ht. Lib. Rev. (1971) 3, 123-131

Current Control of Journal Literature in Economics in the United Kingdom NORMAN ROBERTS?

Economics is one of the longest established of the social sciences. Despite the importance of the literature as a research and development base bibliographical work within economics is often frustratingly unproduc- tive because of the lack of appropriate and effective ‘ctools”. The prob- lems are particularly acute in the field of periodical literature; insistence upon effective current control1 compounds the difficulties. Although there is general agreement that a problem exists, very little has been written about its precise nature either in international or national terms. In con- centrating upon our own national situation it emerges that there is no measure, for example, of the degree of coverage of British economic journals established by the currently available indexing/abstracting services; no assessment appears to have been made of the reliability of the i/a services or their policies; there is no evidence upon which to base generalisations about the currency of the control so established. In an attempt to formulate tentative answers to some of these questions a limited investigation was undertaken to relate current control to British economics journals published during 1968 and up to August 1969. The work was based upon the holdings of Sheffield University Library.

INDEXING/ABSTRACTING SERVICES ANDJOURNALS

The first stage of the investigation consisted of the identification of the services to be regarded as contributing to current control. The criteria

t University of Sheffield Postgraduate School of Librarianship and Information Science, Western Bank, Sheffield SlO 2TM, England.

1 For the purposes of this investigation bibliographical control was taken to include listing, indexing and abstracting activities. Current control was employed to describe those Aspects of such activities that concentrated upon making known the contents of the most recen?‘journals with some degree of urgency. Unnecessary hairsplitting sometimes accompanies the use of such terms as current and recent but it seems a generous interpretation to insist that an indexing/abstracting service that appears less frequently than four t imes a year cannot be regarded as contributing to current control. This definition is not critical; but there is a need to stabilize bibliographical terminology. It might be a useful start to regard current control in the terms described above.

124 N. ROBERTS

for inclusion were frequency of publication (quarterly or more frequently) and the number of British economics journals indexed or abstracted. On this basis the six main services appeared to be those offered by DOCU- mentation Economiquel, Journal of Economic Literature2 and Economic Abstracts3 for abstracting and Bulletin Analytiqued, Public Afairs .&forma- tion Service5, British Humanities Index6 for indexing. In addition it was decided to include the Economic Journal7 as a control “tool” for its regular listing of the contents of periodicals. The Social Science and Humanities Index and Business Periodicals Index were excluded as marginal. Both services indexed only four British journal titles and these were covered by a number of the selected services. Although the International Biblio- graphy of Economics is occasionally regarded as contributing to current control it cannot be so considered upon any rational grounds. Its be- lated appearance (for example, the 1967 volume did not appear until 1969) places it firmly in the category of retrospective bibliography.

The second stage was the compilation of a representative list of British periodicals with a specialist interest for academic economists. Thirty titles were chosen on the basis of personal recommendations, journal and bibliographical citations. Although the sample contains the major British economic journals it does not fully reflect the range of journals which economists might use; it was impossible in the time available to take account of the wider journal use. A small random sample suggests that if such an allowance was made then all the figures, other than those for title coverage, would be lower. This is another way of saying that as interest moves away from the core journals the degree of control tends to lessen.

TITLE COVERAGE OF INDEXING/ABSTRACTING SERVICES

The number of journals examined by the i/a services individually,

1 Documentation iconomique: revue bibliographique de synthtse, publite avec le contours du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. Paris, Presses Universitaires de France. Appears six times a year.

2 Journal of Economic Literature ( 1.1.69). Evanston, Illinois, American Economic Associa- tion. Appears quarterly. Previously entitled Journal of Economic Abstracts.

3 Economic Abstracts: semi-monthly review of abstracts on economics, finance, trade and industry, management and labour. The Hague, Nijhoff. Appears twice a month.

4 Bulletin analytique et documentation politique, konomique et so&ale contemporaine. Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques. Paris, Presses Universitaires de France. Appears ten times a year.

5 Bulletin of the Public Affairs Infoormation Service: a selective subject list of the latest books, pamphlets . . . and periodical articles, relating to economic and social conditions . . . New York, P.A.I.S. Appears weekly.

