Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Date of this Version
2015
Abstract
Gandhian Studies is at the brink of becoming as an established discipline. On the basis of a pilot study conducted, the journal "Gandhi Marg" was considered as a primary source in this field. Thus, a citation study of journal "Gandhi Marg" for the period of 1994 to 2013 has been conducted in order to understand the development and distinctiveness of the discipline i.e. Gandhian Study. For this purpose every issue of the journal “Gandhi Marg" has been examined for the period of 1994-2013 and all necessary information, related to references/citations appended were collected and tabulated in the Excel database. The study revealed many important indicators pertaining to Gandhian literature relating to the citation behavior. The results of the study revealed that out of 507 articles, 56 articles were found without citations or references. So, the remaining 451 articles have contributed to 9612 citations with average citations 21.31 per article. Almost all the bibliographic document types were referred by the authors. Like most of the social disciplines, the citations were scattered among books, which have been the contributing factors mainly in the development of the subject. The citing literature ‘half-life’ indicates the dominance of current citations/literature which is good for any discipline. Further, present work helps to compare with the established disciplines and also perceives the practical utility for library professionals and Gandhian Admires/followers/scholars.