Exploring the Citation Lag in LIS: Trends and Correlations

Hanqin Yang, Jingrui Hou, Qibiao Hu, Ping Wang

Abstract: Interdisciplinary collaboration has emerged as a pivotal driver of academic progress and innovation. As researchers work across disciplinary boundaries, it becomes imperative to identify and examine the factors that affect the pace of scientific knowledge dissemination. This study introduces citation lag as a metric to gauge the knowledge diffusion speed in Library and Information Science research. It further explores the factors associated with citation lag from both disciplinary and publication perspectives. Our results indicate that an article is less likely to be cited if it remains uncited within 24 months after publication. Both the disciplinary attribute and the Open access mechanism were found to have a significant impact on citation lag. Furthermore, the result reveals a negative correlation between publication lag and citation lag, implying that rigorous editorial review processes may ensure article quality and accelerate knowledge diffusion. Drawing on these insights, this paper endeavors to provide valuable guidance for crafting scholarly articles and facilitating knowledge diffusion.