Polskie bibliografie dziedzinowe jako źródło danych do badań biblio- i naukometrycznych

Abstract

Field bibliographies have a documentary function for their own discipline and thus constitute a basic workshop for researchers and scientists, and an information source for educators, students and practitioners. They are a valuable source for bibliometric and scientometric research because of their relatively high completeness, critical selection of materials, professional indexing of document contents, and professionally prepared unified sets of metadata of registered documents. It is assumed that their bibliometric and scientometric potential increases due to the transfer of traditional (printed) bibliographic lists to the digital environment. The aim of the study was to determine the usefulness of Polish bibliographies (and other specialized databases that perform their functions) as a source of data for bibliometric and scientometric literature analyses. The study covered a dozen or so field bibliographies and field databases documenting the Polish scientific achievements. The analysis of the content of available bibliographies and field bibliographic databases allowed for collecting empirical data and information necessary for accomplishing the research objectives. The research made it possible to identify the shortcomings of electronic versions of bibliographies and field databases and to indicate the desired features of these tools, which are important primarily from the perspective of biblio- and scientometric research. Many of these parameters also increase the information value of bibliographic databases and may contribute to the status improvement of the bibliography as an important element of field information systems.