Electronic Texts and the Citation System of Scholarly Journals in the Humanities: Case Studies of Citation Practices in the Fields of Classical Studies and English Literature

Dalbello, Marija and Lopatovska, Irene and Mahony, Patricia and Ron, Nomi (2006) Electronic Texts and the Citation System of Scholarly Journals in the Humanities: Case Studies of Citation Practices in the Fields of Classical Studies and English Literature. In Proceedings Libraries in the Digital Age (LIDA) 2006, Dubrovnik and Mljet, Croatia.

Abstract

This study shows how structure and process of scholarly communication is being transformed with the advent of digital libraries from 1996 to 2006, the Internet and electronic editions, and how that is being shaped by the citational practices of selected humanities fields. This research is built on the view that citational practices of disciplinary domains are dependent on distinct protocols of argumentation and inter-textual engagement of these fields as communities of practice and therefore are defined by custom and disciplinary traditions. Focusing on two exemplary fields, Classical Studies and English, this study examines how citations to electronic resources are represented in five high-impact journals of these two humanities fields that are also known for related innovation in the area of digital humanities. The method is a combination of quantitative with qualitative analysis of referencing. Findings about incorporation of citation to electronic resources in these journals in the past decade are discussed in terms of the types of online resources, their functionalities, and argumentation. This approach builds on epistemological and bibliometric analyses to demonstrate a new method of analysis of citational practice.