efficiency of Document Supply periodicals. If we consider the contribution to knowledge, the basic paper alone serves the The efficiency relating to the supply of docu- purpose. Some learned comments may also add ments can be measured in terms of time and to knowledge. Even though several papers on the number of documents supplied. The effi- the topic have appeared, as far as the growth of ciency can be calculated on monthly basis. literature is concerned, all the papers are to be (Fig.l). taken into account. But for the growth of know- ledge, the full-length paper alone should be Efficiency of Translation Supply taken into account. Knowledge factor remaining constant, the literary output grows for several The efficiency of translation service can be reasons, besides-those discussed above. measured by taking into account the number

Vol 33 Nos 1-2 Marchjune 1986 5 RAJAN & SEN

Fig. 1: Efficiency Scale for Document Supply Now we can measure the overall efficiency taking into account the quality percentage. We shall discuss about the measurement of quality Percentage of requested Efficiency later in this article. documents supplied within a month Second Case - Document available, but trans- lator not available with the agency. 1 Above 90% Excellent

2. Between 75% to 90% Very good In many cases, agencies get translation 3. Between 60% to 75% Good done through panel translators. Sending the document to the panel translator, getting 4. Between 50% to 60% Fair the translation back from him, and editing takes time. The entire process may take 15 to 20 5. Below 50% Inefficient days. Taking into account this factor we can have a scale for measuring efficiency (Fig.3).

of pages translated, the time taken for the Fig. 3: Efficiency Scale for Translation -2 supply of translation, and the quality of trans- lation. The time taken for the supply of trans- Time taken for supply of Efficiency lation depends mainly on translation a) availability of the document to be trans- lated; and Upto 4 weeks 60%

b) availability of the translator between 4-5 weeks 40%

First Case - Document and T. ransI ator both Above 5 weeks 20% available with the agency. If the document is supplied by the user Third case: Document not available, but the or available with the translation agency, and translator available with the agency. the translator also is available with the agency, the time taken for translation is least. It can In our country, almost centpercent demand reasonably be expected that the translation of for translation is from foreign languages, and a 10 page document (this we are taking as a the availability of the foreign language docu- standard) will be supplied in a week's tim~. ments is very low. As such, most of the foreign The translation of a 10 - page document will language documents are to be procured from occupy about 25 to 30 typewritten pages. abroad, which takes time varying from less (Fig.2). than one month to more than one year. Basing the experience of INSDOC, we can take the Fig. 2: Efficiency Scale for Translation - 1 average procurement time of foreign language documents as 10 weeks. For this scale, we are to add the procurement time alongwith the Time taken for supply Efficiency translation time. (FigA). of translation Fourth Case - Document not available, trans- Upto 7 days 60% lator not available with the agency.

between 8-15 days 40% We can derive this scale simply by merging Efficiency Scale - 2 with Efficiency Scale - 3. Above 15 days 20% (Fig.5 ).

6 Ann Lib Sci Doc ESSAY ON INFORMETRICS

Fig. 4: Efficiency Scale for Translation-S For measuring the overall efficiency of a piece of translation we are to take the help of the specific Efficiency Scale applicable to Time taken for supply of Efficiency the situation and the Quality Scale. translation Suppose, an order was placed for the translation of a 10 page German language document into English. The document had to be Upto 11 weeks 60% procured from abroad and the age~cy was having the translator. The translatIon was between 11-12 weeks 40% supplied in 10 weeks and the quality of trans- lation was found to be satisfactory. In this speci- Above 12 weeks 20% fic case, Efficiency Scale No.3 is applicable. From the scale, we get the percentage of effi- ciency as 60%, and from the Quality Scale, we Fig 5: Efficiency Scale for Translation - 4 get the percentage of efficiency as 30%. So, the overall efficiency adds upto 90%. Time taken for supply Efficiency For measuring the overall efficiency,· of translation efficiency has to be measured piece by piece; ------and then an average has to be calculated. The Upto 15 weeks 60% average value has to be compared with the Efficiency Scale for Document Supply. Sup- Between 15-16 weeks 40% pose the average works out to be 63%, compar- ing this percentage with the scale we find that Above 16 weeks 20% the efficiency is good. Allowances have to made for difficult When a translation is being supplied by an languages like Chinese and Japanese, or less information/translation agency, it is expected known languages like Romanian or Hungarian. that the agency will take some measu~e of For reverse translation also e.g. from English quality control. In other words, we take it for to German, or any other foreign language granted that the translation supplied by a similar allowances will have to be made. recognised agency will not be utter rubbish The scales have been made taking a 10 excepting some extraordinary cases. As s~ch we page document as standard. The time taken for give an weightage of 40% for the quality. of translation is directly proportional to the translation. For the measurement of quality, length of the document, to be precise, the nu~- we can have a scale. (Fig.6) ber of words in a document. If one week is optimum for the translation of a 10 page docu- Fig. 6: OJ,t,alityScale ment, then 2 weeks time will be optimum for ------_._--:-.------the translation of 20 page document and so on. Satisfaction level Weightage This factor needs to be kept in mind, while measuring the translation service. Highly satisfactory 40% Efficiency of Bibliographies compiled on request Satisfactory 30% The efficiency of bibliographies compiled on Tolerable 20% request may be measured in terms of exhaust i- vity, time taken for the suppl~, as we}l ,as the Unsatisfactory 0% relevance of the documents included 10 the bibliography. The measurement of these ,oara- Totally unsatisfactory 20% meters poses a number of problems. The eXL't:IS- - r------tivity of a bibliography can be derermincd This scale can be attached to each piece of only when an exhaustive bibliograply on, the translation and the user may be requested to topic is compiled for the purpose of COr:1panson inform about his satisfaction level according which is highly time-consuming. The e.xhausti- to the scale.

