CHOOSING MICROBIOLOGY PERIODICALS:STUDY OF THE GROWTH OF LITERATUREIN THE FIELD

An accouee of the growth and development ofthe subject Microblo~oll:y is presented followed by astudy bringing out the important journalB coveringthe subject. Taking the Annual Review of Mlcro-bi"ology, 1968-70, as source journal a ranked list ofjournals has been produced. Other aspect II of thecitation study (l0408 citations) are &.lsopresented.

History of Microbiology

Mic robiology is the branch of sciencedealing with the life cycle, physiology, nature,activity, structure, classification and distribu-tion of mic ro-o rganisms. thei r technologicalapplications and role in disease. The te rmmicro-organismll is applied to some unicellularand structurally closely related s irnpslerepresentatives of the plant and animal kingdom,and are generally invisible to the naked eyeand of dimensions between a fraction of amicron and 200 microns.

The fi rst mention of the possibility thatdisease could be rlue to organisms too smallto be seen with the naked eye was made in1546 by F rac asto rius 0 f the celeb rated PaduaUniversity. The beginning of microbiology asa science ran parallel to the evolution ofmic roscope. Afte r the introduction of the fi rstcompound microscope by Jansen (1590), Kircherin 1659 lIiWT minute living matters in decompo-sed meat, vinegar, milk etc. The first manwho saw micro-organisms was probablyLeeuwenhoek (J 676) who described the tinyanimalcules which he saw by means of asimple glass lens in "Collected water in a dish"and reported the same in a paper to the RoyalSociety in London About a hundred yearslater ('I 773), the Danish microbiologist Mullerunde rtook a systematic study of mic ro-organisms and classified and named themaccording to the code developed by Linnaeus.Naegeli (1857) and later Cohn (1872) made somebrilliant researches due to which accurate andmode rn class ification of bac te ria becamepossible. Cohn actually laid the foundations

Vol 21 No 3 Sept 1974

I N SenguptaIndian Institute of Experimental MedicineCalcutta-32

of mode rn bacte ri ology almost exactly 200years after bacteria were first observed.

Bacteriology became established as adistinctive branch of scientific knowledge follow-ing the works of Pasteur and Koch. Pasteurin 1857 showed that lactic acid fermentationdepends on the presence of sub-visible organ-isms. The economic significance of bacte riawas also demonstrated by him. He showed thatbacte ria and related 0 rganisms such as yeastswere'the agents which produce fe zrnentat ion ,decay and even disease. In 1878 Koch,discovered the anthrax and tuber cul os is bacilli.On 24th March 1882 he announced to Be rlinPhysiological Society his discovery of thetubercule bacillus. He also did importantresearch on plague in India and showed the roleof the rat flies in the spread of the disease.Smith proved the impo rtance of soil bacte riaand their c ont r ibutf ona to soil fertility. In1880-81 Pasteur succeeded in immunizinganimals against diseases like fowl chole ra ,anthrax etc.

The rnode rn methods of bacteriology andtheir begining in the work of Pasteur. C.Weight introduced the us e of strains in 1871 andKoch (1881) discovered the method of separatingmixture s of 0 rganisms on plate s of nut dentmedia solidified with gelatin. The techniquesof bacteriology thus developed be ganfo beapplied to the study of other micro-organismsand its impo rtance in industrial mic ro\>iologylike brewing, wine making, manufacture ofcheese, disposal of sewage etc. was alsoestablished during the 1880's and 1890's.

The period from 1800 to 1900 waseventful in the hi-sto r y of microbiology.Mic robiology came of age during this pe riod.The work of Koch and Pasteur respectivelygave two directions to the subsequent develop-ment of microbiology. Koch and his studentsconcentrated on the isolation and exhaustivestudy of individual bacte ria. In due cou rse

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this led to the foundations of many highlyspecialized branches of bacteriology. Pasteurand his students attacked the problems ofprevention and control of infectious diseases bymeans of artificial vaccination. The resultsled to the creation of a branch of sciencecalled immunology. By his researches onchicken cholera, anthrax, swine erysipelas,and rabies between 1880-1888, Pasteur firstdi rected attention to the practical andtheo retic al po s sibilitie s of immunity.

