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Current Medical Literature: A Quantitative Survey of Articles and Journals
ESTELLE BRODMAN and SEYMOUR I.TAINE
The traditional view of scientific, especially medical, literature is that its volume is so large that it has become impossible to bring it under control by traditional methods. So far as can be ascertained from a reading of the reports on this problem, most previous estimates of the size of the literature have been made either entirely on an a priori basis or by extrapolation from incomplete data. In the latter category, especially, belong estimates based on partial counts of the number of journals published.
Years of experience spent in examining thousands of medical serials convinced us that the use of the journal title as the quantitative unit of the periodical literature was both erroneous and misleading. Since it is the individual article that contains the specific medical information sought, it seemed logical to use this unit as the basis for determining the true size and therefore the indexing load. The results of some trial projects confirmed this subjective impression and also indicated the feasibility of a larger investigation based on the count of periodical articles within the separate journal issues. The present study was undertaken to procure these data; its further aim was to analyze the information obtained, to compare the results with some other studies made on the traditional journal title basis, and, finally, to draw some conclusion regarding the significance of the findings.
The National Library of Medicine makes a planned, regular, and continuing attempt to learn of the existence of and to obtain all the medical serials published throughout the world. As a result of this policy the Library at the end of 1957 held more than 13,000 different substantive and non-substantive serial titles of reasonable currency. For purposes of this study, it was assumed that
ESTELLE BRODMAN and SEYMOUR I.TAINE National Library of Medicine, Washington, D.C.
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the number of medical serials, particularly those of a substantive nature, not received at the National Library of Medicine was so small and was probably scattered so widely in terms of subject, language, and country of origin, it would not distort the results obtained. The field of medicine is broadly defined by the Library; it includes the ancillary fields of dentistry, nursing, hospital administration, pharmacy, homeopathy, and osteopathy.
Methods
A modest, part time investigation was set up in the National Library of Medicine. Because of limitations of time, staff, and equipment, only certain data were tabulated and these were analyzed for the most part by hand methods. All current serials coming to the National Library of Medicine for a three-month period (March-May, 1957) were initially divided into two categories: those indexed by the Current List of Medical Literature and those not so indexed. Since the information about the journals in the Current List was already available for previous operational purposes, nothing further was done with this group of titles. Material not indexed by the Current List was next sorted into two further groups: those containing substantive articles (“indexable journals”) and those containing merely news items, abstracts, statistics, and other non-substantive miscellany (“non-indexable journals”).
The number of individual journal issues in each group was counted, after which the non-indexable journals were discarded from this study; the remaining journals, the indexable journals, were analyzed for the following information:
Number of articles contained in the journal.
Periodicity of the journal and its articles.
Language or languages of the journal and its articles.
Country of origin of the journal and its articles.
Subject or subjects covered by the journal and its articles. (Subject categories used were adapted from the first edition of World Medical Periodicals.)
The information thus obtained was added to equivalent information for the journals and articles indexed in the Current List of Medical Literature to obtain the total picture. The findings were then compared with those of two earlier, somewhat similar studies, that of the Welch Medical Library Indexing Project (1) and that of the second edition of World Medical Periodicals (2) wherever possible.
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Findings
A total of 31,423 articles appearing in 2089 journal titles was counted in the three-month period for an annual total of 125,692 articles not indexed in the Current List of Medical Literature. By utilizing the periodicity data and by making an adjustment for the journals issued annually, semiannually, or at irregular intervals which would normally not be received in any single quarter, the annual number of journal titles and issues was estimated to be 2506 and 19,007 respectively. However, because all the current journals, irrespective of their subject fields, which were received in the National Library of Medicine during the three-month period were counted, many items are included which would not be indexed in a general medical index, which, by its subject scope, would be more restrictive than the collecting policy of the Library. For example, while material on bibliography, physics, and chemistry is admitted to the Library collection, it would be excluded from a medical index. If we remove from the count the out-of-scope items, the grand totals of indexable medical materials are reduced by 135 journals, 1165 issues, and 14,436 articles to the figures which appear in Table 1. Throughout the paper, we have used the maximum counts to be certain that we have not erred on the side of under-estimation. Furthermore, no deductions have been made for the considerable quantity of articles in journals in such non-clinical fields as general science, general biology, and psychology which would also not be indexed in a general medical index.
