Analysis of Scientific Activities in the Field of Information Science: the Case of Croatia

The journal is the basic medium of scientific communication and one of the most widely used sources for bibliometric analysis. In this paper, we will address the scientific activities in the field of information science in Croatia by means of bibliometric analysis of 1418 papers published in social sciences journals listed as references for promotion of scientists through academic ranks in the field of information science. Based on a list of scientific journals and specificity of scientific publishing in national and international scientific journals we will show trends of scientific activities. When it comes to the evaluation of scientific papers it is not the same whether the paper is published in national or international journals. A paper published in a national journal in native language is not evaluated the same (no matter how highly rated paper is) as the paper published in an international journal. For small countries and their languages (which we certainly belong to) an important indicator of the value of the journal is its representation in relevant databases. The possibility that a journal published in national language by an undersized publisher from a small country will enter relevant databases is certainly not the same as in cases when the journal is published in English by a large publisher from a country with * Nikolaj Lazić, PhD, University of Zagreb, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Department of Phonetics, Ivana Lučića 3, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia, tel.: +385 1 6120295, e-mail: [email protected] ** Jadranka Lasić-Lazić. PhD, University of Zagreb, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Department of Information Sciences, Ivana Lučića 3, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia, tel.: +385 1 6002351, e-mail: [email protected]