CHOOSING PHYSIOLOGY PERIODICALS:A RECENT STUDY OF THE GROWTH OF ITS LITERATURE

Growth of Physiology as a distinct subject Istraced and the development of the literature of thesubject discussed. Taking the Annua! Review ofPhysiology as the source journal a ranked Hst of 165most cUed journals Is presented and compared withprevious lists. The 9814 r.ltatlons, which form the database, are also analysed from various other angles.

Growth of Physiology as a Subject

The te r rn Physiology has been used sinceancient times, although with different shades ofrn ea n ing , Upto the 16th century it was used tomean natural philosophy. F'r orn the 17thcentury it began to be used in the sense ofscience of life. With the e rne r g en ce and de-v el oprnent of biology as the science of life inthe 19th century, physiology began to be con-sidered as the branch of biology dealing with thefunctions of living bodies in their interactionwith the environment. Again, from the begin-ning of the present century, physiology is beingdefined as the branch of rne d ic al science study-ing functional behavior of different parts ofhumxn, an irnal and vegetable or gani s rns withits scope being extended to microorganisms andviruses also.

It is interesting to note that the first chairof phys l ol ogv in England as distinct fr orn ana-t orny was created at the University College,London in 1874 and was given to William Sh a.r >

pey (1802-80) who is considered the founder ofrriode r n English physiology. The contr ibutionsof the English school at Cambridge to the de-v e l oprnent of physiology was also noteworthy.Michael Foster (1836 -1907), who was the foun-der of this school, was also the founder of thefirst organ the "Journal of Physiology" in 1878.In the U.S.A. also recognition of physiology asa dis tinct ive branch of sc ience ca rne in thelater part of the 70s of the century. In 1887 theAInerican Physiological Society Was founded for

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I N SenguptaIndian Institute of Experimental MedicineCalcutta - 700032

the p r ornot ion and adv anc erne nt of physiologicalknowledge in the U. S. A. The offic ial publica-tion of the Society, the 'AInerican Journal ofPhysiology' began to appear in 1898.

The contributions of the Russian schoolin the developInent of physiological knowledgeis very noteworthy. 1. M.Sechenov (1829-1905)was farn ous for his theory on 'reflexes of thebrain'. 1. P. Pavlov (1849-1936) reconstructedon a new foundation the phys iology of digestionand blood circulation, the theory of the tropicinfluence of the nervous sv s te rn which is thefoundation of the theory of higher nervous acti-vity.

It can be said that the first half of the19th century was a cr uc ial per iod for phys io-logy. During the second half of the 19thcentury, after the discovery of finer ins tr urnentslike ma nornet e r s a11<1gal v an orne te r s etc. duringthe period 1820-185CJ, physiology attained its

final form and was establ ished as a distinctivediscipline with its own theories and hypothesesba s e d on the sound footing of exper Irne ntalrn eth ods , During the pre sent century, r es e ar chactivities in the field of phys iology have perhapsbeen rnor e intens ive than in .any other specialbranches of knowledge. Lrnp or ta nt de vel op rne n tsin endocrinology, nutrition and v it arn ins , enzy-me.s and rnerab ol is m, nerves, neurophysiologyetc have all c orn e dur ing this century.

Growth of Literature of the Subject -Classical Works

Perhaps the earl iest doc urn s nt of interestis the 'Satnhita' of Susruta wherein SOIne por-tion is devoted to phys iological concepts. Thephys iolog leal concept of blood cir cul a t ion canbe found in the ancient Chinese rrredl ca l class ic'Nei Ching' wherein it is said "heart regulatesall blood in the body •.. The blood currentflows continuously in a circle and never stops".SOIne of Aristotle's writings are of phys iologi-cal interest. Galen's work on a sy st e rn of rne d i-

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cine, which elaborated the phys iol og Ical acti-vities of the hurnan body, was considered themost authentic doc urn ent for centuries. RealdoCol omb o of Cremona published his 'De r eanatomic a' in 1510 wherein he described theconcept of bl ood circulation and this workbrought an end to Galenism in the field ofphys iology.

It is said that rno de r n phys iology beganwith the work of Andreas Vesaiius of Padua,entitled 'De hurnan i Corporis fabr ica ' publishedin 1543. Though the book was essentially onanat orny , it contained a good deal of infor matt onon physiology. In 1628, William Harvey pub-lished from Frankfurt.his famous book'Exercitatio anatomica de rnotu cordis etsanguinis in an irnal Ibu s ' constituting a new andrational approach to anatomy and physiology.Another remarkable publication of the 17thcentury was 'De homine' of Rene Descartes,published posthumously in 1662, which is con-sidered by rn.any as the first textbook of physio-logy.

Among the ern irrent wr iters of the 18thcentury may be mentioned the names of Val a al »

va, Hales, R. de Re.aunur , and Albrecht vonHaller. Yon Haller's eight-volwne publication'Elementa physiologiae corporis hurna nl ' pub-lished in 1757-66 is rrror e or less like a rnoder ntextbook.

19th century author s were rnany , only afew of them could be mentioned here. S.Gallini(1756-1836), J.M.P. Flourens' (1794-1867)F. A. Longet (1811-71), Luigi Luciani (1842-1919) all added to the litera ture of phys lol ogy ,One of the class ics of this century i. e., 'Exper ~ments and observations on the gastric juice andthe physiology of digestion' by Be a um.ont of U.5. A. was published L-J. 1833. The best knownwork of Luigi Luciani was his 'Function of thecerebellum'. An important textbook on electr 0-

physiology was published in 1844 by 'I'ornrna s l,During 1856-67 Helmholtz published his greatwork 'physiological optics'. Mitchell publishedin 1858 'Bibliography of American papers onphys iology' in the 'North American Medico-Chirurgical Review'. Among :many publicationsof Dalton in the 19th century the following titlesare worth mentioning -- 'On the constitution and

physiology of the bile' (1857), 'Treatise onhuman physiology' (1859) and 'Doctrines ofcirculation - a history of phy s Lol og ic al, opinionand discovery, in regard to the circulation ofthe blood' (1884). The pioneer work on end o-

40

crinology of M. Schiff and his other contri-butions have been compiled into a four-volumeposthumous publication which came out fromLausanne dur ing 1894-96. Baylise in his'Principles of general physiology' broughtoriginal outlook into the subject.

In Russia P'avl ovl s publication IWork ofthe principal digestive glands' was publishedin 1897. A cooperative wor k 'Arne r lean text-book of physiology was edited by W.H. HowUland was published in 1896. Among other worksof the 19th century the following are worthme nt ioning -- 'On the nature and developm.entof a.n i.rna.I intelligences,' by T. W.MUls (1898),'Lehrbuch der phys iologie des meuschen' byLudwig (1861), 'Fhysiologie' by Wundt (1873),'Principles of human physiology' by Power(1869), 'Physiologie' by Ranke (1872)., and'Physiologie' by He rna nn (1874).

Growth of Periodicals in Physiology

From. a study of the World List of Sc ient i-fic Periodicals, Ed. 4.; we find that corn.bina-tion journals covering two or rnor e relatedfields like a na torny , phys iology, pha.r rna c ol ogyetc. started publication in the last decade ofthe 18th century. The first journal of this kindwas f ounde d by Meckel from. Leipzig in 1796

under the title "Archlv fur Anat orn le andPhys Iol ogte'", This journal was popular Ivkn own as Muller's Archiv as J. Mullerwas its active director for many years.This important publication ran from 1796 -1919under this name and then from 1920 the anato-m.ische Abte il ung and physiologische Abt e if ung(liArchivfur die Physiologie") was respectivelymerged with 'Zeitschrift fur die gesarn.teAnatom.ie' and 'Pfluger s Archivfur die gesam.tePhysiologie des Menschen und der Tiere'. Thesecond journal on pathological physiology wasestablished by Vtr chow from Berlin in 1847 andis popularly known as 'Virchows Archivfurpatholog ische Anatom.ie und Phys iol og ie und furklinische Me.dizin'.

