Communication and information science: two converging but different disciplines

Abstract

The present study makes a comparative analysis between two Spanish academic communities, Communication and Library and Information Sciences. The set-up of these academic programmes in Spain, along with their size and the international scientific production of each community, is briefly described and compared. These communities are relatively new, being Library and Information Sciences the more recently implemented.The numbers differ greatly, both in the universities that offer these studies and in the size of their communities; there are five times as many professors in Communication as in Library and Information Sciences. In contrast,Library and Information Sciences has an international scientific productivity three times that of Communication, with articles published in journals with a higher impact factor.