6 British Humanities Index: London, Library Association. Appears quarterly. 7 Economic Journal: quarterly journal of the Royal Economic Society. London, Macmillan

(Journals) Ltd.

CURRENT CONTROL OF JOURNAL LITERATURE 125

and in combination, is a factor of obvious importance in assessing the degree of control established. The position regarding the chosen thirty titles is described in Table I.

TABLEI

Title coverage of British economic journals

(4 @I (4 (4 (4 6) M

1 2 3 4

Banker Barclays Bank Review British Journal of Industrial Relations Bulletin Oxford Institute of Economics

and Statistics * * 5 6 7 8 9

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

Business History Economic Age Economic History Review Economic Journal Economic Trends Economica Economist Farm Economist Journal of Agricultural Economics 30~~1 of Common Market Studies Journal of Development Studies Journal of Economic Studies Journal of Industrial Economics Journal of the Institute of Bankers Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Lloyd-s Bank Review Manchester School of Economic 65

Social Studies 22 National Institute Economic Review 23 Oxford Economic Paflers 24 Public Administration 25 Quarterly Economic Review : E. I. U. 26 Review of Economic Studies 27 Scottish Journal of Political Economy 28 Statistical News 29 three Banks Review 30 Yorkshire Bulletin of Economic &Y

Social Research

Number of titles covered

Expressed as percentage

*

*

*

*

*

*

* * *

*

*

*

$ * *

*

*

23 8

*

*

I

*

*

*

+

0

*

+

*

*

YF

*

*

*

17

8

*

*

*

*

*

*

4

*

*

*

$

9

*

*

*

*

*

$

19

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

9

*

*

*

9

*

*

*

*

*

22

0

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

9

*

*

*

+

*

*

*

*

*

21

*

*

*

*

6

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

18

79% 22% 57% 63% 73% 70% 60%

(a) Economic journal; (b) Documentation ficonomique; (c) Journal of Economic Literature; (d) Economic Abstracts; Humanities Index.

(e) Public Affairs Information Service; (f) Bulletin Analytique; (g) British

126 N.ROBERTS

Theoretically a total of 2 10 title citations is possible. Between them the seven services muster 128 citations-61 y0 of the possible total. Only three titles are examined by all the i/a services; a further ten are common to six services; 12 of the sample titles are common to four or fewer of the i/a services. This pattern of coverage helps to explain why information workers have to rely upon such a medley of aids in their attempts to exercise some form of control over British economic writing. Sub- scriptions placed with all the commercial i/a services would not ensure complete title coverage of the thirty selected titles. Their employment, in conjunction with the Economic Journal, would establish coverage of 29 of the 30 titles. The figures show that the title coverage provided by the combined commercial i/a services (i.e. excluding Economic Journal) is approximately 87% of the sample. It is unlikely that the proportion would be as high for all articles of an economic nature published in the United Kingdom. The major journals are included in the sample and coverage of the increasingly marginal publications would tend to diminish. The point that requires emphasis is that the existing degree of title coverage is attained only by summing the activities of six commer- cial i/a services.

Of the individual services the most extensive listing of titles is that provided by the Economic Journal. This service is not strictly comparable to that supplied by the other i/a agencies. A simple title page tran- scription of contents arranged under journal titles ordered with an occasional disregard for the alphabet may permit a primitive form of current awareness but contributes little towards a systematic exploitation of periodical literature. The commercial i/a services classify or aipha- betically subject index the material and, in three instances, provide abstracts-permitting subject exploitation.

The figures place the existing services in three categories of title coverage. The first, including Economic Journal, Public Afairs Information Service and Bulletin Analytique, gives a 70-79% range of coverage. The second, including Journal of Economic Literature, Economic Abstracts and British Humanities Index, gives 57-63% coverage. The third is composed of one i/a service-Documentation l?onomique offering 22% coverage. The abstracting services fall in the second and third categories indicating, perhaps, that it is difficult to achieve high title coverage and detailed processing of material at the same time.

