Malaysian Journal of Library & ltrformation Science, Vol.4, no.2, Decenrher,1999: 47-57 KHOO KAY KIM, PROFESSOROF MALAYSIAN HISTORY: A BIOBIBLIOMETRIC STUDY Tiew, Wai Sin School ResourceCenter Coordinator Hulu Kelang SecondarySchool, Km 7, JalanUlu Kelang 68000 Arnpang, Selangor,Malaysia. E-mail: [email protected] ABSTRACT: Presents an analysis of the publication productivity, authorship pattern, channels of communication, journal preference and language preference of Professor Dato . Khoo Kay Kim, Professor of Malaysian History in the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur. The results of this biobibliometric study indicate that he can be a role modelfor future Malaysian historians to emulate his various achievementsespecially in the field oj historv education Keywords: Biobibliometrics, Bibliometrics~Khoo Kay Kim, Historian, Publication productivity Authorsrup pattern, Cltannelsof communication. INTRODUCTION The study of well-known scientis~s'has been conductedbibliometrically since the Biobibliometrics broadly refers to the early 1980's. Sinha and Bhatnagar in biographical study of the individual along 1980 attemptedto study the works of an with bibliometric analysis of his publi- internationally reputed plant pathologist cations. It has also been defined as the born in India but settled in Canada,R. C. quantitative and analytical method for Sinha with emphasison his impact on the discovering and establishing functional world literature thro~lgh data obtained relationships between biodata and biblio- from the .S'cienceCitation Index. Three data elements (Sen and Gan, 1990).This years later, Gupta alld Chandrasekhar is different from the 'study of sciento- using data collected fro~ S'cienceCita- metric portrait, which often focuses on tion Index, conducted a citation analysis the scientistS rather than academiciansor on S. Chandrasekhar,the winner of the researchersfrom the arts, humanities mId 1983 Nobel Prize for physics. A total of social sciences. In scientometric studies, his 401 works were cited 10, 359 times much attention is given to the accom- during 1965-1980 of which six were plishments of the scientific researcherin identified as citation classicsfor receiving tenus of qualitative and quantitative count 53% of all the citations. They concluded of Ius published works whether it is that there is a high correlation in quantit)" books, chapter in books, conference pa- quality of works, citednessalld receipt of pers. journal articles or otl1erdocuments. honors and awards. TIew, W:S. -- In 1992, Mahapatra measuredthe degree be consideredas a role model among of influence of Ranganatban's works on agriculturalscientist. Indian library and infonnation science literature.He analyzedthe referencespro- In 1995Kalyane and Munnolli examined vided in journal articles and found that the publicationsof T.S. West, an analyti- after Ranganathan's death, he continues cal chemistto find out the researchpro- to be cited frequently especially for his ductivity and patterns of collaboration. works on classificationand cataloguing. They concludedthat West is eminently qualified to be a role model for the Next. Gupta (1993) analyzedthe citations younger generation to emulate too. for all~ publications of Xavier LePichon- Kalyane also in 1995 conducteda study pertaining to sea floor spreadingfor the on P. M. Bhargavain terms of publication period 1965-1979. He found that out of productivity coefficient, publication den- the 127 cited publications, 13 items were sity, publication concentrationand ave- heavily and consistently cited. However, rageBradford's multiplier. the most cited article is "Sea-floor spread- ing and continental drift" published in Journal of Geophysical Research «73) Kalyane and Sen (1996) carried out a 1968, 3661-3690) \vhich receiveda total study of 422 articles published between of 642 citations at the time of the study. 1956 to 1995 by the Nobel Laureate, Sinhaand Ullah in 1993attempted a cita- Pierre-Gillesde Gennes,a French physi- tion analysis to determine the citation cist. The resultsindicated that the honors characteristicsof periodical articles and and awardsreceived by scientiststend to books published by Ramachandranin the attract more collaboratorsand increasein field of cement and concretechemistry. productivity. Kademani and ~yane in They found that he \\'a5 certainlya highly 1996 analyzed 164 papers by R. Chi- quoted scientist and more of his books darnbaram,a nuclear physicist, published ratller than articles werecited- during 1958-1993to identify highly' cited papersas per ScienceCitation Index. The Kademani, Balakrishnan and Kalyane resultsindicate that self-assessmentby a (1994) presented\'adetailed scientometric scientist about the significance of his analysis of the publication output