..., Vol 33 Nos 1-2 March-junc 1986 I RAJAN & SEN vity is not measurable when the bibliography is information services, abstracting services etc. selective. The time taken for the compilation of For measuring the efficiency of all these ser- bibliographies varies widely depending on many vices, we are to consider the coverage, timeli- factors. If the bibliographer finds a good review ness, ease of handling, and index in some cases. article of the topic, the compilation of a bibliography takes little time. On the other a) Current Awareness Service hand the compilation of a bibliography will be highly time-consuming on a topic, say on a For current awareness service, the criteria for rare insect, whose literature is scarce and widely the measurement of efficiency should be pri- sparsed. The relevance of the articles, can be marily the timeliness. Relevancy, despite being decided only by an expert, or the user who an important factor, cannot be stressed to asked for the bibliography. much because current awareness services in In the circumstances, it is better to elicite many cases are directed for world users, the user's opinion on all the three parameters who scan through the pages of the ser- to measure the efficiency (Fig.7). vice to find if anything of his interest We can grade Highly satisfactory - 80%, has been published. We cannot also lay too Satisfactory - 60%, Tolerable - 40%, and un- much stress on exhaustivity, since exhausti- satisfactory - 20% for calculating the efficiency. vity adds not only to the cost, but also to the Efficiency of the Answers to Queries delay. So a current awareness service has ' to maintain a balance between timeliness and For measuring this, we have only two para- exhaustivity. Now, the question arises, how to meters to take care of. They are (i) Time requir- measure the timeliness? After the publication of ed for answering the query and (ii) the rele- a periodical/serial, it takes from less than a vance of the answer to the query, and the same week's time to several months to reach the efficiency scale as given in the Bibliography agency bringing out the service. However agen- service can' be used here omitting the Exhaus- cies can reduce this time by getting the photo- tivity parameter. copies of the title pages of the documents by airmail. So for agencies, the measurement of Efficiency of SDI Services time should becounted from the date of issue of For SDI services also, the three factors res- the document by the publisher, and for local ponsible for the determination of efficiency are current awareness services, from the date of exhaustivity, timeliness and relevance. Effi- receipt of the publication in the library. If we ciency scales for measuring the service have take 7 days as the transit time by airmail and already been evolved, and it is measured on the 15 days time for processing, printing, despatch- ing then three weeks time become optimum for basis of the data obtained through feedback cards. current awareness services being brought out by agencies. For the libraries bringing out Efficiency of Information Products current awareness services, we are not taking into account the transit time, because here the By information products we mean here current measurement of time is from the date of receipt awareness services, indexing services, express of periodical issue in the library. Here also

