Timelines of creativity: A study of intellectual innovators in information science

Abstract

We explore the relationship between creativity and both chronological and professional age in information science using a novel bibliometric approach that allows us to capture the shape of a scholar's career. Our approach draws on D.W. Galenson's (2006) analyses of artistic creativity, notably his distinction between conceptual and experimental innovation, and also H.C. Lehman's (1953) seminal study of the relationship between stage of career and outstanding performance. The data presented here suggest that creativity is expressed in different ways, at different times, and with different intensities in academic information science.

Visualizing and mapping the intellectual structure of information retrieval

“…In that sense, it supplements works by others who studied the literature of information retrieval (Ding et al, 2000(Ding et al, , 2009Ellis et al, 1999); the literature of library and information science (Chen et al, 2010;Cronin & Meho, 2007, 2008Donohue, 1972;Harter & Hooten, 1992;Harter et al, 1993;Persson, 1994;Rice, 1990;Tang, 2004;White, 2003;White & McCain, 1998;Åström, 2007, 2010 and its relationships with other disciplines (Borgman & Rice, 1992); the literature of other LIS subfields such as image indexing and retrieval (Chu, 2001) and human information behavior (McKechnie et al, 2005); and the literature of science in general (e.g., Small, 1999).…”

“…Some considered articles published in a single journal (e.g., Harter & Hooten, 1992;Persson, 1994) or in multiple journals (e.g., Åström, 2007, 2010Borgman & Rice, 1992;Chen et al, 2010;Cronin & Meho, 2007, 2008Ding et al, 2000;Harter et al, 1993;Rice, 1990;Tang, 2004;White, 2003;White & McCain, 1998;Zhao & Strotmann, 2008a, 2008b. Data for an early citation analysis paper in the LIS field was obtained from a set of journals that published information science-related articles produced by government-funded research programs (Donohue, 1972).…”

“…McKechnie et al (2005) considered a sample of 155 papers from six prominent LIS journals that are international in scope and frequently publish work by human information behavior researchers. In their unique work, Cronin and Meho (2007) considered publications by authors who have won one or both of two prestigious LIS awards: the American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIST) Award of Merit and the Research in Information Science award.…”

“…Cronin and Meho (2007) identified two very broad categories of innovators in information science and concluded that chronological age alone is not a predictor of intellectual innovation. All in all, according to Cronin and Meho (2007), creativity is not dependent on time and intensity.…”

“…Although a number of studies have examined the literature of library and information science (e.g., Åström, 2007, 2010Chen, Ibekwe-SanJuan, & Hou, 2010;Cronin & Meho, 2007;Donohue, 1972;Harter & Hooten, 1992;Harter, Nisonger, & Weng, 1993;Persson, 1994;Rice, 1990;White & McCain, 1998;Zhao & Strotmann, 2008a, 2008b, the nature of the literature concerning information retrieval has not been so thoroughly investigated (Ding, Chowdhury, & Foo, 2000;Ding, Yan, Frazho, & Caverlee, 2009;Ellis, Allen, & Wilson, 1999). In this paper, our main goal is to visualize and map the intellectual and cognitive structures of the IR subfield.…”