analysed. zoology

Annals of Library Science and Documentation 1991, 38(4), 131-147

CITATION STUDY OF THE MARATIIWADAUNIVERSITY JOURNAL - A CASE STUDYOF THE USE PATTERNS BY SCHOLARS

VN DEOProfessional Assistant,Marathwada University Library,Auranagabad.

Citation analysis of 1906 citations collected 2) Compile a rank list of cited journals andfrom the Marathwada University Journal cover- monographs.ingthe period 1975-84 was made to determine the 3) Study the frequency of cited journals, chro-use pattern of the literature by the scholars in the nological distribution of citations andfield of zoology. Gives the analysis of the principal cases of self-citations.bibliographic forms, the journals used and their 4) Determine the obsolescence of journal lit-distribution according to the countries of origin erature, and study the productivity of jourand language. Studies the self-citation pattern, ob- nals by application of Bradford's Law.solescene, productivity and chronological distri- 5) Study the use of journals acquired by thebution ofjounwls and the application of Bradford's library.Law to the zoological literature.

INTRODUCfIONCitation analysis is so far the most populartechnique used in bibliomctrics. The citationshelp the librarian to know the study habits ofthe scholars whereby he could offer betterservices ·and make a more meaningful acquisi-tion programme for the library.Literature use patterns by the scholars in theMarathwada University is studied by the cita-tion analysis of Marathwada University Jour-nal of Natural Sciences. The journal isoutstanding in the field of its coverage, and isintended mainly for publication of researchwork done by the teachers and students ofMarathwada University arid other eminentscholars working in the University campus.Itpublishes original papers and notes in the fieldof biological sciences (botany, zoology andbiochemistry), physical sciences (physics andchemistry) and mathematics.

AIMS AND OBJECfIVES

The study was undertaken with a view to exam-ine the use pattern of literature by the scholarsin the University Department of Zoology. Itintends to:

1) Identify the principal bibliographic forms,their languages and countries of origin.

Vol 38 No 4 Dee 1991

METHODOLOGY AND SCOPE

The study is based on the citations given at theend of each article published in ten volumes ofthe Marathwada University Journal ( 1975 to1984). The bibliographic details of the sourcearticles and cited documents were recorded oncatalogue cards. The data was tabulated andanalysed.The study was restricted to the literature pub-lished on Zoology in 10 selected volumes of thejournal. The word scholar in the title of the studyincludes a university teacher, a teacher from theaffiliated college, an eminent personality work-ing within the university campus or a Ph.D. stu-dent.

ANALYSIS

During the period 1975-84, 190 articles werepublished on zoology in the Marathwada Uni-versity journal. These articles contained 1906citations with an average of 10.19 references toeach article in the journal (Table 1). The averagenumber of citations per article does not differmuch from de Sella Price's norm of 10-20 refer-ences per article.

Forms of Documents

In all, there were 19fJ6 citations. These citationsconsist of different bibliographic forms as shown

131

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Table 1Yt!arwist! Distribution of Citations (Source data}.

Year Citing Articles Cited Documents PercentageNumber Cumulation Number Cumulation

1975 37 37 275 275 07.431976 31 68 339 614 10.931977 44 112 461 1075 10.471978 10 122 122 1197 12.201979 11 133 085 1282 07.721980 08 141 104 1386 13.001981 07 148 046 1432 06.571982 13 161 110 1542 08.461983 14 175 197 1739 14.071984 15 190 167 1906 11.13

1975-84 190 1906 10.19

Table 2Bibliographic Forms of Citations

Type Number of Percentage CumulativeCitations Citations Percentage

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Books 305 16.00 305 16..00Journals 1349 70.78 1654 86.78Conference

Proceedings/Symposium 164 08.60 1818 95.38

Theses 058 03.05 1876 98.43Reports 030 01.57 1906 100.00

Total 1906 100.00

Table 3Analysis of Theses from Various Universities

51. Number of ThesesName of University

1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8.9.10.

MarathwadaBombaySrivenkateshwara, TirupatiMadrasNagpurAndhraGarheval UniversityUniversity of Toronto, OntarioUniversity of Hawai, HonoluluStanford University, California

43030302020101010101

Total: 58

132 Ann Lib Sci Doc

CITATION S1UDY OF mE MARATIlWADA UNIVERSITY JOURNAL

Bibliographic forms cited.

Periodicals 70.78 'I,

Books 16 -I,

- Conference Proceedings 8.68'/.

Theses 3.04 v,

Reports 1.57 'I.