In France carrie c,.,: . ,'. rch lve s de Physio-logie, de 'I'he r a.pe ut iquc et d 'Hygiene in 1854;'Archives de Phy s lol og ie No r rnal e et Patho-logique' in 1868; and 'Journal de LOanatom.ieet de la physiologie no r rnal e s et pathologiquesde l'hoInlne et des an irnaux ' in the year 1864.In England the first comb ina t lon journal appear-ed in 1866 under the title 'Journal of Anatom.yand Physiology' from. London and ran upto 1916under this title and fr orn 1916 onwards it

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dropped physiology from its title and is stillrunning as 'J ournal of Anatomy' • In 1866 thefirst secondary publication on physiology start-ed publication fr om Berlin in the name' Jah r e s-

bericht uber die Leistungen und Fortschrittein der Ana torn le und Phys iologie' and ran upto1916.

In the year 1868 a journal exclusivelydevoted to physiology was founded by Pflugerunder the title 'Pflugers Archiv fur die ge s arntePhys iol og ic des Menschen und der Tiere '.This journal started from Bonn and continuedunder this title upto Vol. 301 and from Vol. 302(1968) it has taken a new name 'PflugersArchiv Eur opea n Journal of Phy s iology' and iscons idered to be one of the leading journalsof the subject. In 1876 the 'Journal of Physio-logy' was founded and edited by Foster onbehalf of the British Physiological Society. Italso publishes the proceedings of the Physiolo-gical Society of Cambridge. Even to-day thisreputed journal of one of the top rankingper iodicals of phys iology in the World. Twoyear slater' Bulletin de la Soc iete d'anatomieet de Phys iol og Ie n or rnal.c s et path ol og lq ue s deBordeaux' was published from France in 1880and continued upto 1910. The journal 'Sitzung-sber ichte der Gesellschaft fur Morphologieund Phy s iol og le in Munchen' was brought out in::iermany in 1885 and ran upto 1935.

The first abstracting journal in physio-logy was also founded in Leipzig under thetitle 'Zentralblatt fur Phy s iol og le ", It startedin 1887 and stopped publication with Vol. 34(1921) and merged in Pfl uge r s Archiv. T".eScandinavian journal 'Skandinavisches' Archiv-fur Physiologie' started in 1889 and disconti-nued with Vo1.83, No.4-6 (June 1940) beingreplaced by 'Acta phys iol og ica sc and inav lc a 'which is be ing published from Stockholm andis now considered one of the standard journalson the subject. Fr om Bonn' Jahresber ichtuber die Fortschritee der Physiolog~e' startedpublication in 1892. In 1912, it changed itsname to 'Jahresber icht uber die Fortschritteder anirnalischen Physiologie' and ran upto1919 under this new title. Again in 1920 itsname was changed 'Jahresbericht uber dieg e s a rntc Phys iolog ie und exper irnentellePharmakologie' and continued in this nameupto 1926 and further from 1927 it took a newname 'Jahresbericht Physiologie und experi-mentelle Pharmakolog ie ' and ran under thischanged title upto 1937.

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The 'American Journal of Physiology'started publication from Boston in 1898, .asthe official organ of the American Physiologi-cal Society. In 1899 'Journal de physiologieet de pathologie generale' started publicationfrom Paris and continued upto 1945 underthe same title. From 1946 it is beingpublished as 'Journal de phv s iol og ie", Fromthe beginning of the current century therehas been a consistent growth of periodicalsin the field of physiology. Germany beingone of the great producers of scientific jour-nals brought out the first reviewing publica-tion on the subject 'Ergebnisse der Physiolo-gie' in 1902. Its name was changed with Vol.35(1933) to 'Ergebnisse der Physiologie undexpeL imentellen Ph ar rnak ol og ie ' and aga inafter two years with Vol. 37 (1935) to 'Ergebn-isse der Physiologie, biologischen Ch e rriieund exper imentellen Pha.r mak ol og ie'. It wassuspended from 1945 and again resumed publi-cation from 1950. In the year 1902 another

noteworthy German publication carne out underthe title 'Ze itschr ift fur allgemeine Phy s iol.o-gie' and continued from V'ol s , 1-20(1902-23).One documentation enterpr ise 'Bibliographiaphys iol og lca ' was founded at Leipzig in 1905as supplement to "Zentralblatt fur Phys lol o-gie" and continued upto 1926; 'End okr inologie'founded in Leipzig (1928); 'Beitrage zurPhy s iol og le ' (1915 - 34) was published fr omBerlin; 'Zeitschr ifCfur verglei chende Physio-log ie ' was launched in 1924 and continued upto1944 and after a brief break of 3 years re-started in 1948 and is still running. Anothernoted German Journal 'Arbeitsphysiologie'started from Berlin in 1928 and ran upto 1944and after a break of 4 years it reappeared in1949 and continued under the same title upto1954. Fr om 1955 it is continuing. under a newtitle "Inte r nat ional.e Zeits chr ift fur angewandt ePhys Iol og Ie, einschliesslich Arbeitsphysio-logie'.

The first Italian Journal exclusively onthe subject was perhaps 'Archivio di fisiologia'which was founded at Florence and is beingpublished since 1903. But "Giornale di Ana-torn ia , Fisiologia et Patologia degli An irna.l l"was the first combination type of journal inItaly and it ran from 1869-1890. Belgianpublication carne out from Liege under thetitle 'Archive s internationale s de phys iologie'in 1904. It ran under this title upto Vol. 53(1943) and after a break appeared again inJuly 1946, from Vol. 63 (1955) it has beenrenamed 'Archives internationales de physio-logie et de biochimie'.

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Among the English Journals whichappea~ed during the first lour decades of thiscentury are - "Quarterly Journal of Experi-mental Physiology" started in 1908 whichafterwards changed its name from Vol. 28 (1938)to I1Quarterly Journal of Expe r irre ntal Physio-logy and Cognate Medical Sc ienc e s s ; "Physio-Io g is t" (1917 -) and an abstracting periodical'Physiological Abstracts' (1916-37); Journalof Endocrinology from Oxford in 1939 etc. Inthe U.S.A. the first abstracting journal waspc r h a p s 'Abstracts of Physiological Re-searches' which was founded in 1916 at Balti-more. To cater to the increasing researchactivity on internal secretions of variousglands, 'Endocrinology' appeared on 1917. Theenormous output of physiological researchduring the present century has inevitably ledto the division of physiological studies intodifferent branches both for individual re-searcher and for soc iety meetings. To over-corne the difficulty of tracking the vast litera-ture of the subject, the American Physiologi-cal Society approved of launching the 'Physio-logical Reviews' in 1919 and its first issue waspublished in January 1921. The vast researcheffort in physiology and the consequent develop-ment of special areas of Physiological studyled to the inception of large number of newjournals of Physiological interest in the U. S. A.'Journal of General Physiology' was foundedat Baltimore in 1918; 'Physiological Zoology'at Chicago in 1928; and 'Journal of Cellularand Comparative Physiology' at Philadelphiain 1932 which however from 1966 has taken~ shorter title 'Journal of Cellular Physiology';Journal of Neurophysiology' from Sprin&field

in 1938; and so on.

