Bibliometric analysis of the American Journal of Veterinary Research to produce a list of core veterinary medicine journals
Date
2006
Authors
Crawley-Low, Jill
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Medical Library Association
ORCID
Type
Article
Refereed Paper
Refereed Paper
Degree Level
Abstract
Objective: Bibliometric techniques were used to
analyze the citation patterns of researchers
publishing in the American Journal of Veterinary
Research (AJVR).
Methods: The more than 25,000 bibliographic
references appearing in the AJVR from 2001 to 2003
were examined for material type, date of publication,
and frequency of journals cited. Journal titles were
ranked in decreasing order of productivity to create
a core list of journals most frequently used by
veterinary medical researchers.
Results: The majority of items cited were journals
(88.8%), followed by books (9.8%) and gray literature
(2.1%). Current sources of information were favored;
65% of the journals and 77% of the books were
published in 1990 or later. Dividing the cited articles
into 3 even zones revealed that 24 journals produced
7,361 cited articles in the first zone. One hundred
thirty-nine journals were responsible for 7,414 cited
articles in zone 2, and 1,409 journals produced 7,422
cited articles in zone 3.
Conclusions: A core collection of veterinary
medicine journals would include 49 veterinary
medicine journals from zones 1 and 2. Libraries
supporting a veterinary curriculum or veterinary
research should also include veterinary medical
journals from Zone 3, as well as provide access to
journals in non-veterinary subjects such as
biochemistry, virology, orthopedics, and surgery and
a selection of general science and medical journals.
Description
Jill Crawley-Low, MLS, Head, Veterinary Medicine Library,
University of Saskatchewan, 52 Campus Drive, Saskatoon, S7N 5B4 Canada
jill.crawley@usask.ca
Keywords
Citation
Journal of the Medical Library Association, 94(4) October 2006, 430-434