The use of bibliometrics in nursing science: topics, data sources and contributions to research and practice

Aim: To describe the use of bibliometrics in nursing and assess their contribution to research and practice. Design: A content analysis was conducted of topics, data sources and applications of bibliometrics in nursing research articles. Methods: The study universe included 129 bibliometric articles...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Mezquita, Belén, Alfonso-Arias, Cristina, Martínez-Jaimez, Patricia, Borrego, Ángel
Format: article
Publication Date:2024
Country:España
Institution:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
Repository:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
OAI Identifier:oai:recercat.cat:20.500.12328/4482
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12328/4482
https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/nop2.70036
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Bases de dades bibliogràfiques
Bibliometria
Anàlisi de citacions
Índexs de citacions
Infermeria
Revistes acadèmiques
Literatura acadèmica
Bases de datos bibliográficas
Bibliometría
Análisis de citas
Índices de citas
Enfermería
Revistas académicas
Literatura académica
Bibliographic databases
Bibliometrics
Citation analysis
Citation indexes
Nursing
Scholarly journals
Scholarly literature
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Description
Summary:Aim: To describe the use of bibliometrics in nursing and assess their contribution to research and practice. Design: A content analysis was conducted of topics, data sources and applications of bibliometrics in nursing research articles. Methods: The study universe included 129 bibliometric articles on nursing retrieved from Scopus. A content analysis was performed to identify the purposes and topics of the articles, the sources employed to collect the data, the time frames covered, the amounts of records surveyed, and the features of the nursing literature analysed in bibliometric papers. Results: Nursing bibliometric research revolves around six key areas: global descriptions of the nursing literature, literature on specific nursing research topics, nursing education, nursing profession, nursing research using a certain framework or method, and nursing literature published in a country or region. Studies rely on three types of sources to retrieve the surveyed literature: bibliographic databases, sets of disciplinary journals and samples of documents. Bibliometrics can be employed to advance nursing research (identification of research gaps, establishment of research agendas, assessment of methodological approaches, etc.) and practice (identification of professional competences, categorisation of professional tasks, recognition of educational improvements, etc.), suggesting new avenues for researchers who aim to conduct further bibliometric research in the field. Further research is needed to assess the coverage of the nursing literature by new bibliographic data sources and to explore unaddressed topics such as gender imbalance in authorship.