In the Netherlands 'Archives ne er Ia.nd.,a is e s de physiologie de L'hornrne et des ani-maux' was brought out at Arns te r da rn in 1916and was discontinued with Vol. 28, No.3/4(1948) and later restarted as 'Acta phy s lo ;logica et pharmacologica neerlandica' f'r orn1950. Another publication f'r orn the Nether-lands was 'Onderzoekingen gedaan in hetLabor ato r ium voor physiologische Scheikunde'which is being published from Utrecht since1921. The first Russian Journal on the subjectwas perhaps 'Russkii Fiziologicheskii zhurnal'started from Leningrad in 1917 which took anew name 'Fiziologicheskii zhurnal SSSR' from1932 and continued -upto Vol. 30, No. 6(1941)a~d after a brief break re s um ed publicationwith Vol. 31 (1945) and is still running under thesarrie title. The French publications 'Physio-

42

logie'and 'Anna l e s d'endocrinologie' werefounded from Paris in 1936 and 1939 respec-tively and are continuing under the sa.rne titles.This is in br ie f the history of the evolution ofPhysiological journals f r orri the beginning uptothe 4th decade of the present century. Priorto the publ ication of these journals res earchersin the field of .l:-'hysiology used to publish theiroriginal findings in the rne d lca l journals andalso in Journals covering all disciplines ofphysical and biological science. F'r orri a studyof the World List of Scientific Periodicals, ed.4, it is seen that the nurnb er of physiologicaljournals has grown in g eo met r Ica'l progressionsince 1920. Thus we see that nurnb e r ofphysiological journals which was 33 in 1900ro s e to 81 in 1920, 150 in 1940 and 264 in·1960.Though the exact increase f'r orn 1961 to date isnot known, it is believed that this upwardtrend rna y be continuing at the sa m e rate.

Nature of Physiological Research

Physiological research now-a-daysoverlaps into rnarry frontier areas of science,like mol e c ula r biology and rnol e cul.a r pha r ma ,cology. Special branches like neuroendo-crinology, reproductive physiology, neuro-phys iology, nutr ition, electrophys iology,physiology of work, and physiology of thespecial senses etc. "I.Teattracting pr edo minantinterest and constit.ute the most active areasof physiological research. In consequence ofthe growing need for d is s ern inat ion of originalinfor-rnat ion in these areas of physiologicalknowledge, there has been a proliferation ofspec ia l iz ed journals devoted to these fieldse. g. 'Journal of Clinical Endocrinology andMetabolism' (1941); 'Electroencephalographyand Clinical Neurophysiology' (1949); 'Circu-lation' (1950); 'Fertility and Sterility' (1950);'Metabolism.: Clinical and Ex'pe r irrrerrta.L! (1952);'Circulation Research' (1953); 'ComparativeBiochemistry and Physiology' (1960); 'Journalof Reproduction and Fertility' (1960); 'Enzym.e;journal of enzyme physiology and pathology'(1961); 'Nephron' (1964); 'Neuroendocrinology'(1965/66); 'Experimenh: Brain Research'(1966); 'Lipids' (1966); 'Hormone and Meta-bolic Research' (1969); 'Hormones and Be-havior' (1969); 'Neirofiziologiia' (1969); etc.

The increasing nurnbe r s of such specia-list periodicals, wide scatter of literaturebecause of relevance to so many areas of studylike b ioche rni st r v, microbiology, anatomy,etc., and the m.ultifaceted points of view of

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investigation all combine to multiply thedifficulty of tracking down all literature rele-vant to physiological research. Like otherinterdisciplinary subjects modern physiologyis also passing through a crucial stage wherethe area of investigation is expanding in newdirections and as a result it has becom.eimpossible for the physiologists of to-day toform a comprehensive survey of the yearlyoutput of research in the subject. Due to theinterdisciplinary nature of research work inthe subject, a good part of the relevant litera-ture of importance is being published injournals devoted to related fields of scienceand this is likely to go unnoticed by the re-searchers in this field. It is necessary for theresearch workers, documentalists and libra-rians to have a clear idea of the relativeimportance of journals of physiology as wellas other related disciplines where literatureof physiological interest is very often scat-

- teredo With a view to help in the selection ofphysiology journals Bz odrnan r-ecornrrreride d alist of journals on the subject in 1944 and in1959 Brown rriade another corrrpr-eh en s Ive list.Since then a need for a revised list furnishingupto date information on ranking of physiologi-cal jour nals has been felt. The present workon the ranking of physiology journals wasundertaken with the object of filling this need.It is expected that this ranked table may be auseful tool in the selection of physiologyjournals which would most effectively coverthe significant literature of the subject. Inthe present work the nAnnual Review ofPhysiology" Vols. 30-32, 1968-1970 have beentaken as the source journals. Advantages ofselecting 'Annual Reviews' as source journals 'have been discussed in an earlier paper. Theresults of the findings are presented and dis-cussed here.

Terminology and Techniques

In this communication the term "Serials I

has been assigned to denote publicationsbrought out in running numbered sequence tobe published for an indeterminate period oftime, generally at regular intervals normally'lot more than one year, although irregularityin frequency of publication is not ruled out.Proceedings of congresses, colloquia, meet-ings etc. held per iod ically are consideredserials in case'" permanent parent organi.za-tion exists for arranging their publication,otherwise they are treated as books, Also, ifthe colloquia, lectures etc. are not published

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in a numbered sequence, they have been notedas non-serial publications. A s irn ila r classi-fication has been made for monographs oflearned societies. Serial annual publicationsdevoted to recent advances, progress seriesand other nonprimary serial publications con-sisting of review articles have been groupedtogether separately for purposes of analysis.Citations of secondary periodicals have notbeen included with the serial citations in casethe narne s of primary journals in which theoriginal articles appeared are given. Unpub-lished data, personal cornmun icat lona , thesesand dissertations, reports, papers in pressor awaiting publications are noted separatelyand treated as non-serial citations. Allcitations published at the end of the articles,within the texts of the articles, and in footnotes are counted.

The journals appearing in the overallranking list were classified broadly into 20 sub.ject groupings using the U. D. C. scheme as aguide for classification:- science (general);physics; chemistry; biological sciences(general); experimental biology and rn ed ic in e ;cell biology; microbiology; biochemistry in-clud ing rnol e cu la r biology and biophys ic s; plantphys iology; zoology; a nat omy ; phys iology;<endocrinology; reproductive physiology;pharmacology; expc r irrie nta l rned ic ine ; patho-logy; medicine (general); medicine (speciali-ties); veterinary science.

In order to assess growth of physiologi-cal journals, World List of Scientific Periodi-cals, ed , 4. has been scanned thoroughly andthe number of titles devoted to physiology notedand a graph (vide Fig. 1) drawn to show theincreasing number of periodicals in this sub-ject. (See next page).

The ranking list is essentially a practicaltool designed to help the librarian and researchscientist to select the journals of maximum uti-lity in relation to their coverage of new andimportant literature in particular subject areas,However, because of the large volume of re-search effort in frontier areas of science wheretwo or more subject fields overlap, pub l ica-tions of importance to an individual area ofstudy tend to appear increasingly in journalsdevoted to general science or broad areas ofscience covering more than one speciality.Such journals naturally are voluminous publi-cations. To view the importance of individualtitles in clear per spective in respect of a pa r t s,

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Growth in the number of journals 10

the field of Physiology from 1790 - 1960

200

180

'"o 160::::>.£. 140'0

"E 120::>z

100

80

60

40

20

OL.6=.t:>==fr=fr=~~-.L .I.._1_L~~~~~1790 1810 1830 1850 1870 1390 1910 1930 1950

Year

Fig. I. Showing the growth ofphysiology journals

cula r area of study it is therefore necessary toanalyse th~ number of citations from a jo~rnalin relation to the total number of papers pub-lished in a year and the average length of thepapers. This has been attempted in respect ofthe first ten titles in the ranking list in Table11.

Table 1. analyses the frequency of cita-tion of serial and non-serial publications. Therelative frequency of citations is more or lesssimilar to that for other subjects i. e. bio-chemistry and microbiology. The somewhatgreater frequency of citations of non-serialpublications (8.6%) may be related to thepractice in Annual Reviews of listing recentbooks and monographs on topics reviewed.Non-primary serial publications which com-prise proceedings of various symposia. con-ferences, etc. are seem to be assuming in-creasing importance.

