Skip to main content
Bulletin of the Medical Library Association logoLink to Bulletin of the Medical Library Association
. 1996 Apr;84(2):200–204.

Identifying a core set of medical informatics serials: an analysis using the MEDLINE database.

D F Sittig 1
PMCID: PMC299403  PMID: 8826624

Abstract

A study was undertaken to test the hypothesis that a core set of medical informatics serials could be identified by using standard bibliometric techniques. All journal articles indexed by the National Library of Medicine between 1990 and 1994 were included. Articles were identified by using the "MEDICAL INFORMATICS" Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) term. Each serial title containing articles was then ranked according to (1) the total number of medical informatics journal articles indexed and (2) the percentage of medical informatics journal articles indexed. Twenty-eight serials had more than 100 articles indexed under the "MEDICAL INFORMATICS" MeSH term. Thirty serials had more than 40% of their articles indexed under the "MEDICAL INFORMATICS" MESH term. A "core" set of fourteen serials had 100 or more medical informatics articles indexed, including more than 70% of all articles they published. The methodology described provides librarians with another tool to use in the difficult task of journal selection. The set of "core" serials identified provides librarians with a ranked list of serials, based on which a medical informatics collection can be developed.

Full text

PDF
203

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Blois M. S. What is medical informatics? West J Med. 1986 Dec;145(6):776–777. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Brookes B. C. Bradford's law and the bibliography of science. Nature. 1969 Dec 6;224(5223):953–956. doi: 10.1038/224953a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Collen M. F. Origins of medical informatics. West J Med. 1986 Dec;145(6):778–785. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Cooper J. A. Medical informatics: a definition and a role in academic medical centers. J Med Educ. 1986 Jun;61(6):476–477. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Friedman C. P. Where's the science in medical informatics? J Am Med Inform Assoc. 1995 Jan-Feb;2(1):65–67. doi: 10.1136/jamia.1995.95202550. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Goffman W., Morris T. G. Bradford's law and library acquisitions. Nature. 1970 Jun 6;226(5249):922–923. doi: 10.1038/226922a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Goffman W., Warren K. S. Dispersion of papers among journals based on a mathematical analysis of two diverse medical literatures. Nature. 1969 Mar 29;221(5187):1205–1207. doi: 10.1038/2211205a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Greenes R. A., Shortliffe E. H. Medical informatics. An emerging academic discipline and institutional priority. JAMA. 1990 Feb 23;263(8):1114–1120. doi: 10.1001/jama.263.8.1114. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Haux R. On medical informatics. Methods Inf Med. 1989 Apr;28(2):66–68. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Lincoln T. L. Medical informatics: the substantive discipline behind health care computer systems. Int J Biomed Comput. 1990 Jul;26(1-2):73–92. doi: 10.1016/0020-7101(90)90021-l. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Lindberg D. A., Schoolman H. M. The National Library of Medicine and medical informatics. West J Med. 1986 Dec;145(6):786–790. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Rada R., Blum B., Calhoun E., Mili H., Orthner H., Singer S. A vocabulary for medical informatics. Comput Biomed Res. 1987 Jun;20(3):244–263. doi: 10.1016/0010-4809(87)90057-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Sittig D. F. Grand challenges in medical informatics? J Am Med Inform Assoc. 1994 Sep-Oct;1(5):412–413. doi: 10.1136/jamia.1994.95153429. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Stead W. W. What is medical informatics? Colo Med. 1989 Nov;86(17):332–332. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Bulletin of the Medical Library Association are provided here courtesy of Medical Library Association

RESOURCES