Informetrics: an emerging subdiscipline in information science

The Centre for Informetric Studies (CIS) was launched in 1996 by the Royal School of Library and Information Science in Copenhagen. The head of centre presents the CIS, giving a sample of activities and research programmes. The emerging field of informetrics is described in a historical perspective as a subfield of bibliometrics. The new approach combines advanced information retrieval theories and methodologies with the scientific study of information flows. CIS aims to apply improved bibliometric methods not only to scientometrics studies and research evaluations of science and technology, but also to the analysis of their mutual societal, industrial and other special relations. This means an extension of traditional bibliometric analyses to cover non‐scholarly communities in which information is produced, communicated and used. It is also an appeal to modern LIS professionals to face the challenge of this new area of quantitative studies, and to explore the databases not only as a registry but also as a tool for analytical work. The possibilities for LIS professionals to raise their positions in information work hierarchies are emphasised, as well as the exploration of informetric techniques to support “informed” management decisions and policy making.