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Table 2 furnishe 3 a ranking list of jour-nals in the field of physiology which may beconsidered as an authentic tool for selectionof journals in this field. free from any re-gional and other bias. Bias towards countryand language has mostly been eliminated by thechoice of Annual Review of Physiology assource journal. The advantages of utilizingAnnual Reviews as source journals have been

1 . . erdiscussed by Sengupta in a prevlous pap .

The journals shown in the list aregenerally the medium for dis<lemination ofphysiological knowledge. In this study 633titles have been noted and out of these only thefirst 165 titles have been included in the rank-ing list (vide Table 2). Of the remaining 468titles not included in the list 9. 24. 30. 46. 99.260 titles have been cited 6. 5, 4, '3. 2, and 1times respectively i. e. the frequency of theircitation is less than 1 % of the most citedperiodical. It is believed that the presentranking list will replace the earlier compila-tions viz. 1944 list. Brodman's list andBrown's list. From Table 2 it will be seenthat among the fir st lO journals of the presentlist eight pe r ta in to phys iology and the othertwo to general science which confirms thewell-established status of physiology as aseparate scientific discipline. FrJm a studyof the year of publication of these eight physio-logy journals, we find that most of them arelong established journals which again confirmsthe distinctive status physiology has beenaccorded as a separate scientific discipline

since a long time. As in the case of biochemis-try and microbiology, the high ranking of Nature(rank 5). Sc ience (rank 8) and other journals ofgeneral sc ience (vide 23, 27, 31 etc. ) in thepre se nt list call for comments. This may bedue to the fact new physiOlogical knowledge con-tinues to be of significance to a broad area ofbiological studies. Many journals in the fieldof biochemistry have found high positions in thepresent list (vide 13, 20, 24, 33, 38, etc.).This reflects the predominant influence ofbiochemistry in the overall structure of presentday physiological research, and the increasingapplication of biochemical methodology andapproach in phys iological studies. The highranking of journals of endocrinology (c. f. 3, 18.19, 32 etc.) points to the sustained interest inresearch activities in this subbranch of physio-logy. Another feature of this ranking list call-ing for comment is the high position of journalsin the field of medical sciences, general and

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specialities (c. f. 14, 20, 22, 25, 26, 27, 37,38 etc.) and also biological sciences (c. £. 11,15, 16, 17, 29 etc.). This again brings out thehistoric interdependence of physiology and bio-logical and m.ed ica l sciences. Journals in spe-cial branches like neuroendocrinology (c. f.19, 69 etc.); reproductive physiology (c. f. 38);neuro and electrophysiology (c. f. 7, 56 etc.);com.parative·physiology (c. f. 24, 41 etc.) haveoccupied places in the present ranking list, inconform.ity with the expectations as these areasnow-a-days constitute som.e of the rno st activeareas of phys iological research.

Table 3 analyses the frequency of cita-tions of publications other than prhnary jour-nals. Here citations of non-primary serialpublications are the highest; followed by booksand monograph which may be in part due to therevival of the practice of reporting originalresults in books and m.onographs. Proceedingsof irregular conferences/sym.posia etc. seem.to be becom.ing m.ore and m.ore irnpo r ta nt .This is consistent with the present pattern ofcom.m.unication of scientific knowledge, a fea-ture of which is the trend towards the cornrnun i.cation and discussion of research results atnational and international conferences. Thehigh proportion of citations in the "rn is c e l la ;neous" category would be expected in reviewsprepared by scientists actively working on thetopics of the reviews, because they would tryto give a balanced account of the state ofknowledge in the m.anner they regularly assessit, i, e. on the basis not only of publishedliterature but also unpublished work, personalcom.munications, theses and dissertations,m.anuscript in preparation, etc.

Table 4 provide s a ranking list of s orrrenon-prim.ary serial publications. It brings outthe im.portance of A. R~ v. Physiol.; Physiol.Rev. ; Ergeb. physiol. and other reviewingjournals in the field of physiology. It is ofinterest to note that out of the 12 titles rankedin this table, as m.any as 7 are of review jour- ,na l s and the rest of 'recent adv. ' and 'progress'series. The increasing dependence of the re-search worker on secondary sources of lit e r ;ature providing critical presentations of thestate of knowledge in limited areas of study isa consequence of the vast proliferation of thenum.ber and volum.e of prim.ary publications.The high positions of Prog. Biophys. m.olec.Biol. and A. Rev. Biochem.. again stress theim.pact of m.olec ula r biology and b iochem.istryon physiological research.

Vol 20 No 1-4 Mar-Dec 1973

The rankings of the first 10 journals ofthe 1944 list, Brodm.an's list and Brown'slist are c ornpa r ed with that in the present listin Table 5. Out of the first 10 journals of 1944and Brodm.an's lists three find a place am.ongthe first 10 of the present list, three journalsof the 1944 list and five of Brodm.an's list arewithin the second 10 of the present list. Oncornpa r is on of Brown's list with the presentone we find that five journals ranking with inthe first ten of Brown's list are within the firstten journals of the present list and three havebeen shifted to the second ten. This is in con-firm.ity with earlier observations that theranking of periodicals changes with length oftim.e; as Brown's c ornp il.at ion is m.ore recentthan the others discussed, m.ore serials ofBrown's list would be expected to be com.m.on tothe present list. This finding also em.phasizesthe need for continuous updating of rankinglists at suitable intervals to rna ke them. m.oreaccurate tools for selection of scientific per io-.dicals.

Table 6 provides a c ornpa r is on of rankingof the first 25 journals of the present list withthose of 1944 list, Brodm.an's and Brown'slists. It is of interest to note that since 1944J. Physiol., Lond. and Am. J. Physiol. havebeen alternating betwe en the first 2 positions.This indicates the high standard and coveragerna inta ined by the journals of the British andArne r ica n physiological soc ietie s . Journalslike Endocrinology; J.appI.physiol; Nature,Lond.; circulation Res; J. Neurophysiol; Actaphys iol scand; Biochem.. biophys. Acta; J. Exp.Biol.; J. Clin. Endocr. Metab; and J. Com.p.Neurol. have im.proved their positions in thepresent list. This is perhaps due to the shift ofinterest in present day physiological researchto endocrinological, neuro-physiological andrelated pr obl em s , On the other hand journalslike J. gen. physiol; and Pflunger's Arch. ges.Physiol. have gradually shifted to lower posi-tions since the com.pilation of the 1944 list. Itis interesting to note that J. biol. Chem.. im.p-roved its position from. 5 in 1944 list to 4 inBrodm.an's list and then to 3 in Brown's list.But it has been shifted to the 21st position inthe present list. -T'h is m.ay perhaps be relatedto the fact that research on nutrition, parti-cularly v ita m in s , which form.erly accounted fora significant. part of the research work reportedin J. b io l , Chem.. has dwindled in im.portancewhile rna ny of the titles ranking high in the ear-lier lists have not found a position in the pre-sent ranking list, m.any new journals have

45

SENGUPTA

occupied high positions in it. This is a resultof the continuous shift of research interest tonew frontier areas of spe c ia l iz a t ion and theappearance of new journals to cover theseareas.

Table 7 furnishes an analysis of citationsof the first 25 journals of the present listaccording to period of publication of cited arti-cles, grouped into eight sequences narne ly ,prior to 1901; 1901-20, 1921-40. 1941-50,1951-55. 1956-60. 1961-65 and 1966-70. It isseen that 66.19'70 of all c ita t i.ons of these 25journals are for the period (1966-70) and 91-9%of the citations are of articles published during1961-70 with post 1965 articles pr edorn inat ing .Thus it is seen that 66.19'70 of total citations ofthe first 25 periodicals of the present list re-late to the period 1966-70, 25.73'70 to 1961-65,4.97% to 1956-60,1.47% to 1951-55,0.96'70 to1941-50, 0.70'70 to 1921-40 and 0.05'70 to 1901-20.

