46. évfolyam, 2000. 3. szám
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The number of citations increases, obsolation decreases. Is there a relation?

An analysis of citations in life science journals

MARTON János — RADÓ Rita — SRAMEK Réka

The study deals with the most uncertain field of bibliometry, the study of obsolation. First the theoretical background of the problem, and the findings (e.g. novelty effect, impact factor, half-life, Price index, citation density, etc.) of researchers dealing with the topic before (Price, Griffith, Száva-Kovács, Marton) are surveyed, then the results of the analysis of the authors carried out on a sample of journals (12 in biology, 9 in biochemistry and 9 in cardiology) are described.

The following were examined in the life science journals: 1) correlations of the age distribution of citations and citations by article; 2) the citation/article value and its relation to age distribution, 3) relation between age distribution and type of publication, 4) the role of articles and other publications in life sciences.

The survey analyses citations back to 1-5 years in biology, and 1-5, 6-10 and more than 10 years in the case of other journals. It was found that the citation/article values of journals show an increase between 1974 and 1998, while the number of citations and the Price index (the percentage of all citations in the first five years) manifest an inverse ratio in the given period. As compared to all the types of publication, citation of journals increased much more steeply than that of any other source. The survey clearly showed the dramatic decrease of the Price index, thus it can be concluded that there is a strong negative correlation between the citation/article value and the Price index of the same year.

Országos Széchényi Könyvtár
Észrevételek (2001/04/19)