A Citation Characteristic Study on Journal Literature of Natural Science

• Main Authors: Lin, Yen Chun, 林彥均
• Other Authors: Tsay, Ming Yueh
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/39848976007701352637

碩士 === 國立政治大學 === 圖書資訊與檔案學研究所 === 102 === To better understand the journal citation characteristics of natural science, the current study addresses the issue in aspects of citation patterns, literature obsolescence, and citation function. Document type, language, quantity and year of references, median citation age, and citation type of structured research articles are collected and analyzed using methods of citation analysis and content analysis; various tests for homogeneity are conducted as well. 300 articles are collected as samples from 10 source journals indexed in 2011 Journal Citation Reports (Science Edition) in chemistry, chemical engineering, microbiology, medicine, and botany, with one domestic journal and one foreign journal in each discipline. According to the results, journal articles are the most common document type among references in the 10 source journals. English publications are the major source of references, while Chinese publications are referenced by not only domestic journals but some foreign journals as well. As for references cited in the sample articles, the averages of reference number in foreign journals are generally higher than those of domestic journals in each discipline. In view of literature obsolescence, articles in the 10 source journals tend to cite literature published within 10 years, and the references collected from sample articles age faster than those of social science and humanities disciplines examined in previous studies. With respects to citation type proposed by Peritz, “setting the stage for the present study” appears the most in all source journals with chemical journals ranking first. Percentage of “background information” is the highest in the source journals of microbiology, “comparative” in medicine, and “argumental, speculative, hypothetical” in microbiology. The differences between domestic and foreign source journals in the five disciplines primarily occur in "setting the stage for the present study," "methodological," "comparative," and "argumental, speculative, hypothetical," while the distribution of citation type is more equitable in source journals of botany and microbiology. The findings of the current study may serve as reference for information institutes or constructors of citation index database, and provide some directions for future studies.