ISSUE COVERAGE

Title coverage, however, is like any other statement of intent. It may mean much or little depending upon the thoroughness with which it is

CURRENT CONTROL OF JOURNAL LITERATURE 127

implemented. Although the number and choice of titles examined by an i/a service may be a helpful indicator of scope a criterion of possibly greater control significance is that relating to indexing and abstracting thoroughness. If the term control is to have any real meaning then it is essential to discover what proportion of articles in individual journals is treated by the i/a services (issue coverage) and to gain some idea of the proportion of total periodical literature that is covered by such services (journal literature coverage).

TABLE II

Issue coverage of selected journals

Number of Articles (b) (4 (4 (4 (f) (9)

W 45 78 42 7 12 78

57% 100% 53% 8% 15% 100%

(b) Documentation l%onomique; (c) Journal of Economic Literature; (d) Economic Abstracts; (e) Public Affairs Information Service; (f) Bulletin Analytique; (g) British Humanities Index.

7 Includes all articles longer than two pages from issues of Bulletin of the Oxford Institute of Economics and Statistics, Economic Journal, Economics, Journal of Common Market Studies, Oxford Economic Papers, Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Yorkshire Bulletin of Economic and Social Research.

A total of 468 citations is theoretically possible; the combined total of the i/a services is 262 (56%). 0 n average, a little over a half of the articles contained in a journal are selected for display by the i/a services. The Table shows that the average is not a very helpful figure in this instance concealing as it does, great variations in i/a practice. The Public Afairs Information Seruice with the highest title coverage of the commercial i/a services indexes only 8% of the available articles. In view of the largely practical considerations that govern the inclusion criteria of P.A.I.S. the result is not unexpected, Documentation lhonomique, sub- scribing to eight British journals only, indexes 57% of the available material. With two exceptions the indexing factor ranges between these two extremes of 8-57%.

A low issue coverage factor reduces the control effectiveness of i/a services; it introduces an unwanted element of uncertainty and chance into bibliographical search and control situations. An issue coverage factor range of 8-57% is too low to enable a useful level of control to be established. Certainty, and with it complete control, is based upon 100% issue coverage. This quality of service is supplied by the British Humanities Index and the Journal of Economic Literature. The latter reaches

128 N.ROBERTS

its high rating upon the basis of contents listing under journal titles similar to that found in the Economic Journal. Only a proportion of the articles so listed are abstracted. On this basis the Economic Journal also provides complete coverage. The only i/a service that permits of some form of subject control and consistently pursues a policy of cover-to- cover article indexing is the British Humanities Index. The willingness of this particular service to index anything and everything appearing within the covers of its selected journals makes it the most useful single “tool” produced by the commercial i/a services for the control of British periodical literature.

LITERATURECOVERAGE

The issue coverage factor makes no allowance for the time lapse between article publication and the corresponding i/a service record; neither does it relate i/a service coverage to the total output of relevant articles. To introduce these important factors 360 articles were randomly selected from the journal literature of 1968 and 1969 as represented by the 30 titles up to the month of August. The indexes and abstracts were searched for these articles during the first two weeks of September. The results therefore given an indication of article coverage at a given point in time. This is the measure that chiefly concerns the information worker. The results are presented in Table III.

TABLE III I/A services coverage of 360 articles, 1968-1969

Number of articles indexed/abstracted/listed Total

(4 @I (cl (4 (e) (0 (9)

360 221 24 82 110 24 29 189

looyo 70% 6% 23% 30% 6% 8% 53%

(a) Economic 3ournal; (b) Documentation lhonomique; (c) 3ournal of Economic Literature; (d) Economic Abstracts; (e) Public Affairs Information Service; (f) Bulletin Analytique; (g) British Humanities Index.

The figures speak for themselves only too clearly. The degree of current control exerted by the commercial i/a services is extremely low. The bibliographic importance of the Economic Journal is confirmed yet again providing, as it does, superior coverage of total article output. Of the commercial i/a services the British Humanities Index offers the most

CURRENT CONTROL OF JOURNAL LITERATURE 129

extensive coverage combined with subject indexing. From the point of view of British periodicals not one of the foreign services provides even a minimally acceptable degree of control.

