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Authorship outlets of academic health sciences librarians By Pamela S. Bradigan, M.S., J.D. Assistant Director Carol A. Mularski, M.L.S. Coordinator of Online Services and User Education John A. Prior Health Sciences Library Ohio State University 376 West 10th Avenue Columbus, Ohio 43210-1240

This study is intended to assist librarians in determining the types of publications in which papers written by academic health sciences librarians are published. The research and publication activity of librarians is often used in evaluating academic librarians, and it is therefore of interest to many. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE In 1977, Watson analyzed data on academic librarians according to publication type [1], and in 1989, Yerkey and Glogowski studied publications by all types of authors of library/information science materials [2]. Also in 1989, Fang compiled a list of the journals that most often publish articles by health sciences librarians or articles on health sciences librarianship [3]. Watson collected data on the publication activity of academic librarians for a five-year period and found that the largest percentage (39%) of publications appeared in library journals. The second-largest percentage of publications (30%) appeared in journals outside library science. Monographs and chapters within monographs constituted the other 31% of publications in Watson's study [4]. Yerkey and Glogowski sampled citations and abstracts for library/information science documents from fifty-five bibliographic databases in the BRS Information Technologies system, excluding Library and Information Science Abstracts (LISA). The authors found that the largest percentage of publications was journal articles. Some other highly ranked publication categories were conference reports, government reports, and monographs. These authors also analyzed the journals that published such articles and found that most of them were library or information science journals. The second largest group was journals in medicine or health sciences [5]. Fang studied articles written by health sciences librarians about health sciences librarianship and drew up a list of journals in which such articles were published. The data were collected from searches of the Social SCISEARCH and MEDLINE databases. Fang 188

also used citation analysis to determine which journals were most likely to be cited by health sciences librarians [6]. Although Watson, Fang, and Yerkey and Glogowski all studied the publication outlets of academic or academic health sciences librarians, their methodologies differed significantly from those of the present study. METHODOLOGY

The population of academic librarians in the current study was drawn from the U.S. membership of the Medical Library Association (MLA). A random sample of 254 was selected from a total of 739 U.S. librarians listed. The survey was designed to yield demographic information, as well as a list of each respondent's publications from 1979 to 1989 in three categories: journal articles, monographs, and chapters in monographs. The demographic information was analyzed in a previous study [7]. Respondents were asked to send a publication list, if one existed. The surveys were sent in June 1989, with a follow-up in August 1989. A total of 182 responses was received, for a 71.7% response rate. There were usable responses from 169 MLA members (66.5%) currently employed as professionals in U.S. academic libraries. Citations all had to meet the following criteria: * published no earlier than 1979; * either already published or accepted for publication; * available regionally, not just in a local publication (e.g., the respondent's college or university magazine); and * not a book review, regular column, or unpublished paper presented at a professional meeting.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Using the above criteria, 461 published or accepted journal articles, monographs, or chapters were used for this study. A little more than half of the monograph chapters were transcripts of presentations by the librarians at professional meetings and were included if the proceedings had been published. In the analysis of the survey results, these chapters were separated into two categories: monograph chapters and conference proceedings. Of the 169 respondents, 86 (50.9%) had written or co-written at least one item that satisfied the criteria. The average number of publications per respondent over a ten-year period was 2.7 (5.4 per author). Very few publications appeared on the lists of two respondents; duplicate publications were counted twice because one of the study's purposes was to deBull Med Libr Assoc 80(2) April 1992

Brief communications

termine academic health sciences librarians' publishing activity.

Publication formats Most academic health sciences librarians appeared as journal authors, which is not surprising (Table 1). Journals are the most important medium for research communication. The respondents were responsible for 315 journal articles from 1979 through 1989, or 68.3% of the total number of publications. Of the 86 authors who responded to the survey, 74 (86%) published in journals, and they averaged 4.3 journal articles per author. The average per respondent was 1.9 articles over a ten-year span. This group also wrote a large number of monographs: sixty-eight (14.8% of the total publications). There were twenty-five monograph authors, with an average of 2.7 monographs per author. However, one respondent wrote or co-wrote twenty-seven government reports during the past ten years in a previous nonlibrary position-an unusually high number. When this author is removed from the results, the number of monographs is reduced to forty-one, and the average number of monographs per author is 1.5. The average number of monographs per respondent (representing the total population) is 0.4. An estimated 14% of U.S. academic health sciences librarians in MLA published a paper they delivered at a meeting, 44% published a journal article, 15% published a monograph, and 18% wrote a chapter in a monograph at least once during a ten-year period (Table 2). Publication activity in journals Because the health sciences librarians surveyed published most often in journals, journals were analyzed in more detail. Of the total 102 journal titles in which the survey respondents appeared as authors in the past ten years, 57 (55.9%) were library/information science journals, 31 (30.4%) were health sciences journals, and 14 (13.7%) were journals in other disciplines. (These included journals in education, history, computer science, and business.) Publication activity in the three principal journal types was analyzed (Table 3). More than two thirds of the 315 articles from the survey results (67.3%) appeared in library/ information science publications. A large minority of the articles (27%) was published in health sciences journals. An estimated 39% of the population published in a library/information science journal, 15% in a health sciences journal, and 5% in other journals. Table 4 shows the twenty-two journals in which academic health sciences librarians appeared as authors at least three times during the period 1979-1989. Bull Med Libr Assoc 80(2) April 1992

