By developing a methodology for on‐line citation analysis, the international characteristics of scientific journals have been analysed on the basis of correlations between the geographical distribution patterns of authors, citations and subscriptions. The study covered seven selected LIS journals. Assuming that the numbers of authors and citations in each geographical region follow the Poisson distribution, the hypothesis was tested, that the intensities are proportional to the subscriptions. In most cases the correlation between authors and citations was so positive that the international visibility and impact of the scientific journals can be defined by these two variables. As regards the distribution pattern of subscribers, authors and citations, however, the test showed very weak or no correlations. The analysis of the statistical significance of differences gave some useful data, the importance of which to marketing and publishing strategies is obvious. The paper suggests examining also the knowledge export of journals as an additional criterion for the evaluation of their impact, and the quality of research published in them. The comparison of Journal Impact Factors (JIF) is another contribution of this study, aimed to enhance the use of impact factor analysis with various time intervals. We demonstrate new and flexible ways of using the JIF for diachronous and synchronous analyses. The study brings new dimensions to the discussions of the impact, status and image of scientific journals. It focuses on the utilisation of informetric analysis to go beyond the simplistic use of the JIF and to get a deeper understanding of the “real” impact of international scientific journals and their market.

Examines Ranganathan's approach to knowledge organization and its relevance to "intellectual accessibility" in libraries. Discusses the current and future developments of bis methodology and theories in knowledge-based Systems. Topics covered include: semi^automatic classification and strücture of thesauri; user-intermediary interactions in Information retrieval (IR); semantic value-theory and uncertainty principles in IR; and case grammar. Elaborates on the usefulness and applications of analytico-synthetic methodology in designing classification schemes, thesaurus construction, query negotiation, structuring of search expressions, etc. Close parallel is recognizable between Ranganathan's principles and case-frame theory, for example in techniques of IR, contextual IR theory building and Software reuse Systems. Concludes that though Ranganathan's criterion of helpful sequence and other aspects of his methodology may have limitations when applied to areas other than subject classification, his principles for knowledge organization and faceted methodology are likely to find applications in cognitive modelling, neural network techniques and pattern recognition.

O artigo aborda os programas de pesquisa do Centro de Estudos Informétricos de Copenhague. Descrevendo a informetria como subcampo da bibliometria, discute uma nova abordagem para a área, qual seja, a combinação de teorias e metodologias avançadas de recuperação da informação com o estudo científico dos fluxos da informação. O Centro objetiva aplicar métodos bibliométricos não somente em estudos cienciométricos e em avaliações da pesquisa científica e tecnológica, mas também na análise de suas relações sociais, econômicas etc., ampliando as análises bibliométricas tradicionais para abranger as comunidades não acadêmicas nas quais a informação é produzida, comunicada e usada. A autora também convoca os profissionais de biblioteconomia e ciência da informação para enfrentarem o desafio dessa nova área de estudos quantitativos, aprendendo a explorar as bases de dados também como um instrumento para desenvolver atividades de análise, enfatizando as possibilidades que esses profissionais têm para elevar o nível de suas posições hierárquicas, assim como para explorar as técnicas informétricas no gerenciamento de políticas e de tomadas de decisão.

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The paper reports the application of classical bibliometric methods to evaluate the impact of scientific, political, and business developments. The novel aspect is to regard the Web as a citation network where the traditional information entities (scientific articles and the citations given to and taken from them) are replaced by webpages with external and internal links. The methodological studies are intended to test the usability of large international citation databases and the World Wide Web as feasible and reliable tools in quantitative analyses for gathering useful information for business intelligence. Formerly, the impact of authors and their scientific production was measured by the average citation frequencies of journals publishing their research: the Journal Impact Factor (JIF), calculated by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) in the United States and published annually in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR)—the most frequently used quantitative indicator to measure the quality/value/impact of research works published in the core international journals. It has been suggested that, by calculating the number of webpages pointing to a given site, analogously, a Web Impact Factor can be calculated as a way of comparing the attractiveness of sites or domains on the World Wide Web. A key to webometric studies has been the use of large‐scale Web search engines such as Alta Vista that allow measurements to be made of the total number of pages in a Web space and links to those Web spaces. These search engines provide similar possibilities for the investigation of links between documents to those provided by the citation databases created by ISI. To illustrate the scope and nature of informetric research methods applied in competitive intelligence analysis, a short presentation is given of samples of research studies carried out at the Centre for Informetic Studies in Copenhagen (CIS). © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.