The literature of bibliometrics, scientometrics, and informetrics

Since Vassily V. Nalimov coined the term 'scientometrics' in the 1960s, thi s term has grown in popularity and is used to describe the study of science : growth, structure, interrelationships and productivity. Scientometrics is related to and has overlapping interests with bibliometrics and informetri cs. The terms bibliometrics, scientometrics, and informetrics refer to comp onent fields related to the study of the dynamics of disciplines as reflect ed in the production of their literature, Areas of study range from chartin g changes in the output of a scholarly field through time and across countr ies, to the library collection problem of maintaining control of the output , and to the low publication productivity of most researchers. These terms are used to describe similar and overlapping methodologies. The origins and historical survey of the development of each of these terms are presented. Profiles of the usage of each of these terms over time are presented, usin g an appropriate subject category of databases on the DIALOG information se rvice. Various definitions of each of the terms are provided from an examin ation of the literature. The size of the overall literature of these fields is determined and the growth and stabilisation of both the dissertation an d non-dissertation literature are shown. A listing of the top journals in t he three fields are given, as well as a list of the major reviews and bibli ographies that have been published over the years.