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Number of references in biochemistry and other fields; A case study of the Journal of Biological Chemistry throughout 1910–1985

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Abstract

Large samples of papers published in theJournal of Biological Chemistry in all decades and in some mid-decades werechecked in order to study the referencing pattern, throughout the period 1910–1985, in an internationally leading journal, with especially high “citation impact”. All measures show that there has been a significant growth in the number of references per paper, during most of the period, but mainly from the 1950's on, refuting Meadows' “upper limit”. A detailed comparison to a wide range of fields shows theJBC rates to be among the highest. Eight factors affecting the number of references are discussed, and some projections for the future are made.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Library and Information Studies, Bar-Ilan University, 52 100, Ramat-Gan, (Israel)

    M. Yitzhaki

  2. The Library, The Israel Institute for Biological Research, P.O.B. 19, 70450, Ness-Ziona, (Israel)

    D. Ben-Tamar

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  1. M. Yitzhaki
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Yitzhaki, M., Ben-Tamar, D. Number of references in biochemistry and other fields; A case study of the Journal of Biological Chemistry throughout 1910–1985. Scientometrics 21, 3–22 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02019179

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