Dimitroff A
School of Library and Information Science, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee 53201.
Bull Med Libr Assoc. 1992 Oct;80(4):340-6.
A content analysis of research articles published between 1966 and 1990 in the Bulletin of the Medical Library Association was undertaken. Four specific questions were addressed: What subjects are of interest to health sciences librarians? Who is conducting this research? How do health sciences librarians conduct their research? Do health sciences librarians obtain funding for their research activities? Bibliometric characteristics of the research articles are described and compared to characteristics of research in library and information science as a whole in terms of subject and methodology. General findings were that most research in health sciences librarianship is conducted by librarians affiliated with academic health sciences libraries (51.8%); most deals with an applied (45.7%) or a theoretical (29.2%) topic; survey (41.0%) or observational (20.7%) research methodologies are used; descriptive quantitative analytical techniques are used (83.5%); and over 25% of research is funded. The average number of authors was 1.85, average article length was 7.25 pages, and average number of citations per article was 9.23. These findings are consistent with those reported in the general library and information science literature for the most part, although specific differences do exist in methodological and analytical areas.
对1966年至1990年间发表在《医学图书馆协会通报》上的研究文章进行了内容分析。探讨了四个具体问题：健康科学图书馆员对哪些主题感兴趣？谁在开展这项研究？健康科学图书馆员如何开展他们的研究？健康科学图书馆员是否为其研究活动获得资金？描述了研究文章的文献计量特征，并在主题和方法方面与整个图书馆与信息科学研究的特征进行了比较。总体研究结果表明，健康科学图书馆学领域的大多数研究由附属学术健康科学图书馆的馆员开展（51.8%）；大多数研究涉及应用（45.7%）或理论（29.2%）主题；使用调查（41.0%）或观察（20.7%）研究方法；使用描述性定量分析技术（83.5%）；超过25%的研究获得了资金。平均作者人数为1.85人，平均文章长度为7.25页，每篇文章的平均被引次数为9.23次。这些研究结果在很大程度上与一般图书馆与信息科学文献中报道的结果一致，尽管在方法和分析领域确实存在具体差异。