Fig. 1

Vol 38 No 4 Dee 1991 133

DED

Table 4Countrywise Distribution of Cited Journals

Sl. Country Number of Percentage Number of PercentageNo. Journals citations

1. India 70. 18.81 375 27.80.2. U.S.A. 76 20..43 334 24.763. Germany 31 0.8.33 92 0.6.824. U.K. 29 0.7.79 178 13.195. Japan 25 0.6.72 53 03.936. France 21 0.5.64 57 0.4.227. Netherlands 15 0.4.0.3 55 0.4.0.88. Canada 11 0.2.95 43 0.3.199. Hungary 0.5 0.1.34 10. 0..7410.. Australia 0.5 0.1.34 0.8 0..5911. U.S.S.R 0.5 0.1.34 0.5 0..3712. Poland 0.5 0.1.34 0.9 0..6613. Italy 0.4 0.1.0.7 20. 0.1.4814. Belgium 0.4 0.1.0.1 0.4 0..30.15. Czhekoslavakia 0.3 0..80. 0.3 0..2216. Pakistan 0.3 0..80. 0.5 0..3717. Newzealand 0.3 0..80. 0.6 0..4418. Switzerland 0.2 0..53 0.6 0..4419. Brazil 0.1 0..26 0.1 0..0.720.. Denmark 0.3 0..80. 0.7 0..5121. Scotland 0.1 0..26 0.2 0..1522. Taiwan 0.1 0..26 0.3 6.2223. Turkey 0.1 0..26 01 0.0724. Romania 02 0.53 03 0.2225. China 02 0.53 02 0.1526. Sweden 0.1 0.26 03 0..22

Unidentified 43 11.55 44 0..26

Total 372 100.00. 1,349 10.0.00

Table 5Languagewise Distribution of Cited Journals

Sl. Language Number Percentage Cumulative CumulativeNo. of of citations % of

citations citations citations

1. English 1323 98.05 1323 98.072. German 16 1.20 1339 99.253. French 10 0..75 1349 100.00

Total: 1349 100.00

134Ann Lib Sci Doc

305

255

145

II)c:o'-

75

15


CITATION STUDY OF TIlE MARATIlWADA UNIVERSITY JOURNAL

Chronogical distributions of total citations.

scarex axis 1 em = 5 years.y axis 1 cm= 15 Citations.

5 25 45Period years

65

Fig. 2

85

135

-~Table 6

Rank List of Joumals

SI. Rank Nameof Country No. or Citation Cumul- Cumul- RemarksNo. No. the Citations perce- ative ative

Journal ntage Citations percentage

1. 1 Marathwada University J India 52 3.85. 52 03.852. 2 Bioi Bulletin USA 44 3.26 96 07.11 Subscribed by'

the library3. 3 Comp Biochem Physiol USA 42 3.11 138 10.224. 4 Indian J Fish India 40 2.96 178 13.185. 5 Current Science India 27 2.00 205 15.18 -do-6. 6 J Bombay Nat Hist Soc India 24 1.78 229 16.96 -uo-7. 6. J Marine Bioi Assoc. UK 24 1.78 253 18.748. 7 Hydrobiotogia Netherlands 23 1.70 276 20.449. 8 Quar J Microscop Science UK 22 1.63 298 22.07 010. 9 Gen and Comp Endocrinology USA 21 1.56 319 23.63 -d o- rn

011. 10 Indian J Entomology India 20 1.48 339 25.1112. 11 Ind. J Helminthology India 19 1.40 358 26.5113. 11 Science and Culture India 19 1.40 377 27.91 -do-14. 12 J Expt Bioi UK 18 1.35 395 29.26 -d o-15. 13 Biochem J UK 17 1.26 412 30.52 -do-16. 13 Indian J Expt Bioi India 17 1.26 429 31.78 - do-17. 13 Physiol Zool USA 17 1.26 446 33.04 -d o-18. 14 Can J Zool Canada 16 1.13 462 34.22 -uc-19. 15 Annis Entomological Soc USA 14 1.03 476 35.25 -c o-20. 16 Parasitology UK 13 0.96 489 36.21 -uo-21. 16 Z Angew Zool Germany 13 0.96 502 37.1722. 16 J Fish Bioi UK 13 0.96 515 38.1323. 17 CR Acad ~cience France 12 0.89 .527 39.0224. 17 J Parasitlogy USA 12 0.89 539 39.91 Contd.»:I

:0CcrUl!::.0X

<Q.

~z SI. Rank NameoC Country No.oC Citation Cumul- Cumul-0~ No. No. the Citations perce- ative ative.0 Journal ntage Citations percentage(\n•...:g•...

