Table 1. Core journals in five fields used in this study.
| Field | Journal title | Articles (1961–2010) | Articles (with references, 2006–2010) | Average number of ref (2006–2010) |
| AST | ASTRONOMICAL JOURNAL | 14392 | 2022 | 48.6 |
| AST | ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS | 44050 | 9109 | 43.8 |
| AST | ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL | 70661 | 12297 | 49.3 |
| AST | MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY | 27768 | 8042 | 47.2 |
| MAT | ACTA MATHEMATICA | 667 | 56 | 35.5 |
| MAT | AMERICAN JOURNAL OF MATHEMATICS | 2515 | 253 | 27.2 |
| MAT | ANNALS OF MATHEMATICS | 2289 | 310 | 30.5 |
| MAT | INVENTIONES MATHEMATICAE | 3477 | 325 | 31.7 |
| MAT | JOURNAL OF FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS | 5175 | 1301 | 25.0 |
| MAT | JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY | 513 | 171 | 30.9 |
| MAT | MATHEMATICS OF COMPUTATION | 4560 | 563 | 23.2 |
| MAT | PROCEEDINGS OF THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY | 2406 | 264 | 28.2 |
| ROB | ADVANCED ROBOTICS | 1009 | 424 | 22.3 |
| ROB | AUTONOMOUS ROBOTS | 454 | 208 | 33.8 |
| ROB | IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE | 406 | 167 | 23.2 |
| ROB | IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ROBOTICS* | 1720 | 447 | 30.9 |
| ROB | INDUSTRIAL ROBOT-AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL | 409 | 198 | 18.2 |
| ROB | INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ROBOTICS RESEARCH | 1214 | 251 | 35.9 |
| ROB | JOURNAL OF FIELD ROBOTICS** | 1178 | 191 | 31.6 |
| ROB | JOURNAL OF INTELLIGENT & ROBOTIC SYSTEMS | 1093 | 333 | 26.4 |
| ROB | ROBOTICS AND AUTONOMOUS SYSTEMS | 867 | 344 | 29.7 |
| ECL | ECOLOGY | 9753 | 1662 | 50.4 |
| ECL | JOURNAL OF ANIMAL ECOLOGY | 3532 | 661 | 54.0 |
| ECL | JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY | 3627 | 596 | 56.5 |
| ECL | OECOLOGIA | 9990 | 1454 | 54.3 |
| ECL | OIKOS | 6150 | 1043 | 50.8 |
| ECN | AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW | 4502 | 475 | 36.1 |
| ECN | ECONOMETRICA | 2907 | 270 | 32.0 |
| ECN | JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC THEORY | 2857 | 578 | 24.4 |
| ECN | JOURNAL OF MONETARY ECONOMICS | 1731 | 427 | 30.1 |
| ECN | JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY | 2700 | 158 | 36.9 |
| ECN | QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS | 2080 | 206 | 42.4 |
| ECN | REVIEW OF ECONOMIC STUDIES | 2030 | 237 | 37.6 |
| Total | 213756 | 45043 |
*
Includes: IEEE JOURNAL OF ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION and IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION.
**
Includes: JOURNAL OF ROBOTIC SYSTEMS.
Mean number of references per article in each journal is given in the last column. Field abbreviations: astronomy (AST), mathematics (MAT), robotics (ROB), ecology (ECL), and economics (ECN).