Table 1 Formats of publications: journal articles, monographs, chapters, or proceedings (n = 169)

Format Journal articles Monographs Monograph chapters Published proceedings Total or average

Number Average Averge of per per reauthors author spondent

Number

315 (68.3%) 68 (14.8%) 36(7.8%) 42 (9.1%) 461

74 25 30 24 86*

4.3 2.7 1.2

1.9 0.4 0.2 0.3 2.7

1.8 5.4

* This figure represents the total number of respondents who published at least once during a ten-year period. Some authors used more than one format.

It is not surprising to find that academic health sciences librarians wrote eighty-four papers that appeared in the Bulletin of the Medical Library Association, making it the most popular publication outlet of these MLA members. Fifteen (65.2%) of the most popular outlets were library/information science journals, seven (30.4%) were health sciences journals, and one (4.4%) was a journal on another subject.

Librarians' activity in health sciences journals Twenty-five librarian-authors published at least one article in a health sciences journal (Table 3). These Table 2 Estimated population norms for publication formats (n = 169) Number of publications Joumal articles 0 1-5

6-10 11-15 16+ Monographs 0 1-5

6-10 11-15 16+ Monograph chapters 0 1-5

Number of respondents

Proportion of population

95 59 9 5 1

0.56 0.35 0.05 0.03 0.01

144 23 1

0.85 0.13 0.01

-

-

1

0.01

139 30

0.82 0.18

-

-

-

-

-

-

0 1-5 6-10

145 23 1

0.86 0.13 0.01

11-15 16+

-

-

-

6-10 11-15 16+ Published proceedings

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Table 3 Publication activity by journal subjects (n = 169) Type

Number

Number of authors

Average per author

Average per respondent

Articles in library/information science journals Articles in health sciences joumals Articles in miscellaneous subject joumals Total or average

212 (67.3%) 85(27.0%) 18 (5.7%) 315

66 25 9 74

3.2 3.4 2.0 4.3

1.3 0.5 0.1 1.9

* This figure represents the total number of respondents who published at least one journal article over a ten-year period. Some authors wrote in more than one discipline.

librarians were 14.9% of the respondents and 30% of the authors. Twelve (48%) were heads of departments or specialized libraries, three (12%) were directors of health sciences libraries, and three were associate directors. Six other authors (24%) were reference librarians, and one (4%) was a coordinator. The titles of many articles indicated their formats or content. More than half (55.3%) of the eighty-five articles in health sciences journals were biographical essays. Bibliographies accounted for 10.6% of the papers. Popular topics were end-user searching, management of personal bibliographic files, the value of academic health sciences libraries in the education of Table 4 Journal titles in which authors most frequently published

Joumal title

Bulletin of the Medical Library Association (L)* Proceedings of the Institute of Medicine of Chicago (H)t Medical Reference Services Quarterly (L) Clinical Librarian Quarterly (L) Nebraska Library Association Quarterly (L) Nursing Outlook (H) Online (L) Professional Education Researchers (S)t RQ (L) 6. Bookmark (L) Database (L) Journal of the American Society for Information Science (L) Serials Librarian (L) 7. American Libraries (L) Annals of Intemal Medicine (H) College and Research Libraries News (L) Journal of the Arkansas Medical Society (H) Joumal of Biocommunications (H) Octasphere (L) Pharos (H) Physical and Occupational Therapy in Pediatrics (H) Science and Technology Libraries (L) Virginia Librarian (L)

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

(L)-Library/lnformation science journal.

t (H)-Health sciences journal. t (S)-Miscellaneous subject journal.

