Citation Analysis as a Tool to Measure the Impact of Individual Research Consultations

Thomas L. Reinsfelder is a Reference/Instruction Librarian at Penn State Mont Alto; e-mail: tlr15@psu. edu. © 2012 Thomas L. Reinsfelder, Attribution-NonCommercial (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-nc-sa/3.0/) CC BY-NC This study sought to determine the degree to which individual research consultations with a librarian can improve the work of undergraduate students. Citation analysis was used to evaluate the quality of sources selected on draft papers before meeting with a librarian and on final papers after meeting with a librarian. The rating scale presented here offers guidelines for measuring the quality of sources used by students. Findings of this research begin to provide some quantitative evidence demonstrating the positive impact of individual research consultations.