Publishing in library and information science journals: The success of less experienced researchers

Abstract

This study explores the publishing success of less experienced researchers including early career researchers in a selection of library and information science journals. The study includes all authors of articles and reviews published in 10 library and information science journals during a 20-year period (2001–2020). The prior publication of each author is determined at the time of publication in one of the ten journals. The analysis includes 14,612 publications and publication histories of 36,417 authors. The results show that there are considerable differences between journals, and that the share of publications by less experienced researchers has generally decreased over time. Library automation journals publish considerably more publications by early career researchers than information science journals do. Publications in these 10 library and information science journals are being published by authors with an increasing publishing experience and fewer papers are being published by author teams with little experience.

Exploring Research Fields Through Institutional Contributions to Academic Journals

“…A previous study finds a higher frequency of returning authors in especially the six information science journals than others, consequently showing a larger degree of community commitment [24]. The library automation journals generally publish more papers by less experienced researchers [27]. The results of this study as well as previous studies indicate that author characteristics and thus maybe also institution characteristics are somewhat different in the information science and library automation journals.…”