Applying informetric methods to empirically assess the authoritiveness of Health Canada eletronic documents
By: LAMBERT, Frank
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ArticlePublisher: Orlando : Elsevier, 2004Government Information Quarterly 21, 3, p. 305-318Abstract: Government publications have long been considered authoritative sources of information regardless of the format [electronic via the World Wide Web (WWW) or paper] they are published in and with little consideration as to how they are researched, written, and published. Given the greater accessibility that the WWW provides the public to this very important source of information on a wide variety of subjects, assessing authoritativeness becomes a bigger and more difficult issue. This preliminary study applies informetric methods, specifically citation analysis, to assess whether the blind trust afforded government publications is appropriate in an important area of public policy that, particularly in Canada, is seen almost as a natural right of citizenship, public health care. The results of this study show that this trust is not misplaced as these publications are well researched and, with or without references, are used without discrimination
Government publications have long been considered authoritative sources of information regardless of the format [electronic via the World Wide Web (WWW) or paper] they are published in and with little consideration as to how they are researched, written, and published. Given the greater accessibility that the WWW provides the public to this very important source of information on a wide variety of subjects, assessing authoritativeness becomes a bigger and more difficult issue. This preliminary study applies informetric methods, specifically citation analysis, to assess whether the blind trust afforded government publications is appropriate in an important area of public policy that, particularly in Canada, is seen almost as a natural right of citizenship, public health care. The results of this study show that this trust is not misplaced as these publications are well researched and, with or without references, are used without discrimination
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