25. 17 Records of Indian Musemum India 12 0.89 .551 40.80

26. 17. Rivista de Parasitologia Italy 12 0.89 563 41.6927. 18 Japan J Zool Japan 11 0.81 574 42.5028. 18 J Helminthology UK 11 0.81 585 43.3129. 18 J Vergl Physiol Germany 11 0.81 596 44.1230. 19 J Zool Soc India 10 0.74 606 44.8631. 19 Oriental Insects India 10 0.74 616 45.6032. 19 Trans Amer Microscop. USA 10 0.74 626 46.34340 titles having less than 10 Citations each 1280 67.16 1280 67.16

Total 372 1906 100.00 1906 100.00

Remarks .

Subscribed bythe library

-do-

-do-

Table 7Rank List of Monographs

SI. RankNo.

AuthorsTitle. No. ofTimes cited

1. 1.2. 2.3. 3.4. 4.

Systema Helminthum 53Zoology of Tapeworms 39Fauna of British India 16Synopsis of diagenetictrematodes of vertebrates 10Practical Physiological Chemistry 07Comparative Animal Physiology 05Stained Methods for Examinationof water and waste water 05

Yamaguti, S.Wardle R.A and Mcleod, J.A

. Southwell, T.

Yamaguti S.Hawk, P.B: and others.Prosser C.L and Brown, F.A.

5. 5.6. 6.7. 6.

American Public Health Association

W-.J

o~:::loz'"~o-<o.'"rl

~rn

i~cz

~'"~•....oc"z~

230

150

II)co:;:; 1101'\1~u

70

30

10

138

DEO

Chronological distributions cif journalcitations.

Scalex axis: cm·= 5 years.y axis 1em = 10 Citations.

15 35 55Period years

75

Fig. 3

Ann Lib Sci Doc

CITATION STUDY OF THE MARATHWADA UNIVERSITY JOURNAL

oosotscence of Zoology literature

'380r-------------------------------------------~

1140

900

enc:o

1§ 0U 600 r-------/-o~OJ.0E::)c:

180

Scale

x axis 1 cm - 5 years.y axis 1 cm = 60 citations.

Half life 23.5 years.

60

O~~~~~4L~3~O~--~~L-~~-L~~--L-L-J

Peri 0 d


Fig. 4

139

DEO

'1100

MADFOftOS lAW OF DISTRI BUTtON

In ,00z0-~to--UIL.0

Ai:

I:t;:) !:CAlEzI.IJ X axis ~ 1em a ·2000{,.-o> Yaxis • lem. ~ (c.iolC!-<~;:)2::>u

300

roo 0

900

100

300

140

LOG n (JOur nals)

Fig. 5

Ann Lib Sci Doc

CITATION STIJDY OF THE MARATHWADA UNIVERSITY JOURNAL

Table 8Frequency Distribution of Cited Journals

Frequency Journals used percentage

1 2. 3.1 198 53.222 - 5 115 30.916 - 10 31 08.3311 - 15 10 02.6816 - 20 08 02.1521 - 25 05 01.3426 - 30 01 0.2631 - 3536 - 40 01 0.2641 - 45 02 0.52More than 45 times 01 0.26

Total 372 100.00

Table 9Chronological Distribution of Citations

Period Citations Percentage

1985-81 301980-76 921975-71 2601970-66 3041965-612931960-56 2461955-51 2001950-46 771945-41 421940-36 551935-31 791930-26 731925-21 341920-16 161915~11 231910-1906 271905-1901 081900 and earlier 27Period not mentioned 20

01.4904.9713.2016.9815.4111.2709.3404.7502.1503.4805.1103.7802.070.9601.1101.630.2201.330.74

Total 1,906 99.99

Vol 38 No 4 Dee 1991 141

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Table 10Chronological Distribution of Journal Articles

Period Citation Cumulative Percentage Percentage ofCitations of Citations Cumulative citations

1985-81 20 20 1.57 01.571980-76 67 87 4.82 06.391975-71 178 265 13.64 20.031970-66 229 494 15.95 35.981965-61 208 702 15.37 51.351960-56 152 854 12.90 64.251955-51 126 980 10.50 74.751950-46 64 1044 04.03 78.781945-41 29 1073 02.20 80.981940-36 47 1120 02.88 83.861935-31 69 1189 04.16 88.021930-26 51 1240 03.85 91.871925-21 28 1268 01.79 93.661920-16 13 1281 0.83 94.491915-11 15 1296 1.20 95.691910-1906 22 1318 1.41 97.101':105-1901 03 1321 0.44 97.541900 andearlier 18 1339 1.41 98.95Period notmentioned 10 1349 1.04 99.99

