Huang, M. H., & Chang, Y. W. (2012). A comparative study of interdisciplinary changes between information science and library science. Scientometrics, 91(3), 789-803.

Huang, M. H., & Chang, Y. W. (2012). A comparative study of interdisciplinary changes between information science and library science. Scientometrics, 91(3), 789-803.

scientometrics

本研究利用圖書館學與資訊科學領域下各五種期刊於1978到2007年間論文引用的參考文獻，比較這兩個領域的跨學科(interdisciplinary)特性。跨學科性(interdisciplinarity)的定義為使用來自其他學科的知識(knowledge)、方法(methods)、技術(techniques)與設備(devices)成為科學活動的結果(Tijssen 1992)，利用來自不同學科參考文獻的引用分布是經常採用的分析技術。研究結果顯示兩者的來源學科有很大不同：圖書館學的研究傾向於引用圖書資訊學(library and information science)、教育學(education)、企業/管理(business/management)、社會學(sociology)和心理學(psychology)；然而資訊科學的研究引用大多來自圖書資訊學、一般科學(general science)、電腦科學(computer science)、科技(technology)和醫學(medicine)等學科。除了圖書資訊學本身以外，圖書館學引用的學科主要以社會科學為主，資訊科學的引用則主要來自於自然科學。

從引用比例的變化來看，圖書館學在引用圖書資訊學上有下降的趨勢，引用自教育學的比例則是上升，資訊科學來自電腦科學上的引用，其比例也是上升。

本研究以從Brillouin指標(Brillouin’s Index)測量兩個領域的跨學科性，Brillouin指標的計算方式如下：

N是觀察的數量(the number of observations)，也就是參考文獻的總數，ni是屬於第i個類別的觀察的數量，也就是在第i個學科的參考文獻數量。從可以看到這兩個領域的跨學科性都逐年上升，並且資訊科學比圖書館學有較高的跨學科性。

Based on the research generated by five library science journals and five information science journals, library science researchers tend to cite publications from library and information science (LIS), education, business/management, sociology, and psychology, while researchers of information science tend to cite more publications from LIS, general science, computer science, technology, and medicine. This means that the disciplines with larger contributions to library science are almost entirely different from those contributing to information science.

However, a decreasing trend in the percentage of LIS in library science indicates that library science researchers tend to cite more publications from non-LIS disciplines. A rising trend in the proportion of references to education sources is reported for library science articles, while a rising trend in the proportion of references to computer science sources has been found for information science articles.

In addition, this study applies an interdisciplinary indicator, Brillouin’s Index, to measurement of the degree of interdisciplinarity. The results confirm that the trend toward interdisciplinarity in both information science and library science has risen over the years, although the degree of interdisciplinarity in information science is higher than that in library science.

The concept of interdisciplinarity has been discussed by many researchers (Huutoniemi et al. 2010; Leydesdorff and Probst 2009; Rosenfield 1992; Tijssen 1992), and can be defined as the use of knowledge, methods, techniques, and devices as a result of scientific activities from other fields (Tijssen 1992).