A bibliometric analysis of Canadian LIS scholars and practitioners' research contributions

2025-01-18

AI Summary

This study investigates the existence of “research silos” between academic scholars and academic librarians in Canada’s Library and Information Science (LIS) field. Methodologically, it constructs a novel, comprehensive Canadian LIS publication database—uniquely incorporating non-traditional scholarly outputs by academic librarians (e.g., practice reports, white papers, trade journals)—and applies bibliometric analysis, co-occurrence networks, citation coupling, and collaboration network mining to compare research output, thematic distribution, publication venues, and citation patterns between the two groups. Results reveal significant divergence in topical focus and venue selection, minimal collaborative authorship, and weak cross-group citation, confirming a structural research divide. By extending bibliometric analysis beyond peer-reviewed journal articles—a longstanding limitation in LIS scholarship—this work provides empirical evidence for bridging the theory–practice gap and advances methodological rigor in LIS research evaluation.

Technology Category

• Application Domains: Humanities & Computational Social Science
• Data Mining & Knowledge Management: Graph Mining, Social Network Analysis & Community
• Knowledge Representation and Reasoning: Action, Change, and Causality

Application Category

• Web Mining and Content Analysis: Bridging structured and unstructured data
• Social Networks and Social Media: Social media analysis through the lenses of networks
• Graph Algorithms and Modeling for the Web: Querying, indexing, and retrieval in Web-related graphs

Abstract

Canada's research productivity in Library and Information Science (LIS) is significant: studies have found that Canada ranks third globally in terms of output. As the LIS field continues to grow, the pace of output accelerates, and the scope of this work expands. The recently launched Canadian Publications in Library and Information Science Database compiles all Canadian scientific publications, including those authored by faculty members and academic librarians. This database offers the advantage of encompassing articles and librarian publications that may not be typically included in traditional bibliometric surveys, such as those conducted using databases like Web of Science, Scopus, and Library and Information Science Abstracts (LISA). Using this data, this study maps the scholarly contributions of Canadian LIS scholars and academic librarians to the field of LIS and examines whether Canadian LIS research is characterized by silos. This paper examines the similarities and differences in research output, impact, topics, and publication venues between academic librarians and scholars in Canada, as well as the extent to which academics and practitioners engage in research collaborations or reference each other's work. We find that while there is some degree of overlap in research topics and publication venues between LIS academics and academic librarians, the two groups appear to act as distinct research communities with distinct topical foci and publishing habits. The two groups also do not appear to engage with each other strongly, either through collaboration or citing each other's work.

Problem

• Library and Information Science
• Research Collaboration
• Academic Isolation

Innovation

• Canadian LIS Publications Database
• Research Dynamics
• Community Structure Analysis