TABLE 1 National Library of Medicine Survey, 1957: Summary table
Substantive serial titles (per year)
Number indexed in Current List of Medical Literature
1,508
Number of additional titles found
2,371
Total substantive serial titles
3,879
Substantive serial issues (per year)
Number indexed in Current List of Medical Literature
11,434
Number of additional issues found
17,843
Total substantive serial issues
29,277
Substantive serial articles (per year)
Number indexed in Current List of Medical Literature
107,478
Number of additional articles found
111,256
Total substantive serial articles
218,734
From these figures it appears that the total indexable medical periodical lit-
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erature is just about double the size of the present Current List of Medical Literature, the largest medical index in the world.
PERIODICITY
The frequency with which the material is published is given in Table 2.
TABLE 2 Periodicity of medical literature
Periodical Titles
Periodical Issues
Periodical Articles
Periodical Articles per Title
Frequency
Number
%
Number
%
Weekly
64
1.6
3,588
18,354
8.3
270
Semimonthly
75
1.9
2,040
12,336
5.9
145
Monthly
1220
30.4
15,240
99,107
44.8
79
Bimonthly
639
15.9
3,994
33,122
14.9
51
Quarterly
953
23.7
3,892
29,975
13.5
31
Semiannually
126
3.1
252
2,149
1.0
17
Annually
369
9.2
369
6,303
2.8
17
Irregularly
568
14.1
1,136
20,280
9.1
36
Total
4014
99.9
30,441
221,626
100.3
—
It can be seen that in regard to productivity the rank order follows closely the frequency of appearance of the journal. The most frequently appearing type of journal (the weekly) contains more articles per year than the semimonthly, which in turn, contains more articles per year than the monthly, and so on down to the annual publication. This information, often guessed at and now confirmed, is of some interest. For example, the data indicate that whereas the total number of annual, semiannual, and irregularly appearing journals comprise more than a quarter of all journals by title, the indexing workload in terms of articles is actually under 13%. Stated another way, a decidedly misleading impression could be created by the isolated fact that a particular 1063 journals are indexed, since these yield a total of only 28,732 articles.
It is also interesting to note that while overall there is an average of 58.1 articles published per year in each medical journal, the titles now indexed in the Current List yield 71.3 articles per year per title. Also, the average number of articles per journal issue for Current List titles is 9.4 while the same figure for non-Current List journals is only 7.6 articles per issue. This would seem to indicate that Current List journals are more productive than non-Current List titles in numbers of articles they contain; if so, it would mean that indexing of the additional journals would not swell the total in direct proportions to the number added.
GEOGRAPHIC ORIGINS
During the three-month period, journals from 85 countries were received. The results are tabulated in Table 3. However, some of the smaller nations
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known to publish at least one medical periodical did not contribute any specimens during the collection period. Quantitatively, both by titles and articles, these omissions should not be significant.
