Bradford's Law and its relevance to researchers

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Shenton, Andrew K.^a | Hay-Gibson, Naomi V.^b

Affiliations: [a] School of Computing, Engineering and Information Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. E-mail: [email protected] | [b] School of Computing, Engineering and Information Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

Abstract: Bradford's Law has been the subject of much discussion and analysis in library and information science since its formulation in the 1930s and remains frequently debated to this day. It has been applied to various practices within the discipline, especially with regard to collection development, but its relevance to researchers and the potential it offers for guiding them when literature searching in order to maintain their current awareness is still largely unexplored. The paper begins by examining the nature of Bradford's Law and highlighting evidence of it within the data analysed in two of Shenton's own studies, both of which are devoted to information behaviour. The authors go on to suggest ways in which researchers can apply the Law when investigating source material pertaining to their particular territory of interest. Specifically, the paper offers strategies for identifying the key journals in a certain area, considers how such journals may be monitored regularly for new and pertinent material and discusses techniques that can be used to begin explorations of more peripheral territory so as to increase search comprehensiveness. It closes by noting implications for the teaching of research methods in LIS courses.

Keywords: Bradford's Law, current awareness, information research, information-seeking, literature reviewing

DOI: 10.3233/EFI-2009-0882

Journal: Education for Information, vol. 27, no. 4, pp. 217-230, 2009