Total 1349

Table 11Pattern of Self-Citation

Number of times No. of Authors Percentagecited

1 13 56.522 - 4 05 21.744 - 8 01 04.358 and above 04 17.39

Total 23 100.00

142 Ann Lib Sci Doc

CITATION STIJDY OF THE MARATHWADA UNIVERSITY JOURNAL

Table 12Distribution of Journal Citations into Quinquennium Periods

Period Citations Cumulative PercentageCitations

1 - 5 20 20 01.576 - 10 67 87 06.3911 - 15 178 265 13.6416 - 20 229 494 15.7021 - 25 208 702 15.3726 - 30 152 854 12.6031 - 35 126 980 10.3036 - 40 64 1044 04.0341 - 45 29 1073 02.2046- 50 47 1120 02.6351 - 55 69 1189 04.1656 - 60 51 1240 03.6761 - 65 28 1268 01.7966- 70 13 1281 0.8371 - 75 15 1296 1.2076 - 80 27 1323 02.0081 - 85 08 1331 0.5986- 90 18 1349 1.33

Total 1349 100.00

Table 14Distribution of Citations into Zones

Zone Number of Percentage Averagejournals productivityof journals

1 11 02.95 30.632 29 97.79 11.633 76 20.43 04.444 256 68.81 01.31

Total 372 100.00

Vol 38 No 4 Dee 1991 143

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Table13Bradford's Law of Scattering and Zoological Literature

R A Rank R XA CumulativeCitations

1 52 1 52 521 44 2 44 961 42 3 42 1381 40 4 40 1781 27 5 27 2052 24 6 (each) 48 2531 23 7 -23 2761 21 8 21 3191 20 9 20 339

2 19 10 (each) 38 3771 18 11 18 3053 17 12 (each) 51 4461 16 13 16 4621 14 14 14 4763 13 15 (each) 39 5154 12 16 (each) 48 5633 11 17 (each) 33 5963 10 18 30 6262 09 19 18 6449 08 20 72 7169 07 21 63 7798 06 22 48 8276 05 23 30 85723 04 24 92 94933 03 25 99 104851 02 26 102 1150199 01 27 199 1349

R = Number of JournalsA = Number of Citations

144 Ann Lib Sci Doc

in Table 2 and Fig. 1.

CITATION STUDY OF THE MARATHWADA UNIVERSITY JOURNAL

Languagewise Distribution of the Cited Journals

The periodicals are observed to be the mostcited form ofliterature accounting for 70.78%which confirms the universal belief "periodicalsappear to be the most preferred source ofinformation used by the scientists [2], [3]. Thenext major source of information for scientistsis books accounting for 16% of the total cita-tions. In other words, books and periodicalstogether meet nearly 87% of the total informa-tion needs. The remaining 13% requirementsare met by the conference proceedings (8.6%),theses (3%) and reports (1.57%). Attempts weremade to analyse the citations to thesesaccording to the university as shown in the Table3.

It can be observed from the above tahle that theMarathwada University theses are cited maxi-mum (74.13%). This University is situated in theplace where the journal of the present study ispublished. It shows that the scholars cite docu-ments which are easily available to them.

Countrvwise Distribution of Cited Journals:It is very important to determine the geographi-cal distribution of cited journals (and therebythat of the articles) while studying the usepatterns ofresearch literature. Table4 shows theCitations to Indian and foreign journals.

Indian CoverageThe study revealed that the citations to 70 IndianJournals account for 27.80% (375) of totalcitations. Marathwada University Journal re-ceived the maximum number of citations.

Foreign Coverage974 citations to 302 foreign journals accountingfor 72.20% of the total citations were recorded.

It is clear from the table that only 19% of thejournals used by the scholars were from Indiaand remaining from abroad. From this it can beconcluded that the scholars depend for theirresearch and investigation mainly on the jour-nals published from India, U.S.A, U.K. andGermany. The reason may be that the journalsfrom these countries are published in Englishlanguage. However, the usage of journals byIndian scholars, by and large, is global.


The analysis of 1,349 citations shows that 98.05%of the citations were in English, only 1.3% of thecitations were found in German and Frenchlanguages (Table 5).

From this it appears that the scholars in zoologydepend mostly on research material published inEnglish than those in other languages.

Rank List of Cited Journals

The journals cited for ten or more times aregiven in Table 6. With full details regarding theirrank, country of origin and citation percentage.Marthwada University journal (India) scoresthe highest citation percentage (3.85). Similar tothe findings ofKundu [5] and Mrs. Vaishnav 16],the source journal, i.e. Marathwada Universityjournal was most frequently cited. The secondand third ranks are scored by the journals fromU.S.A and so on.

