A Study in Interdisciplinarity [electronic resource] : Bibliometric Analysis of Periodical Publication in Religion and Literature / Kevin L. Smith.
The field of Religion and Literature has long been plagued by a lack of clear focus and identity. Both the American Academy of Religion and the American Library Association have felt this lack strongly enough to commission surveys of the field. This study applies the quantitative measures of bibliom...
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| Format: | Electronic eBook |
| Language: | English |
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[S.l.] :
Distributed by ERIC Clearinghouse,
1996.
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| Summary: | The field of Religion and Literature has long been plagued by a lack of clear focus and identity. Both the American Academy of Religion and the American Library Association have felt this lack strongly enough to commission surveys of the field. This study applies the quantitative measures of bibliometrics to periodical literature within the field in order to better grasp its intellectual focus and to assess its interdisciplinarity. For this purpose, two or three year runs of three Religion and Literature periodicals are analyzed in regard to authorship, content and citation patterns. Findings suggest a field in which a relatively diverse group of scholars pursue close analysis of literary texts in the light of particular bodies of both secular and religious thought, but without strong commitments to current methodological schools. Interdisciplinarity is clearly not based here on a shared set of theoretical assumptions, but merely on the diversity of authors and works represented. The conclusions drawn from this analysis should be useful both for the selection of library material and for subject classification. Suggestions are made for further study of the field. The Coding Sheet is appended. Eleven tables present study results. (Contains 24 references.) (Author) |
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| Item Description: | ERIC Document Number: ED401915. ERIC Note: Master's Research Paper, Kent State University. |
| Physical Description: | 54 p. |