TABLE 3 Geographic distribution of medical literature
Periodical Titles
Periodical Articles
In Current List
All periodical titles
In Current List
All periodical articles
Country
Number
%
Number
%
Algeria
3
6
★
291
327
★
Argentina
25
55
1.52
1,892
3,784
1.7
Australia
6
15
★
576
896
★
Austria
20
45
1.24
1,130
2,222
1.0
Albania
0
1
★
0
56
★
Belgium
36
52
1.44
1,791
2,691
1.2
Brazil
33
90
2.49
1,127
3,335
1.5
British West Indies
2
2
★
39
39
★
Bulgaria
5
5
★
387
387
★
Burma
1
1
★
29
29
★
Canada
20
55
1.38
1,494
2,662
1.2
Ceylon
1
2
★
15
37
★
China
6
14
★
422
998
★
Chile
6
14
★
270
642
★
Colombia
2
15
★
40
360
★
Costa Rica
1
2
★
15
47
★
Cuba
11
32
★
298
918
★
Canary Islands
0
1
★
0
24
★
Cyprus
1
1
★
10
10
★
Czechoslovakia
24
30
★
1,613
1,785
★
Denmark
19
41
1.14
1,076
1,824
★
Dominican Republic
1
2
★
12
92
★
Ecuador
1
7
★
16
176
★
Egypt
2
7
★
134
262
★
England
97
244
6.76
8,058
16,398
7.4
Finland
7
16
★
313
593
★
France
116
297
8.23
10,997
22,485
10.2
French Guiana
1
1
★
40
40
★
Formosa
0
1
★
0
48
★
Germany
136
315
8.72
12,449
25,741
11.7
Greece
2
11
★
65
449
★
Guatemala
1
3
★
40
96
★
Hawaii
1
1
★
36
36
★
Haiti
0
2
★
0
32
★
Honduras
1
1
★
20
20
★
Hungary
18
23
★
1,288
1,388
★
India
8
42
1.16
493
2,761
1.3
Indonesia
1
2
★
60
68
★
Italy
150
345
9.55
8,668
17,192
7.8
Iran
1
3
★
45
181
★
Israel
3
9
★
200
344
★
Ireland (Eire)
2
4
★
144
160
★
Iraq
1
2
★
20
36
★
Japan
22
187
5.18
1,081
19,665
8.9
Jordan
0
1
★
0
8
★
Kenya
1
1
★
66
66
★
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Periodical Titles
Periodical Articles
In Current List
All periodical titles
In Current List
All periodical articles
Country
Number
%
Number
%
Lebanon
2
5
★
118
162
★
Luxembourg
1
1
★
5
5
★
Malaya
2
3
★
44
92
★
Martinique
1
1
★
6
6
★
Mexico
13
42
1.16
488
1,296
★
Morocco
1
2
★
180
180
★
Madagascar
0
1
★
0
72
★
Netherlands
28
63
1.75
1,733
3,017
1.4
New Zealand
2
9
★
74
230
★
Nicaragua
0
1
★
0
56
★
Northern Ireland
1
1
★
20
20
★
Norway
2
17
★
212
632
★
New Guinea
0
1
★
0
12
★
Pakistan
1
6
★
20
200
★
Panama
1
3
★
30
142
★
Paraguay
0
1
★
0
8
★
Peru
2
16
★
20
288
★
Philippines
3
13
★
130
450
★
Poland
34
44
1.22
1,756
2,396
1.1
Portugal
10
31
★
499
1,007
★
Puerto Rico
1
4
★
60
104
★
Rhodesia and Nyasaland Federation
1
1
★
48
48
★
Rumania
9
22
★
309
1,737
★
Saarland
1
1
★
12
12
★
Salvador
1
1
★
37
37
★
Scotland
4
6
★
134
150
★
South Africa
3
19
★
248
876
★
Spain
33
117
3.24
1,491
5,231
2.4
Sweden
17
42
1.16
1,755
2,567
1.2
Switzerland
59
112
3.10
2,863
5,203
2.4
Thailand
0
3
★
0
120
★
Trieste
1
1
★
31
31
★
Tunisia
1
1
★
90
90
★
Turkey
3
12
★
132
488
★
U.S.A.
391
847
23.46
31,751
53,975
24.5
U.S.S.R.
57
84
2.33
5,338
7,126
3.2
Uruguay
6
14
★
109
309
★
Venezuela
4
16
★
116
412
★
Yugoslavia
17
28
★
859
1,439
★
Total
1508
3597
—
107,478
221,626
—
★Under 1%.
By far the largest producer of medical periodical literature, on any basis, is the United States, which furnishes almost one-quarter of all the world’s journals and/or articles. Although in number of journals Italy ranks second to the U.S. with 9.6%, with Germany (8.7%), France (8.2%), and England (6.8%) trailing in that order, on the basis of articles, Germany ranks second with
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11.7%, followed in order by France (10.2%), Japan (8.9%), and Italy (7.8%). This qualitative and quantitative variation of the “Big 5” is made especially interesting by the leap into fourth place by Japan which now produces almost 20,000 articles yearly.
