Perceptualand Motor Skills, 1990, 70, 401-402.

O Perceptual and Motor Skills 1990

SOURCE JOURNALS O F ARTICLES O N PSYCHOMOTOR PERFORMANCE: A LIST COMPILED FROM INDEX MEDICUS ' RICHARD W. BOHANNON University of Connecticut Summary.-During 1988 In Cumulated Index Medicus under psychomotor skills, cross-referenced as psychomoror performance, 129 journals were listed. The three most frequently listed were Experimental Brain Research, Perceptual and Motor Skills, and Neuropsychologia. Questions important in evaluating journals, the information they provide on a topic, etc. are complex.

Although over 50,000 scientific and technical journals are published worldwide (Lambert, 1985), only a small proportion of journals are relevant to any specific field of inquiry. Identification of a list of source journals of a field of inquiry, therefore, may be worthwhile. More specifically, a list of journals provides researchers with appropriate targets for manuscript subrnission, readers with sources of potentially relevant information, and librarians with suitable journals for acquisition. Historically, citation analysis has been used to identify source journals (Malin & Weinstock, 1975). An example of how citation analysis can be used to identify core source journals was recently published by Bohannon (1987), whose focus was physiotherapy. An alternative to the use of citation analysis is the analysis of lists of topic specific articles compiled by indexing services. The purpose of this brief report is to identify source journals of articles relevant to perceptual-motor performance that were listed in the Cumulated Index Medicus. Index Medicus is the hard copy index of the National Library of Medicine. The index lists articles from over 2800 source journals deemed important and relevant to medicine. Articles are indexed under medical subject headings. Although perceptual-motor performance per se is not a medical subject heading, psychomotor performance is a medical subject heading. Psychomotor performance, which is listed as a cross-reference for perceptual-motor performance, is defined by the National Library of Medicine as "the coordination of a sensory or ideational (cognitive) process and a motor activity." All article titles listed under the heading psychomotor performance in the Cumulated Index Medicus (1988) were examined. Those published in English were noted and the journals in which they were were tallied. A total of 129 different journals were identified that contained 307 articles relevant to psychomotor performance. Journals (33) identified three or more times are listed in the table. Experimental Brain Research, Perceptual 'Address requests for reprints to School of Allied Health, U-101, University of Connecticut, Storn, CT 06269-2101.

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R. W. BOHANNON

and Motor Skills, and Neuropsychologia were, by far, the most often listed journals. TABLE 1 SOURCE JOURNALS OF THREEO R MOREARTICLES O N PSYCHOMOTOR PERFORMANCE Journal Title

No. of Listings

Experimental Brain Research Perceptual and Motor Skills Neuropsychologia International Clinical Psychopharmacology Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology Toxicolo Journal z ~ e u r o l Neurosurgery o ~ ~ and Psychiatry Neuroscience Aviation Space and Environmental Medicine Behavioral Brain Research Brain Research Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology Journal of Neuro hysiology Neuroscience ~eRavioralPhvsiolom , -. k t a Psychology European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology Psycho harmacology Alcohoksm Arzneimittelforschung Brain Chronobiology International Clinical Pharmacology Therapeutics Drug and Alcohol Dependency Ergonomics International Journal of Psychophysiology Journal of Dental Education Journal ol Gerontology Journal of Neuroscience Journal of Studies of Alcohol Neurology Psychological Review Slee~

26 20 14 8 7 7

6 6 5

5 5 5

The list of source journals identified by Index Medicus was quite extensources sive. It appears, therefore, that there are a large number of of information relevant to perceptual-motor performance. Two important issues, however, remain unresolved by the index examination reported herein. First, the best sources are not necessarily identified. All that are identified are the sources with the most potentially relevant articles. Whether the identified source journals contain the most relevant or highest quahty articles is not established. Second, only one bibliographic reference index was used. That index is focused on medicine. Bibliographic reference indexes, such as Psychological Abstracts, may or may not provide a similar list of source journals. Accepted March 13, 1330

Source journals of articles on psychomotor performance: a list compiled from Index Medicus.

During 1988 in Cumulated Index Medicus under psychomotor skills, cross-referenced as psychomotor performance, 129 journals were listed. The three most...
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