Proceedings of the International Conference on Scientific Information Two Volumes (1959) / Chapter Skim
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Current Medical Literature: A Quantitative Survey of Articles and Journals
Current Medical Literature: A Quantitative Survey of Articles and Journals
Pages 435-448
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From page 435... ...
Years of experience spent in examining thousands of medical serials convinced us that the use of the journal title as the quantitative unit of the periodical literature was both erroneous and misleading. Since it is the individual article that contains the specific medical information sought, it seemed logical to use this unit as the basis for determining the true size ant!
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From page 436... ...
(Subject categories used were adapted from the first edition of World Medical Periodicals.) The information thus obtained was added to equivalent information for the journals and articles indexed in the Current List of Medical Literature to obtain the total picture.
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From page 437... ...
By utilizing the periodicity data and by making an adjustment for the journals issued annually, semiannually, or at irregular intervals which would normally not be received in any single quarter' the annual number of journal titles and issues was estimated to be 2506 and 19,007 respectively. However, because all the current journals, irrespective of their subject fields, which were received in the National Library of Medicine during the three-month period were counted, many items are included which would not be indexed in a general medical index, which, by its subject scope, would be more restrictive than the collecting policy of the Library.
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From page 438... ...
TABLE 2 Periodicity of medical literature Periodical Titles Periodical Periodical Articles Periodical Articles Frequency Number % Issues Number % per Title Weekly 64 1.6 3,588 18,354 8.3 270 Semimonthly 75 1.9 2,040 12,336 5.9 145 Monthly 1220 30.4 15,240 99,107 44.8 79 Bimonthly 639 15.9 3,994 33,122 14.9 51 Quarterly 953 23.7 3,892 29,975 13.5 31 Semiannually 126 3.1 252 2,149 1.0 17 Annually 369 9.2 369 6,303 2.8 17 Irregularly 568 14.1 1,136 20,280 9.1 36 Total 4014 99.9 30,441 221,626 100.3 It can be seen that in regard to productivity the rank order follows closely the frequency of appearance of the journal. The most frequently appearing type of journal (the weekly)
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From page 439... ...
. TABLE 3 Geographic distribution of medical literature Periodical Titles Country Algeria Argentina Australia Austria Albania Belgium Brazil British West Indies Bulgaria Burma Canada Ceylon China Chile Colombia Costa Rica Cuba Canary Islands Cyprus Czechoslovakia Denmark Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt England Finland France French Guiana Formosa Germany Greece Guatemala Hawaii .
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From page 440... ...
* By far the largest producer of medical periodical literatures on any basis, is the United States, which furnishes almost one-quarter of all the world's journals ancI/or articles.
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From page 441... ...
The heading "Polylingual" TABLE S Language breakdown of medical literature Periodical Titles Penodical Articles Current All periodical titles Current All periodical articles Language List Number % Order List Number % Order Chinese 4 12 .3 20 362 938 .4 15 Czechoslovakian 20 25 .7 14 1,470 1,690 .8 12 Danish 5 26 .7 13 368 924 .4 15 Dutch 10 33 .9 11 996 2,000 .9 11 English 607 1,375 38.2 1 45,651 82,687 37.3 1 Finnish 3 10 .3 21 134 402 .2 17 French 152 384 10.7 3 13,358 28,254 10.9 3 German 155 394 10.9 2 13,681 28,729 13.0 2 Hungarian 14 16 .4 18 1,037 1,137 .5 14 Italian 151 352 9.8 5 8,699 16,699 7.5 5 Japanese 1 128 3.5 7 108 17,232 7.8 4 Norwegian 1 13 .4 19 144 536 .2 17 Polish 31 39 1.1 10 1,702 2,302 1.0 10 Polylingual 110 132 3.7 6 5,900 7,316 3.3 7 Portuguese 42 121 3.4 8 1,584 4,356 1.5 9 Rumanian 7 19 .5 17 224 1,804 .8 12 Russian 56 75 2.1 9 5,290 6,930 3.1 8 Serbo-Croatian 14 24 .7 15 697 1,173 .-5 14 Spanish 109 358 9.9 4 5,190 13,806 6.2 6 Swedish 2 22 .6 16 46 770 .3 16 Turkish 3 10 .3 22 132 456 .2 17 Other 11 28 .8 12 705 1,485 .7 13 Total 1508 3597 99.9 107,478 221,626 99.5
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From page 442... ...
