Methods for examining small literatures: Explication, physical analysis, and citation patterns

Autor: Lynn Akin
Rok vydání: 1998
Předmět:
Zdroj: Library & Information Science Research. 20:251-270
ISSN: 0740-8188
DOI: 10.1016/s0740-8188(98)90043-3
Popis: Three methods—explication, physical analysis, and citation patterns—are used to dissect a small literature: the information overload research from library studies. Explication is an exercise in critical reading and the trilevel explication used here examines overt research structure, backward citation chaining, and within- text inquiry. Overt structure seeks standard research characteristics. Backward citation chaining follows the abstract cognitive train of thought and a within-text inquiry analyzes textual anatomy according to implicit cues: syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic. Physical examination considers the text as artifact and inventories physical properties: publishing entity, co-authorship, literature age, or the amount of explanatory materials. Citation patterns follow bibliometric tenets and identify core researchers, co-authorship, linking citations, overall citing behavior, and the degree of peer- and self-citing. Crossdiscipline comparisons arise from a similar analysis of the overload research from consumer science and psychology/psychiatry. Conclusions arise from the literature itself and result in simple evidentiary statements.
Databáze: OpenAIRE