The purpose of this Masters thesis is to make an outline of different methods and theories within the field of bibliometrics and critically review their strengths and weaknesses. The author studied literature that discussed bibliometric methods and theories. The number of empirical studies that are based on bibliometric methods and theories are numerous and where principally excluded, but some empirical studies were included as part of the argumentation for and against different methods and theories. The author first gives an outline of which methods and theories there are and describes their different strengths and weaknesses. Citation analysis has many different fields of application such as information retrieval, mapping science, evaluative studies and monitoring literature.

The issue of using citation based indicators in the evaluation of science is widely discussed. Only recently did bibliometric indicators become one out of many means for the allocation of financial resources for scientific research at Swedish universities. The purpose of this thesis is to discuss the issue of using citations when evaluating science. The author studied the issue from the perspective of citers? motives.