Document Type : Original Article
Authors
Medical Library and Information Science, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran
Abstract
Introduction: One of the methods of identifying core and popular resources is by citation
evaluation. Using citation evaluation, the librarians of the Acquisition Department can use
quantitative methods to indentify core and popular resources among numerous information
resources and make serious savings in the library’s budget, by acquiring these core resources
and eliminating useless ones. The aim of this study is assessing literature obsolescence
and core journals’ cost‑benefit in citations of the ‘Scientific Medical Journal of Ahwaz’.
Materials and Methods: This study is a descriptive and cross‑sectional survey that uses
citation analysis. Sampling is objective sampling from all documents from years 1364 (1985)
to 1385 (2006), and the population comprises of 6342 citations of the articles published in
‘Scientific Medical Journal of Ahwaz’. Data collection is done through referring to the original
documents and the data is analyzed using the Excel software, and for descriptive and analytical
statistics the cost‑benefit formula and Bradford law formula are used. Results: Findings showed
that the average citation for each document in the ‘Scientific Medical Journal of Ahwaz’ was
15.81. The average citation to international sources was 14.37, and the average citation to
national sources was 1.44. The literature obsolescence of Farsi documents in this study was
15 years, while it was equal to 20 years for English documents. The highly cited Farsi journals
were (sorted based on citation in descending order): ‘Scientific Medical Journal of Ahwaz’,
‘Daroudarman’, ‘Nabz,’ and ‘Journal of Medical School, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical
Sciences’. The highly cited English journals were (sorted based on citation in descending order):
‘Pediatrics’, ‘The New England Journal of Medicine’, ‘Gastroenterology’ and ‘Medicine’. All of
these four journals are part of the ISI database and have good impact factors in the Journal
Citation Reports (JCR). Also their cost‑benefit was reasonable based on the frequency of their
use. Conclusion: The authors of the investigated journal were more inclined to use international
references. The resources used by the
authors of this journal are relatively obsolete
and the authors ought to use more up‑to‑date
resources. The subscription for high citation
English and Farsi journals is still available in
this university. Also the authors of this journal
have used accredited ISI journals as their
resource, which is a sign of the credibility
for the ‘Scientific Medical Journal of Ahwaz’.
Keywords
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