A scientometric analysis of DESIDOC Journal of Library & Information Technology (2010-2014)

This paper aims to perform a scientometric analysis of DESIDOC Journal of Library and Information Technology (DJLIT) to find out the quality, popularity and impact of the international journal published by DESIDOC.

Scientometric analysis of five volumes (from Volume No. 30 to 34) from the year 2010 to 2014 of DJLIT covering 30 issues containing 307 contributions was performed. All the bibliographic details were noted and recorded in tabular form for the purpose of in-depth analysis. Based on the analysis of the recorded data, findings have been presented.

The study shows a trend of gradual growth in contributions published during the period of study, with an average number of 61 contributions per volume of the journal. Maximum number of contributions/research papers (70) were found to be published in the year 2012, whereas the minimum (50) in the year 2010. The study reveals that DJLIT gives maximum importance to the original research papers for the purpose of publishing, which attained top position of publications with a total of 277 (90.23 per cent). A maximum number of contributions during the period of study are from joint authors, with a total of 188 (61.24 per cent). Maximum number of contributions are from India, with a total of 273 (88.93 per cent). New Delhi, Maharashtra and Karnataka were found to be the biggest domestic contributors during the period of study, with 68 (24.91 per cent), 39 (14.29 per cent) and 30 (10.99 per cent) contributions, respectively. It appears that the coverage of DJLIT, even being an international journal in the field of library and information science (LIS), is not very broad and its scope is broadly confined to India only. Majority of the authors preferred journals as their major source of information, providing the highest number of citations totaling 2,447 (51.89 per cent), while websites attained the second position with 1,015 (21.52 per cent) citations, followed by books with 613 (13 per cent) citations. The study further reveals that maximum number of citations totaling 1,109 (23.52 per cent) out of 4,716 were received in the year 2013, while least citations totaling 700 (14.84 per cent) were recorded in the year 2010. One of the most important quality of DJLIT is that it has great concern for emerging and new tools, techniques and technologies in the LIS profession and their impact and application in the field. The journal regularly publishes special issues in every volume on such themes that have great impact on the LIS profession, and it has published 16 special issues on various important themes during the period of study. DJLIT, having free online access through the internet, is the highly preferred journal for communication, knowledge acquisition and reference by the LIS professionals. The journal has great potential of attaining new heights of popularity and impact all over the world in the LIS profession. It is suggested that the journal should try to get high-quality papers from foreign authors too, which may be useful in enhancing its global impact and reputation.

The present study is confined to the data collected from 30 issues of the five volumes of the DJLIT from the year 2010 to 2014, while the journal is continuously being published since the year 1981. Hence, the results may vary if the studies of different blocks of the years of publication of the journal are performed. The present study may not be fully representative in all the results, but it gives a trend regarding publication of the DJLIT.

Scientometric analysis of journals has been attempted in very few numbers. Hence, the present study will be a source of idea to other researchers.