Bibliometrics, and more generally all metric indicators, are increasingly used as research tools as well as for managing and evaluating research activities. This study analyzes the characteristics of publications that use bibliometrics as a research method. We identified all relevant records indexed in the Web of Science-Core Collection (1965–2019), generating a coauthorship network and performing a comparative analysis of papers published in journals specializing in Information Science & Library Science (IS&LS) and in other areas of knowledge. Metric studies show an “uncontainable” pattern of dynamic development, with the number of papers published in the past 15 years multiplying 12-fold and spreading to all areas of knowledge. This growth has evaded the discipline’s natural mechanisms of control, taking place outside the traditional niche of bibliometric studies as an autonomous and “uncontrollable” process that disregards the knowledge generated within the main theoretical frameworks linked to IS&LS. Different research groups are widely dispersed and atomized, and there are few collaboration and citation ties between IS&LS and non-IS&LS bibliometric research. Our results should spark reflection on the need to strengthen the teaching of bibliometrics and other metrics for use as research tools, to demand rigorous and critical review prior to the acceptance and publication of this type of study, and to foster links and cohesion of the extended research community operating in the area.

文献计量学，以及更普遍的所有度量指标，越来越多地用作研究工具以及管理和评估研究活动。本研究分析了使用文献计量学作为研究方法的出版物的特征。我们确定了在 Web of Science-Core Collection (1965–2019) 中编入索引的所有相关记录，生成了一个合着网络，并对发表在信息科学与图书馆学 (IS&LS) 和其他知识领域专业期刊上的论文进行了比较分析. 指标研究显示了一种“无法控制”的动态发展模式，过去 15 年发表的论文数量增加了 12 倍，并扩展到所有知识领域。这种增长逃避了学科的自然控制机制，发生在文献计量研究的传统领域之外，作为一个自主和“无法控制”的过程，无视与 IS&LS 相关的主要理论框架内产生的知识。不同的研究群体广泛分散和原子化，IS&LS与非IS&LS文献计量研究之间的合作和引用联系很少。我们的结果应该引发反思，需要加强文献计量学和其他用作研究工具的指标的教学，要求在接受和发表此类研究之前进行严格和批判性的审查，并促进扩展的链接和凝聚力。在该地区开展业务的研究社区。