Relating research growth, authorship patterns and publishing outlets: a bibliometric study of LIS articles produced by Pakistani authors

Research is a key element of any profession and an analysis of published research enables professional communities to understand the dynamics of growth in a profession and its literature. Bibliometrics is used to carry out the analysis of Library and Information Science (LIS) research articles published by Pakistani authors because it is an important method for measuring impact of published research. We used relatedness measures to estimate the correlation among research growth, authorship patterns and publishing outlets. The sample consists of the research articles published during 2001–2016 by Pakistani authors who mostly remained associated with Pakistani institutions during this period. Chi-square and Binary Logistic Regression was used to find the relationship among different research indicators. Overall annual growth rate of the research articles remained between 8 and 9% from 2004 to 2016. During 2001 and 2016, 166 Pakistani authors contributed 600 articles with an average of 3.61 articles per author. Growth of articles published in foreign journals remained higher as compared to local journals. Out of 600 articles, 31% were contributed by 48 female and 71% articles were published by 118 male authors. Females were slightly more productive with an average of 3.85 than males with an average of 3.51. Collaboration among authors was seven times higher during 2009–16. Collaboration was higher among practitioners and for impact factor publishing. Females contributed more research during 2009–16 as compared to 2001–08. During the 2009–16, foreign articles were contributed with higher percentage by females and faculty. The current study depicts a comprehensive picture of LIS research publishing by Pakistani authors while exploring relationships among different bibliometric indicators.