Hi Dr. Asadi,

Maybe following article is related to this question. it is focused on the motivations behind hyperlinking in digital articles, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/1097-4571(2000)51:10%3C887::AID-ASI20%3E3.0.CO;2-1/abstract;jsessionid=991918ADAD7910AFC124C75AAB073639.f02t03?userIsAuthenticated=false&deniedAccessCustomisedMessage=

But, I am interested in following article that considers the relationships between qualitative theories and scientometrics, http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02017058

Best wishes

That's a field I am interested in, too. My best general suggestion is: please go to the link above. It's a wonderful source.

http://link.springer.com/journal/11192

I believe that there have been content analytic studies to determine the reasons why people use citations in the text, which of course requires some interpretation to reach conclusions. But I am not aware of anyone doing something like qualitative interviewing in scientometrics.

Hi, 

Scientometrics is basically a quantitative research method, but probably there are theoretical papers on the subject that sum up theories in this field, that are qualitative. These  are usually review articles in this field. 

Avishag is quite right I believe. In its very name, scientometrics, it implies quantitative analysis.

It is difficult to relate quantity with quality. However, In scientometrics, we find good scientific research papers, research journals, good scientists, good scientific institutions,  receive large number of citations. The number of exceptions in such cases is not very many. For undertaking qualitative analysis, you will have to first of all decide the parameters of quality. Once that is decided, quantitative  measures can be applied thereafter to decide the quality. 

Concerning your question, I think you can consult a seminal work of Weinstock; in this work he lists 15 specific reasons for using citations (p. 19):

Weinstock, M.: Citation indexes. In:

Encyclopedia of library and information science / Eds.: Allen Kent / Harold Lancour. New York ; Basel : Marcel Dekker, 1968-2003, Vol. 5: circulation to coordinate indexing. p. 16 - 40

Otherwise Watkinson, A. et al. (2015) describe citation behaviours of researchers and reasons for citing in a recently published study:

Watkinson, Anthony et al: Changes in the digital scholarly environment and issues of trust: An exploratory, qualitative analysis: In: Information Processing & Management, In Press (Available online 10 November 2015). doi:10.1016/j.ipm.2015.10.002