This article highlights the research productivity and scholarly communication of library and information science professionals during 2003–2012 by using Web of Science databases from 40 library and information science core journals. Data was interpreted by using two open-source software Vantage point (powerful text-mining tool for discovering meaningful result from raw data) and CiteSpace II to visualize the library and information science growth and trends. Underlying results indicated that mainstream of authors (12,847, 69.9%) published their article as a single author from 2003–2009, this trend has declined and collaborative number of publications trend has inclined during the last 3 years. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign produced 95 (0.52%) of the total publications and stands at the leading position. The maximum number of publications was carried out by universities rather than non-academic institutions. This article identified that Asian countries, such as China, Taiwan, India, and Iran, are still in its infancy stage. The present study could be considered as a useful tool for effective allocation of research funds in the research community and academic world of library and information science to enhance the research process.

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10572317.2015.1113602

Author(s): Munazza Jabeen, Liu Yun, Muhammad Rafiq, Misbah Jabeen and Muhammad Azam Tahir
Organization(s): Beijing Institute of Technology, University of the Punjab, Nanjing University
Source: International Information & Library Review
Year: 2015

The aim of this paper was to map the scientific research on soybean physiology by using bibliographic review and analyses of papers indexed up to July 31, 2014 in the web of science database. A total of 1682 non-redundant bibliographic records were curated. The soybean physiology research experienced two major periods. The first period was from 1943 when the first soybean paper was published to 1989 during which a small and gradual increase took place with no more than 12 annual publications. The second period being from 1990 to present, saw a substantial increase in annual publications ranging from 35 to 92 per year. Authors representing a total of 76 countries were involved in soybean physiology research. Drs. T.R. Sinclair and Dr. D.B. Egli were the most productive authors while the USDA/ARS, University of Illinois and Iowa State University published the most influential articles. The most productive journals were the Journals of Crop Science, Plant Physiology, Plant and Soil, Field Crops Research the most research subject categories were nitrogen fixation, photosynthesis, growth, mineral nutrition, genotypes, drought stress, yield and quality. Gene expression for quality and yield under drought stress has become a favored topic for soybean physiology. Eight out of the top ten productive institutions were located in the USA. The USA exceeded all other countries with the most independent and collaborative papers on soybean physiology research. The status of publications on soybean physiology described here may serve as a tool for guiding researchers in their future work.

Full-text available
http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Yadong_Qi2/publication/282251881_Mapping_soybean_physiology_research_based_on_the_web_of_science/links/560988b008ae576ce63e3160.pdf

Author(s): X.B. Liu, C.L. Sheng, S.J. Herbert, K.L. Chin, Y. Qi
Organization(s): Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of Massachusetts,  Southern University Agricultural Research and Extension Center
Source: International Journal of Plant Production
Year: 2015

Problem-based learning (PBL) has been systematized for over forty years. However, there is still a lack of studies that seek to visualize the evolution of scientific literature on the subject. This paper seeks to fill this gap through the development of a bibliometric analysis by carrying out a data search on the Web of Science™ database and subsequently transferring the acquired data for treatment to the VantagePoint© software package. The data indicate that research on PBL shows a strong progression since the end of the twentieth century, with a high volume of the most impacting studies being carried out by a group of researchers who are currently linked to or used to be connected to the Maastricht University. As a result of these studies, a geographical (from North America and Europe to Asia) and academic (from research in medical education to other biomedical and engineering areas) spread of scientific production regarding this teaching methodology
has arisen.

Full-text available here Mapping Knowledge Produced on Problem-Based Learning between 1945 and 2014: A Bibliometric Analysis

Author(s): Luis Antonio de Pinho, Fábio Batista Mota, Mariza Velloso Fernandez Conde,
Luiz Anastácio Alves, Renato Matos Lopes
Organization(s): Instituto Federal do Acre—Câmpus Rio Branco and Fundação Oswaldo Cruz
Source: Creative Education
Year: 2015

A bibliometric analysis was performed in this work to evaluate the research publications on Central Asia from 1990 to 2014 based on Science Citation Index and Social Science Citation Index databases. This study presented a comprehensive overview of the field from the aspects of major journals, subject categories, outstanding keywords, leading countries, institutions and authors, as well as the research collaborations. It was identified that a total of 11,025 papers were published in 2356 journals and there had been a steady development over the past 25 years for Central Asia research. Geosciences Multidisciplinary, Geochemistry and Geophysics, Paleontology, Environmental Sciences and Zoology were the most popular subject categories. Keywords analysis indicated that “Tien Shan”, “climate change”, “taxonomy”, “new taxa”, and “health care” were the topics that generated the most interest and concern. Besides, temporal evolution of keywords revealed the rapid growth of “Central Asia Orogenic Belt” and “Zircon UPb dating”. According to research forces analysis, USA and Russian Academy of Sciences came as the leading contributors and had the dominant position in collaboration networks. This paper was a new attempt to better the understanding of the progress in Central Asia research. The findings of this study would help researchers improve the performance.

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11192-015-1727-y

Author(s): Lixian Wang, Xi Chen, Anming Bao, Xiaoyun Zhang, Miao Wu, Yun Hao, and Jingjing He
Organization: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Source: Scientometrics
Year: 2015