Dissertation Information for Mary Wright Lockett NAME: - Mary Wright Lockett
DEGREE:
- Ph.D.
DISCIPLINE:
- Library and Information Science
SCHOOL:
- Indiana University (USA) (1988)
ADVISORS: - Clayton A. Shepherd
COMMITTEE MEMBERS: - George Whitbeck - Herbert S. White - Gary Ingersoll
MPACT Status: Fully Complete
Title: Uniformity of functional usage: A citation context analysis of highly cited documents in the Bradford specialty
Abstract: The literary complement of the building-block model of science assumes that highly cited documents are instrumental in the development of a specialty literature. However, the private nature of the citatory process contributes to a lack of understanding of the nature of the influence of highly cited documents in the specialty literature.
This study examined the hypothesis that this influence could be explained by the roles of functions played by highly cited documents in citing papers. The uniformity of functional usage measure was introduced to determine the extent to which highly cited documents in a specialty literature can be considered to be characterized by the functions of the Murugesan and Moravcsik (1978) reference typology.
The citing, cited, and highly cited documents of the Bradford specialty were identified through a DIALOG search of the SOCIAL SCISEARCH database. The 272 citation contexts of 86 English language citing papers, published between 1972 and 1982, which referenced the 13 highly cited documents were examined and assigned to the four paired sets of functional usage categories from the reference typology.
All 13 documents were found to be characterized by a high degree of uniformity of confirmative usage, six by uniformity of conceptual usage, eight by uniformity of organic usage, six by uniformity of evolutionary usage, and two by uniformity of juxtapositional usage. Five were characterized by a high degree of uniformity of usage for all four functional contrasts, two for three contrasts, three for two contrasts, and three for only one. This study concluded that uniformity of functional usage appears to be an appropriate alternative for explaining the phenomenon of high citation.
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MPACT Scores for Mary Wright Lockett A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-01-31 06:07:39
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