Fig. 7: Efficiency Scale for Bibliographic Service

Exhaustivity Timeliness Relevance

Highly satisfactory

Satisfactory

Tolerable

Unsatisfactory

8 Ann Lib Sci Doc ESSAY ON INFORMETRICS

Fig. 8: Efficiency Scale for Current Awareness Services

National/International Efficiency Local CAS Efficiency CAS Time lag Time Lag

Less than 3 weeks 80% Less than 2 weeks 80%

Bet ween 3 & 4 weeks 70% Between 2 & 3 weeks 70%

Between 4 & 5 weeks 60% Between 3 & 4 weeks 60%

Between 5 & 6 weeks 50% Between 4 & 5 weeks 50%

Above 6 weeks Inefficient Above 5 weeks inefficient for processing, printing, etc. we can take 15 Efficiency of core periodicals days time as optimum and have scales for 40 x 100 measuring the efficiency of CAS. Of course, ------80% some percentage, say 20% should be allotted 50 for such parameters as coverage, arrangement 80% out of 60% allotted for core periodi- and index (Fig. 8). cals 60 x 80 b) Indexing Services = ----- = 48% 100 For reducing the publication delay, the CAS Efficiency for allied periodicals in many cases reproduce the title page itself, and the same is arranged alphabetically by the =~Q

Vol 33 Nos 1-2 March-june 1986 RAJAN & SEN can afford to cover all, as it would not be cost- are to provide multiple approaches depending effective. Suppose, in this case 4% is given for on the subject by way of indexes. Number of the alien periodicals then the total efficiency indexes as well as depth of indexing is usually for exhaustivity adds upto 48% + 21% + 4% = more in the case of abstracting services compar- 73%. ed to indexing services. Preparation of ab- The ease of searching is dependent on the stracts and various types of indexes and their arrangement of entiries in the text portion, as subsequent printing obviously involve more well as the number and type of indexes provi- man hours and time. Most of the international ded. For measuring the efficiency, marks will abstracting services have computerised the pro- have to be allotted for duction of indexes to a great extent and thereby reduced the time of index preparation a great Arrangement - Classified deal. Taking all these factors into account, we Alphabetically subject-wise can add two months in each case to the Effi- Non-alphabetical subject ciency Scale of Indexing Services-Time to groupmg derive the efficiency scale of abstracting services for time (Fig.10). Arrangement - any other Fig. 10: Efficiency Scale of Abstracting Indexes - Subject - exhaustive Service - Time key word - any other Time Lag Efficiency

Author Less than 4 months 100%

Sponsor/ Affiliation Between 4 and 5 months 80%

Others Between 5 & 6 months 70% See and See also References Between 6 & 7 months 60%

It is difficult to provide a general formula Between 7 & 8 months 50% here. Because an indexing service arranged alphabetically subjectwise reduces to a great Above 8 months Inefficient extent the need for a subject index. Again, providing of various types of indexes depends mainly on the subject of the service. For ex- For measuring the exhaustivity and ease ample, a geographical index for a geological of search, the same procedure can be followed service is of great value, whereas for biological as described under indexing services. service, a taxonomic index will be considered highly important. d) Express Information Service For determining the efficiency, a question- naire may be designed allotting marks on items This service has originated from the USSR, listed above according to the situation, and where it is called Ekspress Informatsia. This survey can be undertaken taking users as the service is usually devoted to a very narrow but sample. highly important field of knowledge. All foreign Taking the average of the perc<;ntages for language recent contributions are chosen on the timeliness, exhaustivity and ease a L searching subject, and a digest of the articles (about 1/3rd the efficiency of a service can be determined. of the original size) is prepared in Russian. Introduction and other not very important c) Abstracting Services matter are excluded and important formulas, illustrations, etc. are retained. This is done to For bringing out an abstracting service, apart obviate the need for going through the original. from all the jobs done for bringing out an Each issue contains about eight to ten articles, indexing services, the abstracting of all the items and published four tiines a month. The time are to be done. Moreover, abstracting services lag between the receipt of periodicals in the

