Identifying Research Topics with Bibliometrics: Guidelines for Practitioners

Abstract

For many researchers of bibliometrics in academia, the discipline has evolved from hierarchical & metric-focused to more descriptive and story driven. The field is changing for practitioners, as well. While research impact assessment is still a cornerstone of promotion & tenure at many universities, librarians and other who support bibliometric analysis are responding to customer requests for more descriptive topical and citation analyses to help with strategic planning and narrative assessments. This research explores potential use cases for a more narrative style of bibliometric analysis and outlines six guidelines for librarians and others who practice bibliometrics as a service for researchers and managers. Case studies from two separate disciplines—academic librarianship and translational science research—attempt to answer the following research questions: 1. Can the co-occurrence of thesaurus terms be used to map the research landscape in a specific discipline? 2. How is the research focus of a specific institution within the University of Maryland different from the focus of the broader collection of documents? 3. How can other librarians who practice bibliometrics implement these techniques into their portfolio of services?