Publishing in Library Science Journals: A Test of the Olsgaard Profile

Abstract

As a test of the universality of the Olsgaard profile of authorship characteristics in academic library journals, the gender, geographic location, and occupation of authors contributing to five journals of interest to special librarians were analyzed. The resulting data provide the basis for the construction of a profile of authorship characteristics in special library journals. This profile is compared to that produced by Olsgaard and Olsgaard, whose methodology this study replicates. This study shows that while female authors are consistently underrepresented in the literature of library science, they are published in greater proportion in special library periodicals than in the academic library periodicals sampled by the Olsgaards. This study essentially confirms the Olsgaards' findings with regard to geographic distribution and occupation of authors in library periodicals .