Ethnographic studies in Information Science: bibliometric analysis in the Web of Science database

Abstract

Ethnography has been recognized as a valuable methodological resource in Information Science research. In this study, we describe Information Science scientific articles on ethnography — and others that use ethnographic methodologies — indexed in the Web of Science database. Bibliometric research found 803 articles indexed in the database’s Core Collection, covering the period from 1979 to 2020. The analysis of these articles shows that 2016 concentrates the highest number of publications (65), and points to Michael D. Myers as the most productive and most cited author in WoS. Among the 15 most productive institutions with research on this topic, the University of Toronto stands out with slightly more than half of the total number of articles. Moreover, the Health Sciences stand out with articles focused on management and information systems. This study thus contributes to understanding the difficulties of research in this field, which result from the transformations and obstacles common to the various ethnographic research approaches and its emerging nature in Information Science.