Dissertation Information for Chandra Prabha NAME: - Chandra Prabha
DEGREE:
- Ph.D.
DISCIPLINE:
- Library and Information Science
SCHOOL:
- University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (USA) (1984)
ADVISORS: - Frederick Wilfrid Lancaster
COMMITTEE MEMBERS: - Herbert Goldhor - Linda C. Smith - Lawrence Auld - Marianna Tax Choldin
MPACT Status: Fully Complete
Title: A COMPARISON OF SCATTER OF CITING AND CITED LITERATURE FOR THE SUBJECT OF DESALINATION (BIBLIOMETRICS, BRADFORD'S SCATTER)
Abstract: This study compared two levels of Bradford-type scatter of periodical literature, the second derived from the first, in the field of desalination. A total of 8,419 periodical articles represented in Water Desalting Abstracts and Desalination Abstracts, for the years 1970-78, provided data for the study of Level-1 scatter. A systematic random sample of 406 of these yielded 3,185 references to periodical articles. These were used for the study of Level-2 scatter.
The hypothesis that the scatter of Level-1 is greater than that of Level-2 was supported when the Bradford multiplier (bm) was used as a test statistic. However, since the limitations of the bm were recognized during the course of analysis, the numbers of both articles and periodicals in each level were 'standardized' by translating them into cumulative percentages. The differences in cumulative percentage between the two levels were not found to be statistically significant at any decile. Had a reverse hypothesis been postulated, the difference at the ninth decile would have been statistically significant. The results arrived at by these two measures are not inherently contradictory because the bm measures the ratio of increase of the number of periodicals from one zone to the next, whereas the cumulative percentages give the proportion of periodicals contributing to any required proportion of articles.
Since Bradford first observed this phenomenon of scatter in specifically compiled bibliographies (Level-1), many investigators have noticed that the cited literature (Level-2) also exhibits similar scatter. The present study, however, may be one of the first to compare the scatter of a body of literature with the scatter of the literature that this first corpus cites. The findings may be useful for evaluating the coverage of A&I services or the collection of a special library. A unique aspect of the analysis is the use of the bootstrap method which made statistical comparison of Bradford distributions possible.
Additional analyses revealed the following: (1) Scatter of articles in the English language or from the US appeared to be less than that of their complements. (2) The proportion of periodicals contributing three articles or fewer was greater in Level-2 than in Level-1. (3) Neither 'duplicate' citations nor publication date of cited articles seemed to affect Level-2 scatter.
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MPACT Scores for Chandra Prabha A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-01-31 06:17:08
Advisors and Advisees Graph
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