Oddly, a national pattern appears to emerge in regard to the average number of articles published in each journal title. As Table 4 indicates, the journals of certain countries are consistently characterized by a high number of articles, others are of a low productivity, and a third group can be described as medium producers:
TABLE 4 Average number of articles per title by country
High
Medium
Low
Japan
105.2
India
65.7
Italy
49.8
U.S.S.R.
84.8
U.S.A.
62.6
Switzerland
46.5
Germany
81.7
Sweden
61.1
Spain
44.7
LANGUAGES
As shown in Table 5, twenty languages are utilized to convey practically all of the world’s medical information in periodicals. The heading “Polylingual”
TABLE 5 Language breakdown of medical literature
Periodical Titles
Periodical Articles
In Current List
All periodical titles
In Current List
All periodical articles
Language
Number
%
Order
Number
%
Order
Chinese
4
12
.3
20
362
938
.4
15
Czechoslovakian
20
25
.7
14
1,470
1,690
.8
12
Danish
5
26
.7
13
368
924
.4
15
Dutch
10
33
.9
11
996
2,000
.9
11
English
607
1,375
38.2
1
45,651
82,687
37.3
1
Finnish
3
10
.3
21
134
402
.2
17
French
152
384
10.7
3
13,358
28,254
10.9
3
German
155
394
10.9
2
13,681
28,729
13.0
2
Hungarian
14
16
.4
18
1,037
1,137
.5
14
Italian
151
352
9.8
5
8,699
16,699
7.5
5
Japanese
1
128
3.5
7
108
17,232
7.8
4
Norwegian
1
13
.4
19
144
536
.2
17
Polish
31
39
1.1
10
1,702
2,302
1.0
10
Polylingual
110
132
3.7
6
5,900
7,316
3.3
7
Portuguese
42
121
3.4
8
1,584
4,356
1.5
9
Rumanian
7
19
.5
17
224
1,804
.8
12
Russian
56
75
2.1
9
5,290
6,930
3.1
8
Serbo-Croatian
14
24
.7
15
697
1,173
.5
14
Spanish
109
358
9.9
4
5,190
13,806
6.2
6
Swedish
2
22
.6
16
46
770
.3
16
Turkish
3
10
.3
22
132
456
.2
17
Other
11
28
.8
12
705
1,485
.7
13
Total
1508
3597
99.9
107,478
221,626
99.5
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refers to the journals which include articles written in more than a single language; “Other” includes all material in a single language other than the twenty already listed for which fewer than 10 journal titles were located.
Table 5 shows that English is by far the most common language (over 37% of the articles). Here again, as in the geographic breakdown, a similarly intriguing variation between journal and article counts emerges. In regard to journals, German ranks second with 10.9%, followed very closely by French (10.7%); Spanish and Italian run a close fourth and fifth, with 9.9% and 9.8% respectively. On the article basis, German is again second to English with 13%, just slightly ahead of French at 12.9%. Fourth place is, however, usurped by Japanese with 7.8%, and Italian is in fifth with 7.5%. Russian trails far behind in eighth place with a little over 3% of the total. Some quick arithmetic reveals the interesting fact that about 85% of the medical periodical literature is written in but six languages.
SUBJECTS
Any attempt to subdivide the field of medicine into its component parts is, at best, a frustrating procedure and rarely, if ever, does it produce a result that is completely satisfying. Much of the difficulty, apart from the ever-broadening scope of medicine, may be attributed to the inherent characteristics of the various related subject fields and specialties which resist a clean, sharp, and exclusive compartmentalization. For example, the subject field under which the greatest quantity of medical periodical literature falls is known as “general medicine.” Actually, the specific articles which appear within these general medical journals can be distributed without strain among the different smaller subdivisions provided in the classification. Unfortunately, because of time limitations, the present study had to change its basis and restrict the subject breakdown of the collected material to the journal title and not, as in other cases, to the individual article itself.
