A Citation Analysis of Graduate Library and Information Science Dissertatioins of Shiraz and Tehran Universities between 2001 and 2009

This research identifies the characteristics of the cited literature in 138 Library and Information Science theses submitted to Shiraz and Tehran Universities between 2001 and 2009. The findings reveal that for a total of 6010 citations compiled from the studied theses, the average number of citations for Tehran University was 46.79 and for Shiraz University it was 37.1. In both universities journals with 40.33% and books with 22.74% were respectively the most cited form of publications. Among the total citations, 3391 refered to English sources (56.42%) and 2607 citations refered to Persian resources (43.38%). The average half life for English and Persian journals of the two universities was totally calculated 11.74 years. The core English and Persian journals in Library and Information Science were identified by means of Bradford’s Law: respectively 4 and 3 titles. Subject distribution of citations shows the subjects "Information and Communication Technology (ICT)"(14.10%), "storage and retrieval of computer information" (10.90%), and "patrons and use of library" (9.74%) received the highest number of citations. Geographical distribution of citations revealed that Iran, the U.S.A., and Britain were the most cited places of publication, each with 45.42, 26.83 and 14.27 percentages respectively.