of papers may not always tally with the ~dian nuclear physicist,P. K. Iyengar by world opinion. year, researchdomain, collaborationpat- tern, channel of communicationused and In 1997,Kalyane and Kademaniconduc- frequencyof keywords.It was found that ted a studyon BarbaraMcClintock, .the the period 1972-1976when Iyengar was winner of Nobel Prize in physiology for 4145 years of age, was his most pro- 1983.They analysedher publications to ductive period with the highest publica- identify her peak period of publication tion activity. On the other hand, Kalyane productivity, collaborating authors and and Kalyane also in 1994 ~yzed 254 the extentof collaboration,the scattering researchpublications of M.: S. Swami- of publicationsin various sourcesand the nathan.The resultsindicated that he could keywordsused for the titles in her papers. Klroo Kay Kim, Professorof MalaysianHistory The most recent scientometric portrait book chapterspublished between 1963. to study is on C. R. Bhatia, a geneticistand 1998 were collected, verified and ana- plant breeder conductedby Kalyane and lyzed. The curriculum vitae which in- Sen (1998). A total of 129 puplications cludes the list of publications of Prof. published between 1961 and 1994 were Khoo was obtained.To this list is added analyzed.Tie study found that CR Bhatia further searchesmade through telnetting has indeed establishedhimself as a leader the online public accesscatalogue of the in the induced mutation breeding pro- University of Malaya's Library (telnet grammesof locally importantcrop plants. 202.185.96.1)and the National Library of Malaysia (teln~t 161.142.132.123) to The study of noted and well-known scien- ascertaintheir holdings of Prof. Khoo' s tists has gained ground internationallybut publications. Apart from that, certain this type of study is yet to take root in this biographicaldetails which were not clear part of the world. The above literature or lacking in the curriculumvitae - were indicates that the focus is mostly on checkedand verified using annualreports scientists especially from India. There is of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal no study on other researchersfrom the Asiatic Societyof which he was President arts, huIruinities and social sciencesdo- between 1992-1995 and other related mains. Therefore, this paper is another sourcescontaining information about the attempt to study biobibliometrically, a subjectunder study. Telephone calls were well-known Malaysian historian and his also madeto the subjectto clarify certain contributions towards a discipline other details. From the collecteddata, analysis than science. of the publicationproductivity, authorship pattern,channels of communication,jour- OBJECTIVES nal preferenceand languagepreferences The objectivesof the presentstudy are: were found out. Finally, the subject was 1. to find out the publicationproduc- given-a copy of the paper to verify the tivitv. ; . accuracyof~ dataand other infonnation. 2. to examinethe authorshippattern for Here, it should be noted that this study publications: - did not take into account publications 3. to identify the channelof commu- edited by' the historian and those pu- nicationsused; blishedin newspapers.In addition,misce- 4. to ascertainthe journal preference; llaneouspopular historical articles written and specially for school studentsin various 5. to detenninethe languagepreference local magazinesare also not taken into of the author. account for the purpose of this study. Translatedarticles or booksfrom English METHODOLOGY to Bahasa Melavu and vice versa are . The list of publications of Prof. Khoo counted as one publication only. Further numbering 205 comprising 60 journal to that, conferencepapers published as articles, 15 monographs/books,79 confe- journal articles or book chapters are rence paperS, 23 lecwres/talks and 28 consideredonce only. Tie.v, W:S. BI OGRAPIn CAL SKETCH mentsin a local unive'rsityto use the nationallanguage as the mediumof in- Khoo Kay Kim was born on 28thMarch struction.Two yearslater, he commenced 1937 in Karnpar, Perak, Malaysia. He his lectureson Malaysianhistory in the took his Bachelor's degree.in 1959 ma- Malay languagefor the first year history oring in history from the University of students(Khoo, 1994),In fact, according Malaya, Singapore.In 1967 he obtained to the EducationAct of 1961, Bahasa his M. A, (History) and his Ph.D. in 1974 Melayubecame the medium of instruc- with the thesis "The beginningsof poli- tion in the universityonly in 1983 but tical extremism in Malaya 1915-1935". Khoo took a pioneering step in that Both these higher degreeswere from the direction way back in 1965,- University of Malaya,~ua1a Lumpur. He \\'as also the first Malaysianto graduate In 1974,he was promotedto the post of with a Ph.D. from