Despite these solid reservations, the figures in Table 6 are still of interest and value, although more limited than might be hoped. Its greatest usefulness will probably be found in the data for the more easily circumscribed fields such as dermatology and ophthalmology.
Comparison with other studies
The findings of this investigation can be profitably compared with those of the Welch Medical Library Indexing Project and the second edition of the World Medical Periodicals. Unfortunately the latter work appeared just at the conclusion of the National Library of Medicine survey; it is to be regretted that
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TABLE 6 Subject breakdown of medical literature
Periodical Titles
Periodical Articles
In Current List
All periodical titles
In Current List
All periodical articles
Subject
Number
%
Number
%
Alcoholism
2
12
★
55
227
★
Allergy
6
7
★
273
493
★
Anatomy (incl. embryology)
33
48
1.2
1,231
2,303
1.0
Anesthesiology
12
17
★
647
1,363
★
Anthropology
2
14
★
66
470
★
Antibiotics
8
11
★
635
687
★
Aviation Medicine
8
8
★
223
223
★
Athletics
0
10
★
0
524
★
Bibliography
1
20
★
52
596
★
Biochemistry
31
37
1.1
3,099
3,491
1.5
Biology, general
21
54
1.4
1,194
2,778
1.1
Beauty culture
0
2
★
0
56
★
Cancer
26
34
1.0
1,603
1,815
★
Cardiovascular system
29
43
1.1
1,426
2,614
1.1
Chemistry
1
37
1.0
12
9,260
4.1
Chiropody
1
9
★
60
268
★
Chiropractic
0
5
★
0
248
★
Chronic disease
1
1
★
108
108
★
Criminology
0
9
★
0
260
★
Civil Defense
0
1
★
0
64
★
Dentistry
4
180
4.5
456
8,296
3.4
Dermatology
29
50
1.3
2,117
3,625
1.5
Diabetes
1
7
★
51
187
★
Education
0
2
★
0
92
★
Endocrinology
17
21
★
1,192
1,396
★
Engineering
0
1
★
0
72
★
Enzymology
5
5
★
114
114
★
Experimental medicine
88
101
2.5
5,755
6,383
2.6
Food technology
1
10
★
49
669
★
Gastroenterology
18
29
★
1,167
2,779
1.1
General medicine
332
817
20.4
33,143
60,147
24.5
Genito-urinary system
19
27
★
1,103
1,743
★
Geriatrics
5
11
★
289
517
★
Gynecology and obstetrics
48
76
1.9
3,393
5,369
2.2
Hematology
17
24
★
786
1,322
★
Heredity and genetics
13
22
★
321
649
★
History of medicine
8
24
★
126
566
★
Homeopathy
2
22
208
972
★
Hospitals
8
47
1.2
957
2,949
1.2
Hydrology and climatology
1
14
★
24
764
★
Hygiene and public health
42
162
4.1
2,207
5,799
2.4
Hypnosis
0
2
★
0
44
★
Illustration, etc.
