A quantitative analysis of the use of statistics in library and information science

문헌정보학 분야의 통계기법 사용에 관한 계량적 연구

The purpose of this study is to analyze quantitatively the use of statistics, especially inferential statistics, in library and information science. Thus this study compared the use of statistics in library and information science with it in social work and education. The results of this study are as follows: First, the result is that, when the proportions of articles in each of the three categories of use are compared, library and information science is deficient in the use of inferential statistics and unusually productive of articles in 'No Statistics' category and 'Descriptive Statistics Only' category. Second, ANOVA showed no significant difference in the means for number of articles with no statistics and for articles with descriptive statistics only, but did show a statistically significant difference for the means for number of articles with inferential statistics. That is, the use of inferential statistics in library and information science was very less than the other subject areas. Third, a comparison of the numbers of various inferential statistics for each of the three subject areas indicated that the differences were not significant. This fact means that the quality of inferential statistics used in library and information science was similar to the other subjects.