Research publications in the Journal of University Librarians Association of Sri Lanka between 2012 and 2021: a scientometric analysis

Abstract

A scientometric analysis was conducted on 102 research articles published in the Journal of the University Librarians Association of Sri Lanka (JULA). Nine volumes of the journal containing 18 issues from 2012 to 2021 have considered for the present study. The objectives of the study were, to find the year-wise distributions of articles, examine the authorship patterns, determine the degree of collaboration between authors, identify author contributions based on affiliation and map the collaboration among universities/institutes. To determine the degree of author collaboration, K. Subramanyam’s (1983) formula on the degree of collaboration in quantitative terms was used. The highest number of research articles were published in 2020 with 16 research articles followed by 13 articles in 2018. Out of 102 contributions, 50 papers (49%) are single-authored and the rest 51% are multi-authored articles. Only one research article was published by four authors between 2012 and 2021. During the study period, most of the research publications in the JULA are multi-authored. The highest number of multi-authored papers (12) was published in the year 2020. The average degree of collaboration is 0.51 during the study period which indicates that there was a high level of collaboration between authors. The highest number of author contributions (26) was from the University of Peradeniya. Further, authors from countries such as India, China, Canada, and Malaysia have made their contributions to this journal. And authors from two local institutes have made their contributions to this journal during the study period. When considering the collaborations between universities/institutes, University of Ruhuna has made the highest collaborations with foreign universities. And, Eastern University of Sri Lanka, University of Peradeniya, and University of Kelaniya have engaged in foreign collaborations. The University of Colombo and Open University of Sri Lanka have demonstrated the highest collaborations among state universities. General Sri John Kotelawala Defense University and Wayamba University of Sri Lanka have not made collaboration with other universities/institutes. This assessment would be a valuable resource to the scientific community, funding agencies and policymakers. This study may help those who wish to map the scientometric patterns of journals.