4
5
★
115
143
★
Immunology
11
11
★
421
421
★
Industrial hygiene
20
45
1.1
988
2,224
1.0
Infectious diseases
24
31
★
1,426
1,826
★
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Periodical Titles
Periodical Articles
In Current List
All periodical titles
In Current List
All periodical articles
Subject
Number
%
Number
%
Internal medicine
14
21
★
1,091
1,631
★
Jurisprudence, medical
8
21
★
253
753
★
Leprosy
4
8
★
83
195
★
Malaria
3
5
★
80
140
★
Maternity and child welfare
0
14
★
0
532
★
Medical profession
3
13
★
177
953
★
Medical technology
10
19
★
435
755
★
Medicine and religion
0
8
0
360
★
Microbiology
42
54
1.4
2,728
3,360
1.4
Microscopy
4
7
★
133
313
★
Military and naval medicine
37
44
1.1
1,491
1,679
★
Mycology
1
2
★
2
150
★
Naturopathy
0
6
★
0
468
★
Neurology
50
71
1.8
2,625
3,433
1.4
Neurosurgery
11
13
★
454
642
★
Nursing
5
45
1.1
531
2,483
1.0
Nutrition
16
32
★
1,018
1,630
★
Occupational therapy
7
25
★
348
920
★
Ophthalmology
40
76
1.9
2,306
4,302
1.8
Orthopedics
18
44
1.1
1,022
2,194
★
Osteopathy
1
18
★
144
784
★
Otorhinolaryngology
35
60
1.5
2,146
3,250
1.3
Parasitology
16
23
★
748
1,288
★
Pathology
36
46
1.2
2,537
3,257
1.3
Pediatrics
59
92
2.3
3,778
5,694
2.3
Pharmacology
34
39
1.0
2,462
2,782
1.1
Pharmacy
15
113
2.8
767
4,487
1.8
Philosophy
0
2
★
0
76
★
Physics
12
26
★
1,328
2,956
1.2
Physiology
44
48
1.2
3,337
3,561
1.5
Physiotherapy
13
33
★
556
1,508
★
Plastic surgery
3
6
★
190
382
★
Population
0
3
★
0
180
★
Psychiatry
63
103
2.6
3,086
3,974
1.6
Psychoanalysis
8
15
★
292
468
★
Psychology
27
73
1.8
1,325
3,581
1.5
Plants
0
7
★
0
476
★
Radiodiagnosis, etc.
29
48
1.2
2,452
3,300
1.3
Red Cross
0
6
★
0
208
★
Rheumatism
13
20
★
535
659
★
Science, general
10
76
1.9
1,865
8,713
3.6
Serology
4
4
★
169
169
★
Sex
0
3
★
0
112
★
Social medicine
6
16
★
280
688
★
Sociology
0
13
★
0
920
★
Speech disorders
2
5
★
74
162
★
Statistics
0
2
★
0
264
★
Surgery
106
193
4.8
8,227
12,903
5.3
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Periodical Titles
Periodical Articles
In Current List
All periodical titles
In Current List
All periodical articles
Subject
Number
%
Number
%
Therapeutics
10
49
1.2
624
2,768
1.1
Thorax
15
30
★
795
1,659
★
Tropical medicine
33
39
1.0
1,474
1,590
★
Tuberculosis
32
62
1.6
1,617
2,549
1.0
Veterinary medicine
5
47
1.2
532
3,732
1.5
Vitaminology
5
7
★
156
400
★
Zoology
1
14
★
90
1,146
★
Total
1809
3994
—
123,455
244,455
—
★Less than 1%.
time and staff were not available to do a thorough comparison of the two lists, especially in the language, country, and periodicity areas. It is to be hoped that further work can be done on this in the future. The Welch Library Indexing Project, sponsored by the predecessors of the present National Library of Medicine, carried on its work from 1948 to 1953. Among its other activities, the Project also undertook to do a comprehensive survey of the world’s medical serials.
Table 7 gives comparative figures of the total number of journals studied by the three groups.
TABLE 7 Comparative counts of medical periodicals
Welch Medical Library Indexing Project Survey
4454
World Medical Periodicals
4360a
National Library of Medicine Survey
3879
a Current titles only.
The differences between the National Library of Medicine figure and those of the other two are not as significant as would appear at first glance. The Welch Medical Library figures are higher on account of differences in definition of current substantive periodicals. Actually, an adjustment on the basis of like criteria would probably effect an extremely close alignment; this is not surprising in view of the wide use made by the Indexing Project of the serial holdings of the National Library of Medicine.
The apparent discrepancy between the National Library of Medicine and World Medical Periodicals is almost entirely due to the coverage from two specific geographic areas in the National Library of Medicine. The National Library of Medicine is now overcoming a lag in the acquisition of materials from Latin-America and Japan occasioned by an earlier policy decision to collect selectively from these regions. Some 90% of the differential between the two
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totals appears to consist of Latin-American journals whose average output of articles is generally acknowledged to be quite low.
