An investigation of international journal usage by Iranian medical researchers

Abstract

Knowledge of the extent to which information sources are used allows library managers to evaluate a library’s collection and to make holding, archiving and purchasing decisions. The major objectives of this study were to identify a) the format of materials used in Iranian medical research, b) the age of cited items, c) the most frequently used journal titles which are critical to maintaining the core collection; and d) the half-life of the most cited journals. The results show the pattern of citation by type of media cited to have remained constant over the three years of the study, with journals being the most preferred format, accounting for 77.34% of all citations, followed by books (18.67 %) and theses (1.5%). The results show that the age of cited materials varied from one type to the other. However there is a slight tendency to cite more recent issues within each type of media except web resources. The citation half-life of non- Iranian journals was 9 years whilst, on average, 50% of Iranian journals were cited within the last 6 years; however, the trend tends towards more recent issues. Web resources have the lowest half-life of three years. The 108 most cited internationally published journals (zone 1), providing 33% of Iranian medical researchers information needs, were extracted on the basis of their citation frequency. These can be used by Iranian medical libraries as a baseline for subscription. Their corresponding quartiles of usage can be a criterion for storage policy.