Tracing the Origin of Information Seeking Behavior by Reference Publication Year Spectroscopy (RPYS): Scientific Publication Based on ISC Database

This paper aims to introduce the quantitative method named Reference Publication Year Spectroscopy (RPYS). With this method one can determine the historical roots of research fields and quantify their impact on current research. Using a quantitative method named reference publication year spectroscopy (RPYS), this research tried to determine the historical roots of information seeking behavior research. RPYS pave the way for determining the significant years and works in information seeking behavior. The main problem is it can reveal whether Information Seeking Behavior has the same or different impact on these journals in terms of citation. Using scientometrics method, the initial data of this study have been extracted based on ISC Database. The revised data were analyzed and visualized in Excel. The distribution of cited references in information seeking behavior revealed four peaks within 20th century. Moreover, our analysis identified 4 peaks between 1989 and 2000 in the field of information seeking behavior, occurred respectively in 1989, 1993, 1998, and 2000. Based on the study findings, it seems that information seeking behavior research has been shaped intellectually by fields such as library and information science, management, etc. Moreover, it has been influenced by some theories and theoretical works.