A Scientometric Appraisal of IASLIC Bulletin (2013-2017)


 This study aims to analyse the contributions in IASLIC Bulletin –an official organ or a leading library science journal published by IASLIC. The total 97 articles were published during the period 2013 – 2017. The study covers the year-wise, institutions-wise, state-wise distribution of contributions, authorship pattern, citation analysis, length of the contributions etc. The study shows that most of the contributions of this journal are contributed by joint authors and state-wise distribution shows that most of the contributions are contributed from West Bengal. Citation analysis of 1369 citations includes finding out number of citations per volume, types of publications cited and preparing of ranked list of cited journals in contributions of this journal. The study reveals that journals are the most cited publication amongst the library and information scientists. Annals of Library and Information Studies is the most cited journal in the contributions of this journal.


Introduction
A periodical literature is one of the primary sources of information for communicating the latest research ndings and publishing the articles containing the recent development in any eld of knowledge. A library has to procure periodicals literature in both o ine and online format to cater the information need of the clientele it serves. So, due to the rising cost of the periodicals and meagre library budgets, the selection of any particular journal for a library should be done more carefully. Library authorities are forced to reduce the number of journal subscriptions. In such situation scientometric and bibliometric analysis helps the libraries in framing the subscription policies of periodicals in the Library.
Scientometrics which overlaps with bibliometrics to a considerable extent Thanuskodi (2010), is a quantitative study of various aspects of literature on a topic and is used to identify the pattern of publication, the growth of literature in a subject area, how much literature is contributed by various languages, how the literature on some subjects are scattered and study of authorship in publications, measuring the impact of publications, and secondary journal coverage to gain insight into the dynamics of growth of knowledge in the areas under consideration. The study seeks to forecast of past, present and future publishing trends, adaption of an accurate weeding and stacking policy, prediction of productivity of publishers, individual authors, organization, country or that of entire disciplines among others etc. The study also helps in selection of books and periodicals, features of subject literatures, evaluation of collections and bibliographies, and historical and sociological studies. Sengupta (1992) & Osareh (1996).

Objectives of the Study
The present study has been undertaken with the objective of analysing the following aspects: To study year-wise distribution of contributions; To determine the category-wise classi cation of contributions; To study the authorship pattern of contributions; To identify geographical distribution of contributions; To study the length of contributions; To study the most proli c contribution of papers; To nd out the number of citations per volume in the journal; To study the types of publications cited in the contributions of the journal; and To prepare ranked list from journals cited in the contributions of the journal.

Methodology
For the purpose of this study, IASLIC Bulletin has been selected as the source journal. In the present paper, the 20  Table-1 Year-wise distribution of publications       Ranking of authors has great importance in scientometric study. Table 4 presents the rank list of authors who have contributed two or more articles/research papers in the different issues of IASLIC Bulletin during the period of study.
The ceiling of two contributions has been taken into account with a view to avoid a long list. The authors having same number of contributions have been given the same rank. Pijushkanti Panigrahi and Krishnapada Majumder contributed four papers having occupied the top rank. Similarly three authors contributed three papers with second rank and eight authors in third rank with two publications each.   The table 6 showed that most of the contributions are from India with 100 (99.01%) and only one paper 1 (0.99%) from foreign sources especially from Ethiopia. This indicates that the journal and its coverage are con ned to the Indian sub continent only.         Declarations