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Dissertation Information for Richard Diener

NAME:
- Richard Diener

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- Library and Information Science

SCHOOL:
- Rutgers University (USA) (1984)

ADVISORS:
- Henry Voos

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- Thomas H. Mott Jr.
- James D. Anderson
- Harry Bedemeier

MPACT Status: Fully Complete

Title: A LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF THE INFORMATIONAL DYNAMICS OF JOURNAL ARTICLE TITLES: A TREATISE IN THE SCIENCE OF INFORMATION

Abstract: This research was an exploratory investigation into the science of information and the empirical measurement of the quantity of information. It studied the informational dynamics of a phenomenon, e.g., journal article titles. Measures of the quantity of information functioned as the dependent variable while time was the independent variable. The relationship, y = f(t), where y is the informational value and t is time, was investigated by regression analysis to generate representative equations. In cases where the equations represented the data with 95% or greater level of confidence, the rate of change was computed by differential calculus.

Thirty annual samples of journal article titles were collected from four journals. The quantity of information contained in each title was measured by counting the numbers of words, keywords, and relations. Annual mean values were computed, and their patterns of change over time were assessed using a linear regression technique. Thirty-six regression analyses were performed; however, only thirteen (36%) of the analyses yielded statistically confident results. In these thirteen cases, the rates of change in the informational value of journal article titles was computed as the first derivative of the equations.

Prior research had concluded that the information content of journal article titles was increasing over time. Although a tendency for the number of keywords to be increasing was found in this research, their rates of change were negligible: 0.051 keywords per year and 0.059 words per year. No discernible patterns in the number of relations per title over time were found, suggesting that the amount of structure in titles, which aids meaning, has not been increasing linearly over time. The very slight rates of change were useful in comparing different sectors of the literature: physical science vs. social science, and primary literature vs. review literature. Some difficulties exist with the measures in translating from the subjective images of the mind to the objective images of society, particularly in determining appropriate levels of specificity for concepts, especially complex concepts composed of more general concepts.

MPACT Scores for Richard Diener

A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-01-31 06:09:38

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Students under Richard Diener

ADVISEES:
- None

COMMITTEESHIPS:
- None