In other words the percentage of citationsof papers decreases exponentially with lengthof the t irne after publication. The larger pro-portion of citations of papers of the 1966-70rna y be only partly due to the increase in thenurnb er of papers published in this period asco mpa r ed to 1961-65. A rno r e irnpo r ta ntfactor may be their greater relevance to cirr ;rent scientific thinking and their role as therna in stimulus to new research. It is to benoted that except in the cases of J. phys iol. ,Lond. and Pflunger's Arch. ges. phy s Iol . nocitations of articles earlier than 1921 havebeen noted. This analysis should be useful indrawing up a stacking policy for pe r iod icaj s byputting less used journals in storage, asstorage requires less space than stacking, andthereby providing rno r e space for growinglibrary collections.

Table 8 shows the analysis of citationsaccording to subject classifications of the first165 journals of the present list. Physiology(includ ing endocr inology and reproductivephysiology) covers about 50% of the total cita-tions. Higher percentage of citations fromjournals exclusively in the field of phys iologyindicates the well-established status of phv s io ,logy as a distinct discipline. The higher pro-portion (15.04'10) of citations frorn journals ofrne dic ine (general and specialities) Inay beinterpreted as an indication of the present roleof phys iolog ica l re search in the development ofmedical sciences. As observed earlier in cases

46

of biochemistry and microbiology, high fre-quency of citations (910) of journals of generalscience may perhaps be due to good coveragegiven by these journals to physiological studiesas a whole because of their broader significanceto biological knowledge. So also the high pro-portion of citations from journals of biologicalsciences (general, expe r irnental including cellbiolugy) (11.73%) and those of biochemistry(7.93) clearly indicate the long-established re-lationshipbetween these disciplines and physio-logy. It also brings out the increasing infl ue nc eof the id eas and methodology of biologicalsciences especially of biochemi.stry on thedirection and content of physiological research.

From Table 9 it rnay be s een that:Cngii.sh (70.91 %) is the main rne d iurn ofcommunication in present-day ,Physiologicalresearch. Multilingual journals with texts inEnglish, French and Ge r man (19.39'10) camesecond, although even in these, contributionsin English usually preponderate, while jo ur-na Lswith text in Ge r rna n and French account foronly 1.8'10 and 3.00'70 respectively of thejournals in the present ranking list. As inother disciplines of science the decrease of theirnpor ta.nc e of GerInan as a medium of scienti-fic communication s e em s to have becom.e apermanent feature as observed by Sengupta[4.5] in his earlier studies. This trend isunlikely tobe reversed, because rnariy Germanperiodicals are now being switched to mult i-lingnal form with a view to closer internationalcooperation. The overall result is that Englishhas become the accepted lingua franca ofscientific cornrnun icat ion ,

Table 10 provides an analysis of country-wise distribution of journals in the presentranking list. USA, U. K., Ge r rna ny , Switzer-land, France, Japan, Netherlands and the

. Scandinavian countries are the rna in producers,in that order, of journals which constitute theirripo r ta nt media for the communication of newknowledge in phys iology. However, 58.43 %citations are covered by 82 USA journals and21.95'70 by 31 English journals. It is interest-ing to note that 3.7310 citations covered by· ..4 journals of Netherland is higher than thatcovered by7 Swiss, 4 Japanese and 6 Frenchperiodicals. This is possibly because of thehigh frequency of citations fr orn 'Bt och ern .biophys. Acta' published fr orn the Netherlands.

Table II analyses the nurr-b e r of citationsin relation to the size of journals and average

Ann Lib Sci Doc

CHOOSING PHYSIOLOGY PERIODICALS

length of papers published. We have proposedthis method (c. f. Sengupta6) of analysis inorder to eliminate the bias due to the bulk of aresearch journal which is not necessarily re-lated to the scientific value of individual paperspublished in it. Such bias inevitable in rankinglists prepared on the basis of nurn e r ica lcounting of citations of individual periodicals.The value D IA is an index of the scientificvalue of the papers published in a journal.corrected for the bulk of rna te r ia l published ina year, which varies considerably from journalto journal. When the title s in the uncorrectedranking list are r e c r a nke d according to thevalue of D/A, the revised list puts the journalsin order of their scientific value without biasdue to bulk. Slrn ila r Iy the index o tc enablesa listing of the titles in order of scientificvalue of the papers published, with a weightageintroduced for cornpa c tn e s s of presentation.F'rorn table 11, it is seen that in the case of thefirst 10 titles of the present ranking list,re-ranking on the basis of D/A puts the titlesin th e order: - (i) J.Gen.physiol; (ii) J.

Neurophysiol.; (iii) Circulation Res.; (Iv ) Actaph y s iol , scand.; (v) Am. J. Physiol.; (vi) J.Physiol. Lond.; (v i I] Endocrinology; (v iii] J.appl. physiol; {ix ] Science, N. Y.; (x) Nature,Lond.

Further, when we r e r ank the first 10titles of the present list on the basis of DICi. e. in the order of c o rrrpa c tne s s of presenta-

tion, their order of ranking be c orn e s: (i) J. gen.physiol.; (ii) J. physioi.; Lond.; (Hi) Circula-tion Res.; (!v) J. Neurophysiol; (v) ActaPhysiol,scand; (vi) AITl. J. physiol.; (vii) Endocrinology(viii) J. appl. Phys iol , 1 (ix) Nature, Lond.;(x) Science, N. Y.

Fig. 1 shows the growth of physiologicalperiodicals upto 1968. The steep rise of thecurve indicates the expnonential increase inresearch activity and in the nurnbe r of journalsin the field of physiology.

Finally the r e sul t s iof this study, as of owearlier stu d ie s in b iochemi s tr y and rnic r o-biology, support the validity of Bradfords Law[7] of scattering as extended by Sengupta [6]which states that "during phases of rapid andvigorous growth of knowledge in a scientificdiscipline, articles of interest to that discip-line appear in in c r e a sing nurnb e r 5 in periodi-cals distant f r orn that field. That is, duringsuch phases, the smal l group of journalsaccounting for the larger part of significant

Vol 20 No. 1-4 Mar-Dec 1973

literature in the subject contain a relativelylarger proportion of unrelated journals".

On the other hand our analysis does notsupport Garfield's Law [8] of Concentration,that "a basic concentration of journals is thecommon core or nucleus of all fi el d s'". It maybe that any list of 5 00-1000 journals will con-tain titles of interest to all existing scientificdisc ipline s, even that in any of the se title sthere ITlay some time or other appear a paperof interest to any given discipline. But thisis all far removed from the proper purpose ofa ranking list, which is to collect together inproper purpose of a ranking list, which is tocollect together in pr oper sequenc e the handfulof journals (say at the rno st 50-1000) whichcontain 9010 or more of the significant litera-ture of a subject at a particular period of time,clearly the first 20 journals in our list will notcontain anything like 110 of papers cited in asource journal for a different discipline likepl a s rna physics or rne tal.Iur g y. In other words,at any given per iod of t irrie the ranking list fora particular discipline will be unique to-It ,And its utility lies just in this, that it enablesthe Libr an ian or other professional workersconcerned with a particular discipline to pickout the journals most relevant to his own areaof work.

Ac knowl edg e m ent

I arn grateful to Dr. A. Nar a yan as warn.ifor his interest in the work and for helpfulsuggestion. I also thank Professor R. N.Chakravarti, Director, Indian Institute ofExperimental Medicine for his kind per m is s ionto publish this paper.