Tables 8 to 10 are comparisons of the results in terms of journal titles of the National Library of Medicine and of the Welch Medical Library Indexing Project. In spite of the time interval between the two investigations, there is a high degree of correlation; 0.905 for periodicity and 0.947 for languages, for example.
TABLE 8 Comparison of periodicity of medical journals
National Library of Medicine Survey
Welch Medical Library Indexing Project Survey
Frequency
Number
%
Number
%
Weekly
64
1.6
93
2.0
Semimonthly
75
1.9
95
2.0
Monthly
1220
30.4
1518
34.0
Bimonthly
639
15.9
603
14.0
Quarterly
953
23.7
868
19.0
Semiannually
126
3.1
73
1.6
Annually
369
9.2
385
9.0
Irregularly
568
14.1
822
18.4
Total
4014
99.9
4454
100.0
TABLE 9 Comparison of geographic origin of medical journals
National Library of Medicine Survey
Welch Medical Library Indexing Project Survey
Geographic Division
Number
%
Number
%
Europe
2015
55.9
2012
47.2
North America
944
26.2
1382
31.0
Asia
295
8.2
336
7.5
Latin America
283
7.9
523
11.7
Africa
38
1.1
45
1.0
Australasia
25
.7
39
.9
Other
0
0
27
.6
Total
3597
100.0
4454
99.9
TABLE 10 Comparison of languages of medical journals
National Library of Medicine Survey
Welch Medical Library Indexing Project Survey
Language
Number
%
Number
%
English
1375
38.2
2061
41.2
German
394
10.9
545
10.9
French
385
10.7
600
12.0
Spanish
358
9.9
608
12.1
Italian
352
9.8
348
6.9
Polylingual
132
3.7
0
0
Japanese
128
3.5
187
3.7
Portuguese
121
3.4
196
3.9
Russian
75
2.1
85
1.7
Polish
39
1.1
34
.7
Dutch
33
.9
49
1.0
Danish
26
.7
39
.8
Czechoslovakian
25
.7
38
.8
Serbo-Croatian
24
.7
22
.4
Swedish
22
.6
46
.9
Rumanian
19
.5
1
0
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TABLE 10 Comparison of languages of medical journals
National Library of Medicine Survey
Welch Medical Library Indexing Project Survey
Language
Number
%
Number
%
Hungarian
16
.4
26
.5
Norwegian
13
.4
14
.3
Chinese
12
.3
1
0
Finnish
10
.3
17
.3
Turkish
10
.3
21
.4
Less than 10
28
.8
70
1.4
Total
3597
100.0
5008
99.9
Summary
An investigation was undertaken to determine the approximate size and composition of present-day medical periodical literature by employing as the basic counting unit not the journal title, so frequently used in such investigations, but the journal article. Our object was to do away with the difficulty encountered in most previous studies, where certain assumptions had to be made about the relationship between journal titles and journal articles.
Data were collected on the number of journal titles and journal articles published in 1957, their periodicity and country of origin, the languages in which they were published, and their subject breakdown. Analysis of these data showed a direct linear relationship between the number of issues of a journal published (its periodicity) and the number of articles in it. On the other hand, there appears to be a true variation in the average number of articles published per journal title on the basis of the geographical origin of the journal, and linguistically, substantial deviations are encountered between journal title counts and article counts.
It was also possible to analyze the data of the medical periodical literature for the probable magnitude of what would logically be indexed in a general medical index. This turns out to be about 220,000 articles per year, or approximately twice the number already listed in the Current List of Medical Literature, the largest general medical index we now possess.
We believe the statistics presented here can be used meaningfully in additional ways, only a few of which are mentioned in this paper. It is to be hoped that further work can be undertaken in the future.
REFERENCES
1. WILLIAMINA A.HIMWICH and others. Survey of world medical serials and coverage by indexing and abstracting service, Welch Medical Library indexing project sponsored by the Armed Forces Medical Library. Baltimore, 1954.
2. LESLIE T.MORTON, comp. World medical periodicals, 2nd edition, World Medical Assoc., Geneva, 1957.
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Representative terms from entire chapter:
current list
