A Review of Citation Analysis Methodologies for Collection Management

Kristin Hoffmann is Head, Research & Instructional Services, in the D.B. Weldon Library at the University of Western Ontario; e-mail: [email protected]. Lise Doucette is Research & Instructional Services Librarian in the Allyn & Betty Taylor Library at the University of Western Ontario; e-mail: [email protected]. © 2012 Kristin Hoffmann and Lise Doucette, Attribution-NonCommercial (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/) CC BY-NC While there is a considerable body of literature that presents the results of citation analysis studies, most researchers do not provide enough detail in their methodology to reproduce the study, nor do they provide rationale for methodological decisions. In this paper, we review the methodologies used in 34 recent articles that present a “user study” citation analysis with a goal of informing collection management. We describe major themes and outliers in the methodologies and discuss factors that require careful thought and analysis. We also provide a guide to considerations for citation analysis studies, so that researchers can make informed decisions.