Retrieving information on the neurophysiology of speech.

A search for literature on the relationship between the autonomic nervous system and speech was performed via the DIALOG Information Service on four databases: BIOSIS Previews, EMBASE, MEDLINE, and PsycINFO. A doctoral candidate in the Department of Audiology and Speech Sciences at Purdue University reviewed the citations retrieved for relevancy. Then, the coverage of the relevant literature by the four databases was analyzed. MEDLINE yielded the greatest number of relevant citations followed by EMBASE, BIOSIS, and PsycINFO. The four databases showed little overlap in coverage of citations or journal titles. This study indicates that it would be advantageous to search all four databases for the speech scientist.     

Scatter and obsolescence of journals cited in theses and dissertations of librarianship

This article analyzes the bibliometric features (the number of pages, completion years, the fields of subject, the number of citations, and their distribution by types of sources and years) of 100 theses and dissertations completed at the Department of Librarianship of Hacettepe University between 1974 and 2002. Almost a quarter (24%) of all dissertations were on university libraries, followed by public libraries (9%). Doctoral dissertations were, on average, twice as long as master's theses and contained 2.5 times more citations. Monographs received more citations (50%) than journal articles did (42%). Recently completed theses and dissertations contained more citations to electronic publications. Fourteen (or 3.2% of all) journal titles (including Türk Kütüphaneciliği, College & Research Libraries, and Journal of the American Society for Information Science) received almost half (48.9%) of all citations. Eighty percent of journal titles were cited infrequently. No correlation was found between the frequency of citations of the most frequently cited journals and their impact factors. Cited journal titles in master's and doctoral theses and dissertations overlapped significantly. Similarly, journal titles cited in dissertations also overlapped significantly with those that were cited in the journal articles published in the professional literature. The distribution of citations to foreign journal titles fit Bradford's Law of Scattering. The mean half-life of all cited sources was 9 years. Sources cited in master's dissertations were relatively more current. Single authorship was the norm in cited resources. Coupled with in-library use data, findings of the present study can be used to identify the core journal titles in librarianship as well as to evaluate the existing library collections to decide which journal titles to keep, discard, or relegate to off-site storage areas.     

Mapping the literature of cytotechnology

The major purpose of this study was to identify and assess indexing coverage of core journals in cytotechnology. It was part of a larger project sponsored by the Nursing and Allied Health Resources Section of the Medical Library Association to map the literature of allied health. Three representative journals in cytotechnology were selected and subjected to citation analysis to determine what journals, other publication types, and years were cited and how often. Bradford's Law of Scattering was applied to the resulting list of cited journals to identify core titles in the discipline, and five indexes were searched to assess coverage of these core titles. Results indicated that the cytotechnology journal literature had a small core but wide dispersion: one third of the 21,021 journal citations appeared in only 3 titles; another third appeared in an additional 26 titles; the remaining third were scattered in 1,069 different titles. Science Citation Index Expanded rated highest in indexing coverage of the core titles, followed by MEDLINE, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, HealthSTAR, and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL). The study's results also showed that journals were the predominantly cited format and that citing authors relied strongly on more recent literature.     

What makes a good title?

The chances are the first thing you when you set out to write an article is the title. But what factors transform a mediocre title into a good title? Firstly, it should be both informative and specific, using words or phrases likely to be used when searching for information, for example ‘nurse education’ rather than simply ‘nurse’. Secondly, it should be concise yet convey the main ideas clearly; articles with short titles reporting study findings have been found to attract higher numbers of viewing and citations. Thirdly, provide details of the study design to assist the reader in making an informed choice about the type of project your article is reporting. In taking these small steps when developing your title, your title can present a more concise, retrievable and clear articulation of your article.     

Bibliography of Bioethics and Index Medicus: comparison of coverage, publication delay, and ease of recall for journal articles on bioethics

Citations selected from the bibliographies of recent texts, a specialized subject bibliography, and review articles were checked in both Cumulated Index Medicus (IM) and the Bibliography of Bioethics (BB) to compare coverage, publication delay, probable causes of indexing and retrieval failure, and the ease with which relevant citations were retrieved. The study also attempted to determine whether BB included appropriate articles from the MEDLINE database in a timely and systematic manner. While 98% of the IM citations appeared within a year of publication, 79% of the BB citations appeared two to three years after their publication dates. The average citation appeared twice as frequently in IM as in BB.     

What the Index Medicus indexes, and why

The main criterion for selecting journals for indexing in Index Medicus, and thereby largely in MEDLARS, is quality. Subject scope varies with the voiced needs of the biomedical community. The Index aims to cover the best journals in all relevant subject fields, but the percentage of journals on a subject indexed depends on the quality of each journal. Country and language coverage depends on quality, even in the case of the best journals of each, although American biases may affect such selection. While a number of guidelines exist for identifying quality journals, information necessary to apply them confidently is often difficult to obtain. The National Library of Medicine is advised by an Ad Hoc Panel on the Selection of Journals for Index Medicus, composed both of NLM officers and extramural members. Criticism has been voiced that too many titles are indexed, compared with titles actually used, but no meaningful statistics of use exist which can identify titles which should be excluded from indexing. Continuing suggestions from users regarding titles indexed would benefit everyone.     

