Citation research
December 2007
Citation research can be used to find articles on a specific subject or to check bibliographical details. Citation research was developed commercially by Eugene Garfield at the Institute of Scientific Information (ISI) in Philadelphia in the 1950s:
- You can read a useful explanatory essay on The Concept of Citation Indexing at http://scientific.thomson.com/free/essays/citationindexing/concept/l
- You can look through articles pubished by Eugene Garfield and obtain biographical information at http://scientific.thomson.com/free/essays/
The BMA Library does not subscribe to this index.. BMA members should contact the library staff if they have enquires about citation information. The BMA library is a private library and, unfortunately, enquiries cannot be taken from non-members.
Online searches can be conducted for BMA members. Charges are made. Please contact the searches librarian here. The Web of Science is the online version which includes over 5 000 leading journals from many subjects.
Consult the online listing of SCI titles - http://scientific.thomson.com/mjl/
Science citation index
It is based on the concept of citation indexing which links current and past publications. The Science Citation Index (SCI) indexes over 3 800 current journals and monograph series in science, medicine, agriculture, technology and behavioural science. The print index is updated bi-monthly.
It utilises the intellectual link between a source document and the articles and books that it cites as references. Hence, the Citation Index lists the bibliographic references that are cited in current articles listed in the Source Index. It can be used to:
- Find articles on a specific subject.
- Find people or articles that have cited specific previously published articles.
- Check bibliographical details.
These indexes index core publications but are not comprehensive and do not include all conferences, series, or books. Moreover, there is a time lag between the publication of an item and its appearance in these indexes.
Other libraries and organisations
The BMA Library does not subscribe to this index. The nearest full set is at the British Library, Science, Technology and Business Service at the St Pancras British Library:
Go to the BL website - http://www.bl.uk
The Science 2 South Reading Room holds the life sciences and technologies, medical and chemistry collections.
tel: 020 7412 7217
fax: 020 7412 7217
email: scitech@bl.uk
CHEST has negotiated access to ISI products for UK academic institutions who wish to subscribe to them. You should ask your home institution if they have access:
You can check for current CHEST subscribers at http://wos.mimas.ac.uk/full_subscribers.html
Impact factors
Impact factors measure the citation impact of a journal article with the research community. That is, they measure how many times articles in a journal have been cited in relation to the total number of articles in the journal. Library staff can undertake some research into impact factors for members.
They indicate the worthiness of a journal and as such are used by authors to ensure that they submit papers to a well-regarded journal, and by journals for marketing purposes. There are two tools for impact factors measurement:
- Journal citation reports: these compare and rank journals with similar journals covering a subject discipline
- University science indicators: these compare and rank universities by field or subject discipline.