Analysis of the Characteristics of Literature Cited in “Ssu-k’u” in Taiwan

Abstract

This study applies the method of citation analysis to analyze the 14,638 citations and works cited in the 256 research papers on the Ssu-k’u Studies (四庫學) in Taiwan. It explores the characteristics of those cited works and citations such as their types, disciplines, publication eras, citation half-life and tendencies, including the most frequently cited books and journals. The research results revealed that modern monographs make up the largest proportion of the works cited in the 256 research papers, and ancient books occupy the second largest proportion of those cited works. Generalities category of New Classification Scheme for Chinese Libraries is the discipline that most of the ancient and modern books cited come from; the discipline of linguistics and literature and that of Chinese history and geography have the second and the third most ancient and modern books cited. Concerning the cited works published in the modern era, the number of the works that were cited within five years since they were published is the highest. More than 80 percent of the works cited of modern publications were cited within one to 25 years after they were published. The citation half-life is 11.69 years. More than 70 percent of ancient and modern books cited in the 256 papers were cited only once. There are 21 titles of ancient books, 29 titles of modern books, and 35 titles of journals that are most frequently cited.

Keywords

• ssu-k’u studies
• complete library of the four treasures
• siku quanshu zongmu
• bibliography research
• citation analysis