REFERENCE

1 ) SENGUPTA 1. N: Impact of scientificserials on the advancement of Medicalknowledge: An objective rne tho d of ana-lysis. Int. Libr. Rev. 1972,4, 169-95.

2) BRODMAN E : Choosing physiology jour-nals. Med. Libr. Ass. Bull. 1944, 32,479-83.

3) BROWN C. H : Sc ientific serials.Characteristics and list of most citedpublications in rn a th ern at ic s , physics,chemistry, geology, physiology, botany,zoology, and ent orrrol o gv , ACRL ITlono-graphs No. 16, Chicago, Association of

47

SENGUPTA

college and reference libraries. pp.l,15, 21, 33. 1963.

GARFIELD E : The myster f of thetransposed journal list. Curro Cont.1971, 14(31). 5-6.

8)

4) SENGUPTA 1. N: Ranking of periodicalsin the field of medical sciences from theIndian scientists point of view: Analysisof data for 1954-58. IASLIC Bull. 1970,15(3), 120-44.

Frequency of distribution of serial and non-ser ial public alions

TABLE - 1

5) SENGUPTA 1. N : The ranking of b Iorrie d i-cal periodical s from the Indian sc ient-ists point of view. Analysis of data for1959-68. UNESCO Bull. Libr. 1970,24(3), 143-56.

Category of Number of Percentage ofpubl ication citations total citations

Primary Journals 9814 86.03

Non- pr imar y serialpublications 612 5. 37

Non-serialpublications 981 8.60

TOTAL:11407 100.00

6) SENGUPTA 1. N : Recent growth of theliterature of Biochemistry and changesin ranking of periodicals (communicated).1972.

7) BRADFORD S. C : Documentation.Washington, D. C., Public Affair s Press,p. 156~ 1950.

Table 2

Ranking List of Journals in Physiology

Rank Name of Journal in Country of Year of Number of Percentage ofabbreviation publication publication Citation total citation

1 2 3 4 5 61. J. Physiol. Lond. UK 1878 710 7.232. Am. J. Physiol. USA 1898 708 7.213. Endocr inology USA 1917 518 5.284. J. appl. Physiol USA 1948 304 3. 105. Nature, Lond. UK 1859 295 3. 016. Circulation Res. USA 1953 286 2.917. J. Neurophysiol. USA 1938 258 2.638. Science, N. Y. USA 1883 243 2.489. J. gen Physiol USA 1918 242 2.4710. Acta phys iol. scand. Sweeden 1940 212 2.1611. Fedn. Proc. Fedn. Am. USA 1942 205 2.09

Soc. expo Biol.12. Pflugers Arch. ges. Germany 1868 199 2.03

Physiol.13. Biochim. biophys. Acta Netherlands 1947 198 2.0214. J. clin. Invest. USA 1924 197 2.0115. Proc. Soc. expo BioI. Med. USA 1903 172 1. 7516. J. Cell aiei. USA 1955 158 1. 61

(formerly: J. biophys.biochem. Cytol. )

17. J. expo BioI. UK 1930 113 1. 15

Continued

48 Ann Lib Sci Doc

CHOOSING PHYSIOLOGY PERIODICALS

2 3 4 5 6

18. J. Endocr UK 1939 107 1.0919. J. Clin. Endocr. Metab. USA 1941 103 1. 05

20. Expl. Neurol. USA 1959 86 0.882l. J. biol. Ch e rn, USA 1905 86 0.8822. J. COlTIp. Neurol. USA 1891 85 0.8723. Ann. N. Y. Acad , Sci USA 1823 79 0.8024. Com.p. Bi.oc he rrr. Physioi. UK 1960 77 0.7825. Clin. Sci. UK 1933 73 0.7426. Brain Res. Netherlands 1966 66 0.6727. Lancet UK 1823 65 0.6627. Proc. natn. Acad. Sc i, USA USA 1915 65 0.6629. Expi. Brain Res. Germ.any 1966 61 0.6229. Proc.R.Soc.Ser.B UK 1905 61 0.6231. Exper ient ia Switzerland 1945 60 0.6132. Acta endocr. , Copenh. Denmark 1948 53 0.5433. Anat . Re c , USA 1906 51 0.5233. Biochem.. J. UK 1906 51 0.5235. Can. J. Phys io1. Pharm.ac. Canada 1964 50 0.5136. J. Pharm.ac. expo Ther. USA 1909 49 0.5037. Gastroenterology USA 1943 48 0.4938. Biochem. biophys. Res. USA 1959 46 0.47

Cornrnun ,38. Biochem. biophys. Res. USA 1959 46 0.47

Commun.38. J. Reprod. Fert. UK 1960 46 0.4138. Vision Res. UK 1961 46 0.4741. J: Cell. Physiol. USA 1932 .45 0.46

(formerly: J. Cell.. Com.p.physiol. )

42. Biol. Bull. USA 1899 44 0.4542. Z. Zellforsch. m.ikrosk. Germany 1925 44 0.45

Anat.44. Am. Zool. USA 1961 43 0.4444. Archs ital. BioI. Italy 1882 43 0.4444. J. a c ou st . Soc. Am. USA 1929 43 0.4447. J. Opt. Soc. Am.. USA 1917 41 0.4247. Physiologist, Wash. USA 1957 41 0.4247. Thromb. Diath. haemorrh. Ge r ma ny 1957 41 0.4250. Am.. J. Med. US 1946 40 0.4150. Diabetes US 1952 40 0.4150. Ja p. J. Physiol. Japan 1950 40 0.4153. Archs Biochem.. Biophys USA 1952 39 0.40

(formerly: Archs.Biochem.. )

53. C.r.hebd.Seanc.Acad. France 1835 39 0.40Sci. • Paris

53. J. Ultrastruct. Res. US 1957 39 0.4056. Circulation US 1950 38 D. 3956 Electroenceph. c1 in. Netherlands 1949 38 0.39

Neurophysiol.56. Gen. com.p. endocr. US 1961 38 0.3959. J. Physiol. . Paris France 1946 36 0.3760. Q. KI. expo Phys iol UK 1908 34 O. 3761. Biophys. J. US 1960 33 O. 3461. Life Sc i, UK 1962 33 0.34

Continued

Vol 20 No 1-4 Mar-Dec 1973 49

SENGUPTA

1 2 3 4 5 6

Physiol. Zool. US 1928 33 0.3461.1962 32 0.3364. Biochemistry US1933 32 0.3364. Cold Spring Harb. Symp. US

quant . Bio!.1928 31 0.3Z66. New Engl. J. Med. US

66. Re sp, Physiol. Netherlands 1965 31 0.3266. Scand. J. clin. Lab. Invest. Norway 1948 31 0.32

Neuroendocrinology Switzerland 1965/66 30 0.3169.29 0.3070. Metabolism US 1952

Archs into Pharmacodyn. Berlgium 1895 28 0.2971.Ther.

26 0.2672. J. theor. Bio!' UK 196173. Archs.int. Physio!. Belgium 1955 25 0.Z5

Biochim. (formerly:Archs. into Physiol.)

24 0.2475. Aerospace Med. US 193075. Can. J. Biochem. Canada 1954 24 0.24 .

