Tonta YA, Unal Y. "Scatter of journals and literature obsolescence reflected in document delivery requests" JASIST 56(1). Jan 1, 2005 p.84-94

[Eugene Garfield]

E-mail address:

Y.A. Tonta : tonta at hacettepe.edu.tr
Y. Unal    : yurdagul at hacettepe.edu.tr

TITLE:          Scatter of journals and literature obsolescence reflected
                in document delivery requests (Article, English)
AUTHOR:         Tonta, YA; Unal, Y
SOURCE:         JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE
                AND TECHNOLOGY 56 (1). JAN 1 2005. p.84-94 JOHN WILEY &
                SONS INC, HOBOKEN


ABSTRACT:       In this paper we investigate the scattering of journals
and literature obsolescence reflected in more than 137,000 document
delivery requests submitted to a national document delivery service. We
first summarize the major findings of the study with regards to the
performance of the service. We then identify the "core" journals from
which article requests were satisfied and address the following research
questions: (a) Does the distribution of (core) journals conform to the
Bradford's Law of Scattering? (b) Is there a relationship between usage
of journals and impact factors, journals with high impact factors being
used more often than the rest? (c) Is there a relationship between usage
of journals and total citation counts, journals with high total citation
counts being used more often than the rest? (d) What is the median age of
use (half-life) of requested articles in general? (e) Do requested
articles that appear in core journals get obsolete more slowly? (f) Is
there a relationship between obsolescence and journal impact factors,
journals with high impact factors being obsolete more slowly? (g) Is
there a relationship between obsolescence and total citation counts,
journals with high total citation counts being obsolete more slowly?
Based on the analysis of findings, we found that the distribution of
highly and moderately used journal titles conform to Bradford's Law. The
median age of use was 8 years for all requested articles. Ninety percent
of the articles requested were 21 years of age or younger. Articles that
appeared in 168 core journal titles seem to get obsolete slightly more
slowly than those of all titles. We observed no statistically significant
correlations between the frequency of journal use and ISI journal impact
factors, and between the frequency of journal use and ISI- (institute for
Scientific Information, Philadelphia, PA) cited half-lives for the most
heavily used 168 core journal titles. There was a weak correlation
between usage of journals and ISI-reported total citation counts. No
statistically significant relationship was found between median age of
use and journal impact factors and between median age of use and total
citation counts. There was a weak negative correlation between ISI
journal impact factors and cited half-lives of 168 core journals, and a
weak correlation between ISI citation half-lives and use half-lives of
core journals. No correlation was found between cited half-lives of 168
core journals and their corresponding total citation counts as reported
by ISI. Findings of the current study are discussed along with those of
other studies.

AUTHOR ADDRESS: YA Tonta, Hacettepe Univ, Dept Informat Management,
                TR-06532 Ankara, Turkey

Hacettepe Univ, Dept Informat Management, Ankara, TR-06532 Turkey


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