Much of the difficulty, apart from the ever-broadening scope of medicine, may be attributed to the inherent characteristics of the various related subject fields and specialties which resist a clean, sharp, and exclusive compartmentalization. For example, the subject field under which the greatest quantity of medical periodical literature falls is known as "general ~ ., , ~ ~ medicine." Actually, the specific articles which appear within these general medical journals can be distributed without strain among the different smaller subdivisions provided in the classification.
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From page 443... ...
24 764 * Hygiene and public health 42 162 4.1 2,207 5,799 - 2.4 Hypnosis 0 2 *
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From page 444... ...
177 953 * Medical technology 10 19 *
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From page 445... ...
TABLE 7 Comparative counts of medical periodicals Welch Medical Library Indexing Project Survey World~'~edical Periodicals National Library of Medicine Survey a Current titles only. 4454 4360a 3879 The differences between the National Library of Medicine figure and those of the other two are not as significant as would appear at first glance.
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From page 446... ...
In spite of the time interval between the two investigations, there is a high degree of correlation; 0.905 for periodicity end 0.947 forlanguages, for example. TABLE 8 Comparison of periodicity of medical journals National Library of Medicine Survey Welch Medical Library Indexing Project Survey Frequency Number % Number % Weekly 64 1.6 93 2.0 Semimonthly 75 1.9 95 2.0 Monthly 1220 30.4 1518 34.0 Bimonthly 639 15.9 603 14.0 Quarterly 953 23.7 868 19.0 Semiannually 126 3.1 73 1.6 Annually 369 9.2 385 9.0 Irregularly 568 14.1 822 18.4 Total 4014 99.9 4454 100.0 TABLE 9 Comparison of geographic origin of medical journals National Library of Medicine Survey Welch Medical Library Indexing Project Survey Geographic Division Number % Number % Europe 2015 55.9 2012 47.2 North America 944 26.2 1382 31.0 Asia 295 8.2 336 7.5 Latin America 283 7.9 523 11.7 Africa 38 1.1 45 1.0 Australasia 25 .7 39 .9 Other 0 0 27 .6 Total 3597 100.0 4454 99.9 TABLE 10 Comparison of languages of medical journals National Library of Medicine Survey Welch Medical ~ O Indexina Project Survey Language Number % Number % English 1375 38.2 2061 41.2 German 394 10.9 545 10.9 French 385 10.7 600 12.0 Spanish 358 9.9 608 12.1 Italian 352 9.8 348 6.9 Polylingual 132 3.7 0 0 Japanese 128 3.5 187 3.7 Portuguese 121 3.4 196 3.9 Russian 75 2.1 85 1.7 Polish 39 1.1 34 .7 Dutch 33 .9 49 1.0 Danish 26 .7 39 .8 Czechoslovakian 25 .7 38 .8 Serbo-Croatian 24 .7 22 .4 Swedish 22 .6 46 .9 Rumanian 19 .5 1 0 .t
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From page 447... ...
Welch Medical Library National Library of Medicine Survey Indexing Project Survey Language Number % Number Hungarian 16 .4 26 Norwegian 13 .4 14 Chinese 12 .3 1 Finnish 10 .3 17 Turkish 10 .3 21 Less than 10 28 .8 70 Total 3597 100.0 5008 Summary 447 .5 .3 o .4 1.4 99.9 An investigation was undertaken to determine the approximate size and composition of present-day medical periodical literature by employing as the basic counting unit not the journal title, so frequently used in such investigations, but the journal article. Our object was to do away with the difficulty encountered in most previous studies, where certain assumptions had to be made about the relationship between journal titles and journal articles.
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