| The purpose of this study is to describe the interdisciplinarity of information science on the basis of the reference patterns in the Journal of the American Society for Information Science (JASIS) from the first issue that carried the current title (January, 1970) through the issue of December, 1985, and to identify the changes in the sources of the references in the articles of JASIS during the study period. It is assumed that the literature of JASIS represents the literature of information science, on the basis of experts' opinions, the coverage of the journal, and the fact that JASIS is the official journal of the American Society for Information Science.;Ten percent of JASIS references are randomly selected and examined.;Citation Analysis used to collect data for the study. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze data and to present the results and findings.;Some of the major findings of the study are: (1) Thirty-two different disciplines are identified as the contributors to information science during the study period. (2) The contribution of information science to its own literature is the highest, followed by computer science, library science, and science-general (DDC 500-509.999). (3) The contribution of computer science to information science tripled between 1970 and 1985. (4) The contribution of library science to information science decreased from 14.28% of total citations during the first period of the study (January, 1970 through December, 1974) to 9.6% of total citations during the third period of the study (January, 1980 through December, 1985). (5) During the sixteen years of the study, it is found that the relationship between information science and library science is weakening. On the other hand, the relationship between information science and computer science becomes stronger. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.).;The study is designed to answer three research questions: (1) What are the disciplines that contributed to information science between 1970 and 1985? (2) How did the contributions of different disciplines to information science change between 1970 through 1985? (3) Which disciplines are the major contributors to information science literature in the periods 1970-1974, 1975-1979, and 1980-1985?... |
