Characteristics of Articles Coauthored by Researchers and Practitioners in Library and Information Science Journals

This study combined bibliometric analysis and content analysis to investigate the characteristics of articles coauthored by researchers and practitioners in library and information science (LIS) journals on the basis of 2241 articles published in six LIS journals during 1995-2014. The findings indicate that articles authored by researchers and practitioners (RP articles) accounted for only 10% of the articles. However, a slight increasing trend was identified in the annual percentages of RP articles, evidencing that research-practice divides in LIS have narrowed. Notably, preference for research subjects differs between researchers and practitioners; 13 out of 15 research subjects were identified from the RP articles. “Users and user services” was the most prevalent research subject, followed by “technical services,” “LIS staff and organizations,” and “library management.”