The growth of chemothe rapy in mic ro-biology began with Ehrilich's discovery ofSalvar san for the treatment of syphilis in 1911.The discovery of sulphonamides by Domagk andsubsequently penicillin by Alexander Flemingestablished it as one of the most active areasof microbiological research. Microbiologywas for a long tim e. very largely an appliedscience empi rical in outlook, and isolatedfrom the mainstream of biological knowledge.The past thirty years have produced a radicalchange in this situation. Many of the conceptsof modern biochemistry, have originated inwork on the metabolism of mic ro -organisms.Molecular genetics, largely based on workwith bacte rial mutants, has added a newdimensions to the concepts and ideas ofclassifical genetic s. Studies on the inte r-actiorbetween viruses and host cells have modifiedour notions conce rning cellula r individualityand integrity. In these and many other waysmic robiology is now making fundamentalcont ributions to the concepts of biology as awhole.

Marjory Stephenson who pioneered tnestudy of chemical microbiology recognizedfive l~vels of investigation in the history ofmicrobiology upto 1945. In level A of InitialExploration, mixed cultures were studied innatural envi ronments. In level B, initiatedby Pasteur and Koch the activities andproperties of pure cultures were studiedand the great development of medical mi~ro-biology took place. In level ·Cthe breakdownof substances by "washed suspensions ofresting cells" was investigated and informationobtained about the fermentative and oxidativeactivitie s of bacte ria and yeasts>. In the levelD of nutritional studies pure cultures weregrown on chemically defined media andknowledge conce rning the pathways utilizedfor the biosynthesis of c elfula r materialobtained. In level E the biochemist elucidated

96

the mechanisms responsible for the differentmetabolic pathways and studies th e individualenzymes involved in them. Since then a sixthlevel of investigation has been establishedand gained av-erwhelming importance. Thislevel is concerned with genetic studies ofunicellular organisms hom which has comethe recent spectacular advances in molecularbiology and genetic s ,

Literature of Microbiology

With the emergence of microbiologyas a branch of scientific knowledge, journalsdevoted exclusively to microbiology, startedpublication to cater to the needs of microbiolo-gists engaged in research in this field. Priorto it, research workers in this field used to'publish their papers in medical journals andalso to journals devoted to other related discip-line s. The fir st journal de voted to micro bio-logy was perhaps -Revue Mycologique".It star-ted from Toulouse, France in the year 1879 andcontinued upto 1906. The second one was"Ar ch iv fur Hygien and Bakter iologie n whichappeared at Miinc hen in the year 1883. Anotherimportant journal "Zeitschrift furHygiene and Infektionskrankheiten" startedin the year 1886 from Leipzig and continuedpublication upto 1944 and after a brief breakrestarted publication in 1947 under a newextended title >"Zeitschrift fur' Hygiene Infektionskrankheiten med:'zinische MikrobiologieImmunologie und Virologie" and ran in thisname from 1947-1965 (Vols. 148-151) andfrom Vol. 152 (1966) it is still running undera new name" Zeitschrift fur medizinischeMikrobiologie und Immunologie". In Pa ris,"Annals de l'Institut Pasteur" started publica-tion in 1887. "Archives de parasitologie', and'Annale s de paras itologie hwnaine etComparee' were launched from Paris in 1898and 1923 respectively. In 1887 an importantabst racting journal "Zentralblatt fur Bakte rio-logie, Pa rasitenkunde, Infektionskrankheitenund Hygiene - appeared in Jena, Stuttgart andwas bifurcated later as Abteilung I&tll in 1895.The abteilung I was further sub-divided" in 2sections in 1902 as "Originale" and "Referate"while the abteilung II is still continuin,g withtemporary suspension from May 1945 to Nov.1947. 'Zeitschrift fur Parasitenkunde' wasfounded in Be rl in in 1928 and was suspendedwith Vol. 33 No.2, (] 943) and again resumedpublication with Vol. 14 (Jan. 1949) under thesame title and is still going strong.