MEDLINE evaluation study

MEDLINE (MEDLARS-ON-LINE) is the new on-line, interactive bibliographic searching system which was recently developed by the National Library of Medicine. The system provides users with lists of bibliographical citations and other information from a three-year file of over 1,250 biomedical journals. A survey testing user reactions was conducted at the University of Virginia Medical Library. The results of the survey are based on replies by 246 users who requested one or more MEDLINE searches between September 1972 and March 1973. The findings indicate that over 93% believe that MEDLINE is a substantial improvement over the traditional methods of searching through the printed indexes. These respondents also stated that the results of MEDLINE searches had assisted them in their clinical or research work, or both. Asked whether they would continue to use MEDLINE after the imposition of user charges on July 1, 1973, about 75% said that they would. The remaining 25% expressed some reservations and doubts. The survey gives reason to believe that with the imposition of user charges the use of MEDLINE will decline.     

Thesaural problems in an on-line system

This paper describes the construction of a synonym thesaurus or entry vocabulary for the SUNY Biomedical Communication Network, which will permit the user greater ease of access to the MeSH-indexed material without previously consulting a printed list of indexing terms. In order to discover the actual terminology used by a researcher, words were extracted from titles of articles appearing in Index Medicus, and compared with the subject heading under which they appeared. As well as strict synonyms, grammatical variants were also included. Work is continuing on relating other indexing vocabularies, such as Excerpta Medica and Current Medical Terminology, used in the biomedical world to MeSH terms.     

A longitudinal investigation into the changing citing behavior of geomatics postgraduate students at Wuhan University,China, 1988–2004: Implications for collection development

Aim:The purpose of this study is to identify and describe the citing behavior of geomatics postgraduate students at the Wuhan University in China. These students constitute one of the main user groups of Wuhan University Library and the analysis of their use of literature (through the means of citation analysis) can yield valuable insights against which to benchmark and inform collection development policy and other services at the Information Technology Library (ITL) at Wuhan University.Design/methodology/approach:In this project, 9317 citations in 21 PhD and 180 MSc theses submitted at the Wuhan University in the years of 1988, 1996, and 2004 were analyzed. All cited materials were divided by output format (monographs, proceedings, journal articles) and the more in-depth analysis was conducted for all cited journals. The following characteristics of the cited journal literature were analyzed: subject, age, language, and dispersion of journal titles.Findings:An increased use of journal literature in bibliographies of geomatics theses was observed over time. A trend to increase citations to international conference proceedings was also noted as well as a trend to cite more journals in disciplines other than surveying and mapping. It was also noted that, over time, citations to documents in languages other than Chinese and English have significantly decreased (in some cases, disappeared). Large dispersion among the most frequently cited journals in different time periods (only 25% of titles were repeated in 1988, 1996, and 2004 top ranking journal lists) was also noted. It was also noted that the core of geomatics literature is expanding (it now takes 42% of journal titles to cover 80% of all citations).Practical implications:By analyzing citation patterns of the graduate students of geomatics in China, we can track the developments and changes within that discipline in China and can compare these trends internationally (e.g. increased role of a journal, the importance of conference proceedings, domination of the English-language sources, dispersion of journal literature, and increasing multidisciplinarity of the discipline). The techniques and methods used in this study can be replicated to study other disciplines. Also, it is hoped that the findings of this research will inform collection development planning, development of reference services, and information literacy training.     

Citation Behavior of Aerospace Engineering Faculty

Citation analyses provide valuable insights into the usage of library collections and assist in collection management decision-making; however, there are few engineering citation analyses of faculty publications. This study addresses that gap through an analysis of 3488 citations from aerospace engineering faculty publications by source, format, age, and subject. Local holdings were assessed based on the 80/20 rule and journal titles ranked. In addition to supporting citation patterns identified in previous citation analyses, this study revealed some novel relationships involving formats and subjects. The results of this study have implications for collection management.     

A model for the evaluation of search queries in medical bibliographic sources

The aim of this study was to develop a model to evaluate the retrieval quality of search queries performed by Dutch general practitioners using the printed Index Medicus, MEDLINE on CD-ROM, and MEDLINE through GRATEFUL MED. Four search queries related to general practice were formulated for a continuing medical education course in literature searching. The selected potential relevant citations from the course instructor and the 103 course participants together served as the basic set for the three judges to evaluate for (a) relevance and (b) quality, with the latter based on journal ranking, research design and publication type. Relevant individual citations received a citation quality score from 1 (low) to 4 (high). The overall search quality was expressed in a formula, which included the individual citation quality score of the selected and missed relevant citations, and the number of selected non-relevant citations. The outcome measures were the number and quality of relevant citations and agreement between the judges. Out of 864 citations, 139 were assessed as relevant, of which 44 citations received an individual citation quality score of 1, 76 of 2, 19 of 3 and none of 4. The level of agreement between the judges was 68% for the relevant citations, and 88% for the non-relevant citations. We describe a model for the evaluation of search queries based not only on the relevance, but also on the quality of the citations retrieved. With adaptation, this model could be generalized to other professional users, and to other bibliographic sources.     

