Study on Citation Accuracy of Iranian Journals in the Field of Library and Information Science

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify the citation status of scientific and research journals in the field of Information Science and Knowledge during the years 2016-2018. The present study is a survey analytic one and its statistical population includes all the articles of twelve scientific and research journals published by the National Scientific Journals Commission. Since some articles did not have a number of citations, out of 2264 citations, 1111 citations were analysed. The results showed that there was no statistically significant difference between source citation error and citation source language components, year of publication, number of authors, and author’s academic rank. But it has a significant relationship with the type of citation and publication component. The results showed that out of 1111 citations selected, 21 citations (1.9%) were not retrieved, 749 citations (67.4%) lacked any citations errors and 341 citations (30.7%) contained citations errors. The National Library of Librarian Studies and Information Organization and the Journal of Library and Information Research were the best in terms of citation accuracy, and the Journal of Human Interaction and Information had the lowest citation accuracy. Among the factors contributing to the occurrence of citation errors can be the lack of co-operation between authors, the carelessness of authors, and the lack of emphasis on journals. Solutions such as highlighting journals are recommended for authors to observe the validity of citations, insert proper citations to published articles, and evaluate and review some of the paper citations as an acceptance process.