Abstract
In a recent article with the above title R. C. Coile publishes a list of electrical engineering periodicals arranged in the order of the frequency with which references were made to them in the articles contained in six ‘key’ journals in 1949. It is then stated: ‘This method of ranking periodical journals may be considered to provide an approximate index of usefulness of the periodicals to engineers and librarians.’ There is no doubt that the list is of considerable interest, and probably represents no less than is claimed for it as an approximation to a rather uncertain truth; but a warning is necessary against according such a list a greater degree of authority than it deserves. Its character is determined by the choice of the six ‘key’ journals, which was made on the basis of a ‘preliminary pilot survey’, of which no details are given; the list might well have been different had other ‘key’ journals been chosen.
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