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Number of articles 84 40 17 7 5

4

3

health professionals, and future trends in libraries and information management. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

Journal articles are the most common publication format for U.S. academic health sciences librarians. This is consistent with the findings of other researchers. Of the total publications in this study, 68% were in journals. Watson found that 69% of the academic librarians' publications were published in some type of journal [8]. Similarly, Yerkey and Glogowski found that 67% of the publications in their study were journal articles, although their population consisted of all types of authors of library/information science materials [9]. Both the present study and Watson found that monographs were the second most common publication outlet. Watson found that 16% of the total publications were monographs; the current study identified 14.8% of the total publications as monographs [10]. Although Watson's findings are similar to the newer results, it is important to note that Watson's study was conducted in a different manner and included book reviews, which were not counted in the present study. The health sciences librarians in the present study published more than two thirds of their articles in library/information science journals and 27% in health sciences journals. Similarly, in Yerkey and Glogowski's study, the second-largest number of library/ information science articles appeared in medical and health sciences journals [11]. Fang also found that 22.57% of the journal articles on health sciences librarianship or by health sciences librarians were in medical journals [12]. This seems to demonstrate the desire of health sciences librarians to communicate with the health professions. Yerkey and Glogowski pointed out that library and information science is an interdisciplinary field, "borrowing and supplying information to and from other disciplines" [13]. Bull Med Libr Assoc 80(2) April 1992

Brief communications

Future researchers may want to study in greater depth the positions of individuals writing as librarians in health sciences journals. It may also be interesting to determine what motivates health sciences librarians to write articles for biomedical journals. Health sciences librarians' motivation (or lack of motivation) in doing research and publishing their findings should also be further examined.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT The authors gratefully acknowledge Ohio State University's Statistical Consulting Service, which provided assistance in the statistical analysis of the data for this study. REFERENCES 1. WATSON PD. Publication activity among academic librarians. Coll Res Libr 1977 Sep;38(5):375-84. 2. YERKEY N, GLOGOWSKI M. Bibliographic scatter of library and information science literature. J Educ Libr Inf Sci 1989 Fall;30(2):90-101. 3. FANG ME. Journal rankings by citation analysis in health sciences librarianship. Bull Med Libr Assoc 1989 Apr;77(2): 205-11. 4. WATSON, Op. cit., 380-1. 5. YERKEY and GLOGOWSKI, Op. cit., 94. 6. FANG, Op. cit., 205. 7. MuLASKi CA, BRADIGAN PS. Academic health sciences librarians' publication patterns. Bull Med Libr Assoc 1991 Apr;79(2):168-77. 8. WATSON, Op. cit., 380. 9. YERKEY and GLOGOWSKI, Op. cit., 94. 10. WATSON, Op. cit., 380. 11. YERKEY and GLOGOWSKI, Op. cit., 94. 12. FANG, Op. cit., 207. 13. YERKEY and GLOGOWSKI, Op. cit., 90.

Received May 1991; accepted August 1991

Expanded use of GaIN network for rapid dissemination of current clinical information By Martha Childs Watkins, M.Ln. GaIN Program Director Assistant Director

Medical Library Mercer University School of Medicine Macon, Georgia 31207 THE CHALLENGE

Steinbrook and Lo have reported that the primary method for informing health care professionals about promising new therapies is the news media [1]. Little information is provided to educate the caregiver. Steinbrook and Lo call for a commitment by federal agencies to better inform physicians about promising new treatments, possibly through "expanded use of on-line computerized information sources." Examples are AIDSTRIALS, the National Cancer Institute's PDQ database, and other databases provided to the public through the National Library of Medicine (NLM). The authors do not, however, consider the role that NLM or other libraries might play in the rapid dissemination of this treatment information. THE NATIONAL OPPORTUNITY In a letter to Regional Medical Library Network members (January 25, 1991), Colaianni reported that NLM Director Donald A. B. Lindberg has suggested that NLM and health sciences libraries could take a more active role in disseminating electronically the results of clinical trials performed under the aegis of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). NLM has since developed a program whereby users of the MEDLARS system will be informed of NIH clinical alerts in the regular MEDLARS online "news" message. The clinical alert message contains a onesentence summary, an abstract with a maximum of seventy lines, and a telephone number for more information. With the first alert, all resource libraries were provided with a fax copy of the supporting information, followed by the letter from Colaianni with the same data and the suggestion that network libraries "develop a regular mechanism to reach poPDQ is a registered trademark of the National Cancer Institute. MEDLARS is a registered trademark of the National Library of Medicine.

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Authorship outlets of academic health sciences librarians.

Journal articles are the most common publication format for U.S. academic health sciences librarians. This is consistent with the findings of other re...
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