Informetrics
Term originally coined in German "informetrie" by Nacke (1979). Informetrics is
mostly used synonymously with bibliometrics.
Sometimes, however, informetrics is claimed to be a broader field, not limited
to documents. The question is, however, how documents are then defined?
"In our view, informetrics deals with the measurement, hence also the
mathematical theory and modelling of all aspects of information and the storage
and retrieval of information. It is mathematical meta-information, i.e. a theory
of information on information, scientifically developed with the aid of
mathematical tools (cf. Burton (1988)). See, for example, Nake (1979) and Bonitz
(1982) for an early mention of the term "informetrics"....
We support Brookes (1988b) who advocates the use of the term "informetrics", at
term which takes cognizance of the fact that modern technology has imposed on us
new non-documentary [! see document] forms of knowledge representation and
of its transmission and dissemination.
....." (Egghe & Rousseau, 1990).
Literature:
Bonitz, M. (1982). Scientometrie, Bibliometrie. Informetrie. Zentralblatt für Bibliotekswesen, 96(1), 19-24.
Egghe, L. & Rousseau, R. (1990). Introduction to Infometrics.
Quantitative Methods in Library, Documentation and Information Science.
Amsterdam: Elsevier.
Nacke, O. (1979). Informetrie: eine neuer Name für eine neue Disziplin. Nachrichten für Documentation, 30(6), 219-226.
See also: Bibliometrics;
Scientometrics;
Webometrics
Birger Hjørland
Last edited: 16-05-2006