标准文献的被引证特征及其老化研究

[目的/意义] 为了解我国标准文献的学术影响力, 以为标准文献的利用提供参考, 从标准文献的角度出发, 分析其被引证特征。[方法/过程] 选择中国引文数据库中1994-2013年标准类引文数据, 采用文献计量的方法, 从标准引文总量、篇均标准引文量等方面分析标准文献的总体被引用情况和学科分布情况。[结果/结论] 标准引文量和篇均标准引文量占引文总量比例很小;各学科标准引文量差异较大, 工科和医科对标准文献的引用较多;标准引文数量和被引频次较高的专题集中于自然科学;大部分社会学科标准引用量为零;标准引文的半衰期整体上较长, 老化速度较慢。     

Google Scholar,Web of Science,and Scopus: A systematic comparison of citations in 252 subject categories

Despite citation counts from Google Scholar (GS), Web of Science (WoS), and Scopus being widely consulted by researchers and sometimes used in research evaluations, there is no recent or systematic evidence about the differences between them. In response, this paper investigates 2,448,055 citations to 2299 English-language highly-cited documents from 252 GS subject categories published in 2006, comparing GS, the WoS Core Collection, and Scopus. GS consistently found the largest percentage of citations across all areas (93%–96%), far ahead of Scopus (35%–77%) and WoS (27%–73%). GS found nearly all the WoS (95%) and Scopus (92%) citations. Most citations found only by GS were from non-journal sources (48%–65%), including theses, books, conference papers, and unpublished materials. Many were non-English (19%–38%), and they tended to be much less cited than citing sources that were also in Scopus or WoS. Despite the many unique GS citing sources, Spearman correlations between citation counts in GS and WoS or Scopus are high (0.78-0.99). They are lower in the Humanities, and lower between GS and WoS than between GS and Scopus. The results suggest that in all areas GS citation data is essentially a superset of WoS and Scopus, with substantial extra coverage.     

In search of applications of nursing theories: the Nursing Citation Index

Cited author searches were conducted in Nursing Citation Index to determine its utility in locating clinical studies that apply the conceptual frameworks of Dorothea Orem, Callista Roy, Martha Rogers, Betty Neuman, and Dorothy Johnson. Fully 75 percent of the relevant papers would have been missed by a conventional subject/textword search in the MEDLINE or CINAHL databases. Had Nursing Citation Index not been available, only 22 percent of relevant papers could have been retrieved by cited author searches of Social Science Citation Index. In summary, Nursing Citation Index provides an important indexing link between nursing theory and nursing research.     

我国大陆港台医学期刊外文参考文献差错情况对照分析

分别从大陆、香港及台湾选取医学期刊,随机抽取2004年卷的80条文献,按照文献的6个项目进行核查.结果显示:存在差错的文献数量分别为大陆期刊48条(60.0%),台湾期刊40条(50.0%),香港期刊37条(46.3%);三者的差错率差异无统计学意义,同时3组统计文献差错类型的构成差别也没有统计学意义;差错情况中以作者姓名和题名最为突出.认为在知识信息时代,提高科技论文的文献著录质量和规范化水平,是作者、审稿人及期刊编辑均应重视的问题.     

论文标题与下载和引用的关系

结合英文论文标题的已有研究成果,深入中文论文标题的探讨,通过数据统计定量分析中文论文标题类型的下载和引用的特点,以及标题长度和带冒号的标题对下载和引用的影响,揭示论文标题与下载和引用的关系,填补了国内关于这一研究的空白。     

The Evolution of the Serials Unit at California State University,Fullerton

Any notion of cancelling very expensive American and European science journals in order to subscribe to Japanese titles is shown to be questionable. Analysis of the published output of several firms and universities, sampling from dozens of journals, and examination of thousands of articles and citations suggest that with a few exceptions, the Japanese themselves place primary emphasis on appearing in these same, very expensive, highly cited American and European titles. While the Japanese do have journals well worth acquiring, their acquisition must be funded by other means.     

高校图书馆期刊文献保障实证研究——以武汉大学为例

在开放存取蓬勃发展和高校图书馆馆藏电子化的大趋势下,高校图书馆的文献保障工作如何适应新的趋势,需要深入研究。本文以武汉大学2013年被SCIE、SSCI和A&HCI所收录文章的期刊类参考文献为研究样本,采用一种针对期刊类参考文献的以年为单位的引文检查方法,匹配世界主要开放存取期刊目录以及武汉大学图书馆馆藏电子和印本期刊目录,研究当前这三类期刊对样本参考文献及来源期刊的收藏和缺藏情况。以此探讨三类期刊在高校图书馆文献资源保障中的特征与趋势,以及开放存取期刊对馆藏资源建设的影响,为高校图书馆进一步优化期刊馆藏体系和提高文献保障率提供科学依据。