Rank List of MonographsIt was observed from Table 7 that "SysternaHelminthum" and "Zoology of Tapeworms"were the most popular publications among thescholars.

Frequency of the Cited JournalsThe frequency distribution of cited journals wasanalyscd as shown in Table 8. It is observed that84% journals were cited 1-5 times, while 13%were cited 6-20 times and only 3%were cited formore than 25 times.

Chronological distribution of Total Citations andJournal CitationsIt was felt necessary and relevant to knowtheageof the cited references. It is observed from theTables 9 and 10 and Figs. 2 & 3 that nearly 63%of the citations were of the period 1956 to 1975(20 years).

Self Citations

The Objective was to know the pattern of self-citations. Fussler's study showed that in chem-istry and physics a single important journalcontained 25% of self-cited references. Table11 shows that the percentage of self-citations in

145

journal anicles varies from 4 to 56.

OBSOLESCENCE OF ZOOLOGICAL LIT-ERATURE

To find out the obsolescence of zoologicalliterature all journal references appended tosource documents were tabulated into 18 inter-va~s oftive years each. Last interval included thejournals which have not shown the period ofpublication as shown in Table 12 (Fig. 4). Thegraph was plotted by taking years on the X axisand the cumulative number of citations of thejournals on the Y-axis. To find out the halflife,a line parallal to Y-axis was drawn from thepoint D to meet the curve at B.D representshalf ofthe total citations. Then a perpendicularBC is drawn from the point B to meet the X - axisat C. OC represents the half-life of the litera-ture, i.e. 23.5 years. This is much higher than thefigures obtained by Line [9], Maheshwarappaand others [12J in the fields of science andtechnology (12.55 years), botany (12 years), vet-erinary medicine (12 years) and geo-science(12.5 years) respectively.The data obtained in the study was tested forscattering. Accordingly the graph was plottedtaking cumulative sum of journals R on the X-axis and the cumulative number of articles (RX A ) on the Y-axis (Fig.5)

An initially rising and then turning into a linearcurve was obtained which is in accordance withBradford's hyperbolic curve (Fig. 5), signifyingthat the information use pattern of scholars inzoology is in conformity with the Bradford's Lawof scattering.

Productivuy of Cited JournalsIn order to measure the productivity of cited /2.journals, the total 1,349 citations were dividedinto four equal zones of 337 citations. The number<>f cited journals for each zone is given in Table14. ,,3:It is observed from the table that the first zoneof citations covers the first 11 journals of theranked list, thus signifying their high rate ofproductivity. The average productivity of eachjournal in the first zone was 30.63 articles where /4.as it considerably went down to 1.31 articles inthe fourth zone confirming the decreasing pro-ductivity of journals in the ranked list.

146

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CONCLUSION

The study is devoted to Marathwada UniversityJournal (Zoology) and following findings aredrawn from the analysis :

1) It is observed that the scholars conductingresearch in the field of zoology heavilydepend on the periodical literature (71 %).

2) Only 19% of the cited journals are fromIndia.

3) Citations to English literature account for98.7%.

4) 'Marthwada University Journal', the sourcejournal scores the highest citation percent-age.

5) Among the monographs "Systema Helm-inthum" and "Zoology of Tape worms" aremost frequently cited.

6) 72.66% of total citations are from the period1951-85.

7) The half life of the zoological literature is23.5 years.

8) The literature of zoology under considera-tion confirms Bradford's Law of distribu-tion.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSThe author has the pleasure to express his grati-tude to Mrs. AA Vaishnav from the Depart-ment of Library Science, Marathwada Univer-sity, Aurangabad for the encouragement andguidance offered by her during the preparationof the manuscript.

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Maheshwarappa B S and Prakash B P : Lit-era ture use pa ttern by the researchers in thefield of botany. A citation study ofdoctoral theses. J Lib & InfSci., 1982,7(1),16.Maheshwarappa B S et al: Informationuse patterns of Indian geoscientists - Acitation study. Lib Herald, 1986,25 (2-3),July-Ocl.,1986.

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9. Line M B :The half-life of periodical litera-ture -Apparent and real obsolescence. Jour-nal of Doc, 1970,26 (1).

/6. Vaishnav A A and Dharmapurikar R G:Citation analysis of the Herald of Library of .10. Maheshwarappa B S and Prakash B P: Op.Science Lib Hearld 1990,29 (3-4). Cit., p.4.

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11. De Olivera S M: Citation pattern inveternary medicine dissertations. Ann LibSci Doc, 1984,31 (3-4), p.52.

------12. Maheshwarappa B S et al : Op. Cit., p. 4.

13. De Olivera S M : Op. Cit., p. 9.

147