Bibliometrics of the online information retrieval literature

Some bibliometric characteristics of the literature of online information retrieval have been studied. A total of 1051 references in two recent bibliographies were examined. The literature grew rapidly from one paper in 1964 to 185 papers in 1975. The most rapid growth took place between 1970 and 1975. It appears that the annual growth rate has slowed since 1975. Most of the literature appeared as articles in 138 journals. 19 journals contained five or more papers each and contributed 392 papers (38% of the total). Papers on online information retrieval are dispersed in a wide variety of journals, many of them not devoted to library or information science. An unsuccessful attempt was made to apply Bradford's Law to the literature. A total of 1059 authors are cited in this literature. 22 of them contributed six or more papers each for a total of 206 papers (20% of the total). 369 of them published a paper in 1976 or 1977.