(formerly: Can. J.Biochem. physio!. )

1896 23 0.2377. J. expo Med. US77. J. expo Zool. US 1904 23 0.2377. Nephron Switzerland 1964 23 0.Z380. Acta med. scand, Sweeden 1919 22 0.2280. Am. J. Cardiol. US 1958 Z2 0.2Z

80. C. r. Seanc. Soc. BioI. France 1849 22 0.2280. Klin. Wschr. Germany 1922 2Z 0.2284. Br. J. Pharmac. UK 1946 21 O.Zl

(formerly: Br. J.Pharmac. chemother. )

84. Cardiovasc. Res. US 1967 21 0.2184. J. Anim. Sc i, US 1942 Zl 0.2184. J. mo1ec. BioI. UK 1959 21 0.2188. Acta oto-1ar. Sweden, 1918 ZO O.ZO88. Am. Heart J. US 1925 20 0.2088. J. Neurochem. UK 1956 20 O.ZO88. Steroids US 1963 ZO 0.2092. Acta phys Iol , hung. Hungary 1950 18 0.1892. Brain UK 1878 18 0.1892. J.Anat. UK 1916 18 0.1892. J. Biochem. , Tokyo Japan 1922 18 O. 189Z Phys iolog ia bohemoslov. Czechaslo- 1956 18 0.18

vakia92. Z. vergl. Physiol. Germany 1924 18 O.1898. Am. J. Obstet. Gynec. US 1920 17 0.1798. Eur. J. Biochem. Germany 1967 17 0.17(formerly: Biochem. Z. )98. Meth. med. Res. US 1948 17 0.17101. Phys iol ogia PI. Denmark 1948 16 0.16102. Am. J. Anat. US 1901 IS 0.15102. Arch. expo Path:Pharmak. Germany 1873 15 0.15102. Int. Z. angew. Physiol. Germany 1955 15 0.15105. Br. med. Bull. UK 1943 14 0.14

Continued

50 Ann Lib Sci Doc

CHOOSING PHYSIOLOGY PERIODICALS

1 2 3 4 5 6

105. J. Am..m.ed. Ass. US 1883 14 0.14105. J. Cell Sci. UK 1853 14 O. 14

(form.er1y: Q. Jl.m.icros.Sci. )

105. Kybernetik Germ.any 1960 14 O. 14105. Phys. Med. Biol. UK 1956 14 O. 14110. Am.. J. dig. Dis. US 1934 13 O. 13110. J. Morph. US 1887 13 O. 13110. Surgery, St. Louis US 1937 13 0.13113. Bihlthca. Anat , Switzerland 1961 12 0.12113. J. Auditory Res'- US 1960 12 0.12113. J. com.p. phys iol . Psychol. US 1947 12 0.12113. Lab. Invest. US 1952 12 O. 12113. Sym.p. Soc. expo Biol. UK 1947 12 0.12118. Br.Heart J. UK 1939 11 0.11118. Histochem.ie Germ.any 1958 11 0.11118. J. Insect. Physiol. UK 1957 11 O. 11121. Am.. J. Med. Sc i, US 1827 10 0.10121. Am, J. Path. US 1925 10 0.10121. Annl s Oto-1ar. France 1931 10 0.10121. Aust. J. expo Btol , rned, Sc i, Australia 1924 10 0.10121. Blood US 1946 10 0.10121. Br. m.ed. J. UK 1857 10 0.10121. Expl. Cell Res. US 1950 10 0.10121. Invest. Ophthal. US 1962 10 0.10121. Mayo Clin. Proe. US 1926 10 0.10121. Naturwissenschaften Germ.any 1913 10 0.10131. Angiology US 1950 9 o. 09131. Ann.Surg. US 1885 9 o. 09131. Archs Surg. , Chicago US 1920 rv 0.097131. Bull. Johns. Hopkins Hosp, US 1925 9 o. 09131. Bull. m.ath. Biophys. US 1939 9 o. 09131. J. Am, chern. Soc. US 1879 9 o. 09131. J.Lipid.Res. US 1959 9 0.09131. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Ser. B UK 1887 9 0.09131. Surgery Gynec. Obstet. US 1905 9 O. 09131. Tohoku J. expo Med. Japan 1920 9 0.09141. Acta anat. Switzerland 1945 8 0.08141. Acta Soc. Med. upsal. Sweden 1950 8 0.08141. Am.. J. Phs.Med. US 1952 8 0.08141. Aust. J. b iol . Sci. Australia 1948 8 0.08141. Btochern, Pharm.ac. UK 1958 8 0.08141. J. Histochem.. Cytochern US 1953 8 O. 08141. J. Microsc. France 1961 8 0.08141. J. Neurosurg. US 1944 8 0.08141. Neurosci. Res. Program. US 1962 8 O. 08

Bull.141. Protop1asm.a Germ.any 1926 8 O. 08141. Surg. Fo r urn US 1950 8 O. 08152. Anesthesiology US 1940 7 0.07152. Angiologica Switzerland 1964 7 0.07152. Biorheology UK 1962 7 0.07152. Endocr. Jap, Japan 1954 7 0.07152. Gut UK 1960 7 0.07152. Helv. physiol. pha r-mac , Switzerland 1943 7 0.07

Acta.Continued

Vol 20 No 1-4 Mar-Dec 1973 51

SENGUPTA

2 3 4 5 6

152. J. Bact. US 1916 7 0.07

152. J. Dairy Sci. US 1929 7 0.07

152. J.Snrg. Res. US 1961 7 0.07

152. Mo1ec. Pha r rnac . US 1965 7 0.07

152. Presse med. France 1893 7 0.07

152. Proc. R. Soc. Med. UK 1907 1 0.07

152. Sca nd, J. Resp. Dis. Denmark 1924 7 0.07

152. Z. ges. expo Med. Germany 1913 7 0.07

Total: 165 8,924 90.93

468 Other titles (each having citations less than 7) 890 9.07

GrandTotal:

633 9,814 100.00

Table 3

Category of publications Percentage

Frequency of citations of publications other than primary journals

Number ofcitations

Percentage oftotal citationcounted

Non-primary serial publications

Books and monographs(without regular sequence)

612

519

38.42

32.58

Irregular conference/(Symposium/proceedings)

280 17.58

Theses /Dissertations 39 2.45

2.20

1. 32

Reports

In press and to be published data

35

21

Patents and standards 8 0.40

Miscellaneous (incomplete reference,personal communication, in preparation,unpublished data.etc. )

79 4.96

5.37

4.55

2.44

0.34

0.31

O. 18

0.07

0.69

Total: 100 13.951593

52 Ann Lib Sci Doc

CHOOSING PHYSIOLOGY PERIODICaLS

Table 4

Ranking of first 12 non-primary serial publications

Rank Name of non-primary serial publication Nwnber of Percentage of totalcitations non-primary serial

citations

1 A. Rev. Physiol. 64 10.46

2 Physiol. Rev. 58 9.48

3 Ergeb. PhysioI. bioI. chem. expoPharmak. 54 8.83

4 Recent Prog. Horm. Res. 28 4.58

5 Prog. Brain Res. 26 4.25

6 Pharmac. Rev. 21 3.43

7 Clin. Res. 20 3.27

8 Archs. Neuro .• Chicago 19 3.10

10 BioI. Rev. 12 1. 96

10 Prog. Biophys. molec. BioI. 12 1. 96

10 A. Rev. Biochem. 12 1. 96

Table 5

Ranking bf the first 10 journals of other lists in the present list

Earlier list Pos ition in the present listName Subject First Second Third

10 10 10Beyond

1944 list Physiology 3

3

3

5

1 3

7Brodman's list Physiology(first 10 ranks are occupiedby 15 journals)

Brown's list (first 10 ranks Physiologyare occupied by 11 journals)

3 o 3

Vol 20 No 1-4 Mar-Dee 1973 53

SENGUPTA

Journal and resent rankinEarlier rankin

1944list

Brodman'slist

Brown'slistYear of publication in

parentheses2 3 4

1 J.Physiol., Lond. (1878)2 Am. J. Physiol. (1898)3 Endocr inology (1917)4 J. appl. Physiol. (1948)5 Nature, Lond. (1869)6 Circulation Res. (1953)7 J.Neurophysiol. (1938)8 Science, N. Y. (1883)9 J. gen. physiol. (1918)10 Acta physiol. s ca nd , (1940)11 Fedn. Proc. , Fedn. Am. Soc s . expo BioI12 Pflugers Arch. ges. Physiol. (1868)13 Biochirn. biophys. Acta (1947)14 J. c l in i Inve st , (1924)15 Proc.Soc. expo Biol. Med. (1903)16 J. Cell Biol. (1955)

17 J.exp.Biol. (1930)18 J. Endocr. (1939)19 J.clin.Endocr.Metab. (1941)20 Expl. Neurol. (1959)21 J. bioI. Chern. (1950)22 J.comp.Neuroi. (1891)23 Ann.N. Y. Acad.Sci. (1823)24 Compo Biochem. Physiol. (1960)25 Clin. Sci. (1933)

31

21

21471592

81874

.125

43136

12

36

17 13

16

203

36

414

4 7

5710

59

41 41

92

539

4 33074

48 27

Table 7

Analysis of citations of the first twentyfive journals of thepresent list according to period of publication of cited article.