10 Ann Lib Sci Doc ESSAY ON INFORMETRics library and the issuance of the express informa- decision making regarding the dropping of tion service is about one month. certain periodicals becomes logical as well Like current awareness service in this case as easy. also timeliness is more important compared to Given above are only some examples exhaustivity and quality. As foreign languages where informetrics can be used effectively for are involved here, this factor has to be taken decision making. Informetrics is a developing into account while fixing the scale. As the num- subject and it is hoped it will have much wider ber of articles covered in an issue are only about application in future. eight to ten, we can allot about two weeks time for translation to the scale fixed for national! REFERENCES international current awareness service. The quality of the digests can be measured in the same way as in the case of translation. 1. Campbell F: The theory of the national and international bibliography. London, 1896. METRIC STUDIES OF OTHER FACTORS 2. Cole F J, Eaeles N B: The history of comparative There are well-known methods for the study of anatomy. Pt 1- Statistical analysis of the literature. information about obsolescence, scattering, Science Progress 1917,11(44), 578-96. relevance and pertinence. Hence they are not being described here. 3. Hulme E W: Statistical bibliography in relation to For the ranking of periodicals also, there are the growth of modern civilization. London, 1923. well established methods. However the way, any Indian authors are ranking periodicals, 4. Ranganathan S R: Librametry & its scope. Ann there is much as one for improvement. This Sem 1949, 1, 285-301. See also Aslib Proceedings very aspect has been dealt with in another 1949,1,102. paper[21] e , 5. Pritchard A: Statistical bibliography or biblio- INFORMETRICS & DECISION MAKING metrics? Journal of Documentation 1969, 25(4), 348-9. The development of a country is closely inter- linked with its scientific and technological deve- 6. Hawkins D T: Unconventional uses of on-line in- lopment. The analysis of the scientific and formation retrieval systeins: On-line biblio- technical information output of a country metric studies. Journal of the Ameri~ Society can identify areas which are weak and need for Information Science 1977, 23(1). 13-18. boosting up. The information agencies or libraries bring- 7. Schmidmeir D: Die vermittlung von Grundken- ing out various information products and render- ntnissen in der Bibliometric als Voraussetzung ing various information services can measure fuer die Anwendung der Bibliometrie in der the efficiency of the products as well as ser- technischen Universitats bibliotheken. IATUL vices to find out how much efficient or defi- Proceedings 1978, 10,32-41. cient a particular service or product is, and measures can be undertaken to remove the 8. Kerius S: Komplexe Analysen des dokumen- deficiency. taten informations-aufkommens a1s eine Grund- Every year there is a considerable hike in lage zur retionellen Information-sversongung. the subscription rate of periodicals which is Dokum/INforn. Schriftenr. Inbt. Informationsw., proportionately far more than the increase in Erfmdungsw. Recht. Techn. Eochsch. Itmenan the library budget for periodicals. Moreover, 1979, No.45, 219-42. there is always demand for new periodicals In the circumstances, every year need arises to 9. Lawani S M: Bibliometrics : its theoretical foun- drop certain title to balance the number of titles dations, methods and application. Libri 1981, with the budget. The decision to drop certain 31(4),294-315. titles is taken rather arbitrarily. If a rank"list of periodicals is prepared at regular intervals 10. Hjerppe R: 'An outline of bibliometric and citation through the study, citation study, etc.; the analysis. Stockholm, 1980.

Vol 33 Nos 1-2 March-j une 1986 II RAJAN & SEN

11. Nacke 0: Informetric : Ein nuer Name fuer 17. Rajagopalan T S, Sen B K, Gogia K L, Gera J C: eine Disziplin. Nachrichten fuer Dokumentation Reporting of Indian mathematics literature in the 1979,30(6),219-26. Mathematical Reviews & Bulletin Signletique. Annals of Library Science & Documentation 12. Morales M: Informetrics and. its importance. 1965,12(3),137-50. International Forum of Information and Docu- mentation 1985, 10(2), 15-21. 18. Sen B K, Gera] C, Gogia K L, Rajagopalan T S: Reporting of Indian medical literature in Index 13. Hjerppe, Roland: A bibliography of bibliometrics Medicus and Excerpta Medica. 'Annals of Library and citation indexing and analysis. Royal Institute Science & Documentation 1966, 13(1), 1-24. of Technology Library Report TRITA - LIB-2013. 1980. 19. Guha B, Gupta A K, ]osepth A, Kachroo M L: Scattering of articles by Indian authors in foreign 14. Supplement to a 'Bibliography of bibliometrics periodicals - sample survey. Annals of Library and citation indexing analysis, TRITA-LIE 2013. Science & Documentation 1965, 12(2),76-86. Scientometrics 1982,4(23),241-73. 20. Mehrotra K, Lamcaster F W: Where Indian scien- 15. Pal R, Roy S B, Sen B K: Bibliography on biblio- tists publish? Current Science 1984, 53(13), metrics 1979-84: a world survey. (unpublished). 684-8.

16. Rajagopalan T S, Sen B K: Reporting of Indian 21. Sen B K, Narendra Kumar: Indian contributions physics literature in Physics Abstracts. Annals in bibliometrics - a review. (Paper presented in XV of Library Science & Documentation. 1964, IASLIC Conference, 1985). 11,87-95.

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