The time lapse is one of the factors responsible for this poor result. The publication schedules of the journals to be indexed, their receipt by the i/a services, the processing of the articles, the publication schedules of the i/a services and their frequency of appearance-all these give rise to most difficult problems which the various agencies overcome with differ- ing degrees of success. In an attempt to estimate the time lapse between journal publication and the corresponding i/a record the indexed appearance of 13 major journals1 was checked against their publication dates.

TIME LAPSE

Table IV shows the range of the time-lapse. It may vary from 1 to 14 months and with no degree of consistency. It is not unusual to discover two or three widely separated issues of a journal being indexed together or to come across the indexing of a single issue spread over a number of abstract or index issues. For example, Documentation &onomique 125 : 1968 indexes articles from the EconomicJournal of March, June, September and December of 1967; articles from the Economic Journal LXXVIII (312) December 1968 are to be found in three issues of the Economic Abstracts XVI (20), 1969, XVI (21) 1969 and XVI (22) 1969.

TABLE IV

Time lapse range between publication and i/a record (in months)--1968-1969

(a) (b) (4 (4 (4 (f) (9) 2-11 6-14 4-9 2-7 2-11 2-8 l-9

(3) (6) (4) (2) (3) (4) (2)

(a) Economic Journal; (b) Documentation .&onomique; (c) Journal of honomic Liberature; (d) Economic Abstracts; (e) Public Aff Humanities Index.

airs Information Sewice; (f) Bulletin Analytique; (g) British

The modal values, given in parentheses, suggest a more favourable situation for a proportion of the literature treated by the i/a services. The scatter of journal issues through the various ranges of time lapse is such

1 Bulletin of the Oxford Institute of Economics and Statistics, Economic Journal, Economica, Journal of Common Market Studies, 3ournal of Industrial Economics, Manchester School of Economic and Social Studies, National Institute Economic Review, Oxford Economic Papers, Reuiew of Economic Studies, Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Yorkshire Bulletin of Economic and Social Research.

N. ROBERTS

as to diminish the interpretative significance of the mode. It could be employed, however, to order the i/a services according to their general promptness in the publication of their bibliographical record. This list has been incorporated into Summary Table V.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

The considerable contribution made by the Economic Journal to current bibliographical control is clearly shown in Table V. Only in promptness of publication does it fail to lead the commercial i/a services. The comparative success of the Economic Journal, however, is based upon the simplicity of the service which it offers. Contents listing has a part to play in current control but there is also a need for i/a services providing systematic subject control. The Economic Journal does not attempt this task. From the evidence it appears that the efforts of the commercial i/a services have failed to establish an acceptable standard of subject control. Inadequate title coverage, partial issue indexing, low proportion of total output systematically indexed or abstracted and tardy publica- tion combine to produce an overall current control system of signal in- effectiveness.

TABLE V

Ranked performance summary of i/a seruices

Title coverage Issue coverage Literature coverage Time lapse

1. Economic Journal 1. Economic Journal 1. Economic Journal 1. British Humanities 2. Public Affairs 1. British Humanities 2. British Humanities Index

Information Service Index Index 1. Economic Abstracts 3. Bulletin Analytique 1. Journal of Economic 3. Economic Abstracts 2. Economic Journal 4. Economic Abstracts Literature 4. Journal of Economic 2. Public Affairs 5. British Humanities 2. Documentation Literature Information Service

Index 8conomique 5. Bulletin Analytique 3. Bulletin Analytique 6. Journal of Economic 3. Economic Abstracts 6. Documentation 3. Journal of Economic

Literature 4. Bulletin Analytique Economique Literature 7. Documentation 5. Public Affairs 6. Public Affairs 4. Documentation

IZconomique Information Service Information Service &onomique

If the control of British periodical literature is to be improved the responsibility cannot be that of foreign i/a services. It is not appropriate, in this paper, to examine suitable methods for developing a British economic literature i/a service but it should be pointed out that the quality of service presently provided by the British Humanities Index is superior to that offered by other commercial i/a services. In this super-

CURRENT CONTROL OF JOURNAL LITERATURE 131

iority there may be found the basis either for enlarged coverage of economics periodical literature or the production of a specialized service for economists. Either form would find a welcome with librarians and information workers struggling to control economics literature with inadequate bibliographical aids.