Name and ranking of Percent citations of articles published dur ingJournal

Year of first publica- Upto 1901- 1921- 1941- 1951- 1956- 1961- 1966- Totaltion in parentheses 1900 20 40 50 55 60 65 70

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

J. Physiol. ,Lond. (0.28) (1. 13) (1. 13) (3.66) (7.75) (27.46) (58.59) 710(1878)

2 Am. J. Physiol. (1. 84) (1. 13) (1. 13) (2.40) (22.74) (70.76) 70lS(1898)

3 Endocr ino1ogy (0.39) (1. 35) (3.86) (29.92) (64.48) 513(1917)

Continued:

54 Ann Lib Sci Doc

CHOOSINGPHYSIOLOGY PERIODICALS

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

4 J. appl. Physiol. (0.99) (21. 05) (77.96) 304

(1948)(0.34) (0.34) (3.73 ) (31.53) (64.07) 2955 Nature, Lond.

(1869)(0.35) (2.45) (12.59) (84.62) 2866 Circulation

(1953)(0.39) (5.43) (3.49) (8.91 ) (34.11) (47.67) 2587 J. Neurophys iol.

(1938)(0.41) (0.82) (2.88) (29.22) (66.67) 2438 Science, N. Y.

(1883)(0.41) (0.83) (2.89) (6.20) (21. 07) (68.60)9 J. gen. Physiol. 242

(1918)

10 Acta physiol. scand. (1. 89) (2.36) (6.60) (28.30) (60.85) 212(1940)

11 Fedn. Froc. Fedn. Am. - (0.98) (0.49) (0.98) (20.98) (76.59) 205Am.Socs. expoBioI.

(1942)12 Pflugers Arch. ges. (0.50) (0.50) (3.02) (24.62) (71. 36) 199

Physiol.(1868)

13 Biochem. biophys. Acta - (1. 01) (24.24) (74.75) 198(1947)

14 J. clin. Invest. (0.51 ) (2.03) (0.51 ) (4.57) (20.81) (71. 57) 197(1924)

15 . Proc. Soc. expo (1. 74) (2.91) (2.33) (8.72) (22.67) (61.63) 172BioI. Med.

(1903)16 J.Cell BioI. (1...53) (36.71) (60.76) 158

(1955 )17 J. expoBiol. (3.54) (0.88) (1. 77) (16.81 ) (41. 59) (35.4D) 113

(1930)18 J. Endocr. (8.41 ) (21. 50) (7D.09) 107

(1939)19 J. clin. Endocr. Metab. - (0.97) (0.97) (4.85) (18.45) (74.75) 103

(1941 )

20 Expl. Neurol. (8.14) (25.58) (66.28) 86(1959)

2D J. b iol , Chem. (3.49) (1. 16) (3.49) (9.30) (30.23) (52.33) 86(19D5 )

22 J. comp. Neurol. (4.71 ) (1. 18) (7.06) (17.65) (27.06) (42.35) 85(1891 )

23 Ann.N. Y.Acad.Sci. (1. 27) (7.59) (21. 52) (69.62) 79(1823)

24 Comp. Biochem. (32.47) (67.53) 77Physiol.(196D)

25 Clin. Sc i, (6.85) (21. 92) (71. 23) 73(1933)

Total: (0.05) (0.70) (D.96) (1. 47) (4.97) (25.73) (66.19) 5714

Vol 20 No 1-4 Mar-Dec 1973 55

SENGUPTA

Table 8

Analysis of citations according to subject class ification of per iodical s

S1. Subject cIa ss ification Number of Number of Percentage of

No. titles in total total of firstranking list citations 165 journals

1. Science (General) 8 803 9:002. Physics 2 57 0.643. Chemistry 3 38 0.434. Biological Sciences (General) 12 503 5.645. Experimental Biology and Medicine 3 295 3.316. Cell Biology 7 248 2.787. Microbiology 1 7 0.088. Biochemistry 16 708 7.939. Plant Physiology 1 16 0.17

10. Zoology 5 123 l. 38ll. Anatomy 6 148 1. 6612. Physiology 30 3519 39.4313. Endocr inology 7 856 9.5914. Reproductive Physiology 1 46 0.5215. Pharmacology 4 105 l. 1816. Experimental Medicine 4 56 0.6317. Pathology 2 25 0.2818. Medicine (General) 14 269 3.0119. Medicine (Specialitie s) 37 1074 12.0320. .Veter inary Science 2 28 0.31

Total: 165 8924 100

Table 9

Frequency of English and non-English journals in the present ranking list

English French German English, French, Multilingual TotalText Text Text German (multi- 4 or more

lingual with languages of2 or 3 of these which threelanguage) areE,F,G

Number of titles, 117 5 3 32 8 165

Percentage of all titles 70.90 3.03 1. 82 19.39 4.85 100

56 Ann Lib Sci Doc

CHOOSING PHYSIOLOGY PERIODICALS

Table 10

Countrywise distribution of Journals in the present ranking list

No. of Journals inthe present list

Citations of journals incolumn 2 as '7'. of total

Country of Publication

AustraliaBelgiumCanadaCzechoslovakiaDenmarkFranceGermanyHungaryItalyJapanNetherlandsNorwaySwedenSwitzerlandU.K.U.S.A.

222136

141144147

3182

\

0.200.590.830.200.851.375.40O. 180..480.833.730.352.941. 65

21. 9558.43

Total: 165 100.00

Table 11

Analysis of nurnbor- of citations in relation to size of journal and average length of the papers published

51. Name of Journal No. of Total Total No. No. of D f. £x 104No. papers No. of of words citations A A C

published pages noted for No.of Average (No. of citations induring 1969 citations length of relation to overallthe year per paper paper size of volume s

published published duringthe year)

.~ (B) (e) (D)

I. J. Physio!. •Lond. 887 5177 1610047 217 0.245 1015.2 I. 35Voloi.200-205, 1969

2. Am. J. PhY8 iol. 744 3452 2388784 204 0.274 3210.7 0.85Vola. 216-217

3. Endocr lnology 418 2751 1182930 99 0.237 2830.0 0.84Vols. 84-85, 1969

4. J. appl. Phys iol , 528 1788 954792 53 0.100 1808.3 0.56Volo. 26-27, 1969

5. Nature, Lond. 2297 5317 3389710 102 0.044 1458.3 o 31Vols. 221-224, 1969

o , Circulation Rea. 151 1765 728945 94 0.623 4827.5 I. 29Vola. 24-25, 1969

7. J. Neurophysiol. 76 1063 484728 51 0.671 6378.0Vol. 32, 1969

I. 05

8. Science. N. Y. 1209 6057 3694770 67 0.055 3056. IVole. 163_166. 1969

0.18

9. J. gen. Phys iol. 95 1643 471541 80 0.842 4963.6Vola. 53-54, 1969

1.70

10. Acta physio!. ecand. 170 1664 540800 53 0.312 3181.2Vols.75-77, 1969

0.98

Vol 20 No 1-4 Mar-Dee 1973 57