A comparative study of the research literature on information needs and information seeking: A bibliometric and social network analysis

This paper aimed to use bibliometrics and social network analysis to compare the characteristics of research articles on information needs and information seeking published from 1962 to 2009. The results found that both the number of information needs journal articles and information seeking journal articles has been obviously rising since 1991. About 70 percent of journal articles on information needs and information seeking are coauthored papers, respectively. Only about 8 percent of journal articles are coauthored by researchers from different countries. Most of the top 10 prolific authors are also the top 10 coauthors with the highest betweenness centrality. Related studies on information needs and information seeking could be found across many disciplines. Among them, most articles on information needs published in journals of medicine, while most articles on information seeking published in journals of library and information science.