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CHOOSING MICROBIOLOGY PERIODICALS

In the U. S. A. the "J ou rnal 0 f InfectiousDi se a ae s' (official publication of the InfectiousDiseases Society of America) began to appearin 1904 and the 'Journal of Parasitology'(offical organ of the American Society ofParasitologists which was' founded in 1924)in 1914. In 1916 two irrrpo rt ant journalsentitled '~Jou rnal of Bacte riology' and 'Journalof Imrnunology' bagan to appear f rorn the U.S.A.The former is a publication of the AmericanSociety for Microbiology (founded in 1899 asSociety of American Bacteriologists) while thelatter is the Official organ of the AmericanAssociation of Immunologists. In order tocope with the rapid growth of knowledge andliterature on virology and 'Infections andImmunity' sections of the J ourna 1 of Bacte riolo-gy, the Arn e r ic an Society for Microbiology hadto take the role as progenitor by founding twooffsprings of Journal of Bacteriology. Thefirst one 'Journal of Virology' started as abi-monthly publication from February 1967and ill the medium fo r dissemination offundamental knowledge conce rnirig vi ruse 5 ofbacte ria, plants and anim als. The secondjournal 'Infection and Immunity' began toappear as a monthly one from the January1970 and is scheduled to disseminate theadvanced fundamental knowledge concerningimmunology, pathogenic mic ro-o rganismsand infection, antimic robial agents andchemotherapy and ecology, epidemiology, andhost facto r s . In the U.S.A. the fi rs t abstrac-t~ng journal exclusively devoted to microbiologywas pe r'hap s 'Abstracts of Bacteriology' whichstarted publication in 1917 and was discontinuedwith Vol. 9 (Dec., 1925) and merged inBiological Abstracts. The reputed 'Bacteriolo!1;i.cal Reviews' started t rc m Baltimore in 1937,

In the U. K., the fi rst impo rtantjournal in this field was the 'Journal ofPathology and Bacteriology' which appeared in1892:!Annals of Tropical Medicine and Pa ra s i-tobgy' and the famous 'Parasitology' startedpublication in 1907 and 1908 respectively. TheDanish 'Acta pathologica et microbiologicascandtnav ica! came out in 1924, the Italianpublications 'Giornale di batteriologia e immu-nol ogi a ; 'Bolletinno delta Sezione italiana.Societa interna ziona l e di mic:robiologia' aad'Rivista di parassitologia' carne out from TorimMilano and Roma in the year 1926, 1929and 1937 respectively.

The first Ru s s ian pub l ic ati.on on thesubject was perhaps' Zhu rnal mic robiologii'

Vol 21 No 3 Sept 1974

which carne out from St. Petersburg in 1914and continued upto 1919. From 1924 anotherjournal' Zhurnal rnikrobiologii, patologii iinfektsionnykh boleznei' came out from Moscowin 1924 and continued under this title upto 1929and from 1930 it took a sho r t title 'Zhu rna 1mikrobiologii i irnrnunobiologii' and ranup to 1934 which is now being published from1935 unde r a rno di.fi e d title "Zhu rnal mikro-bto lo gii, epidemiologii i immunobiologii' andis c on s ide r e d as a ctandard journal 'In the sub-ject. Other important Russian publicationsare 'Mikrobiologiya' (J 932-) and 'Mykrobiolo-hi chni y i zhurnal' (1934-).

In ) 930, another standard Germanpubiication began to appear in the name 'Archivfill' Mikrobiologie'. The name of a Ge rrn an .journal which appe a rd in 1908, ceasedpublication and again reappeard as "ZeitschriftCur Immunitatsforschung UI)d experimentelleTherapie", Jena (1908-45,1949-) is worthmentioning. From Nethe rlands 'Antonie vanLeeuwenhoek, Journal of Microbiologv andSerology' was founded in the year 1934. TheSwiss Journal 'Schweizerische Zeitschrift furallgemeine Pathologie und Bakte riologie' eta r-ted publication from Basel in ) 938 andcontinued upto ) 94) and then a fte r a b re akof eight years restarted in J 950 and continuedupto 1959 under the same title. From 1960it is being published uncle r a new narne"Patho log ia et microhiologia' and is consideredas a good medium fo r disseminating micro-biological literature.

The above is in nut she 11 the hi st o ry ofevolution of microbiological journals upto thelater part of the t hi rt ie s of the 20th century.Because of the rapid expan aion of microbiologi-cal research leading t o the emergence of newareas like virology and also because of theinfluence of the new le ve l s of investigation likechemical microbiology and molecular biology,the re has been an inc rease in the lite ratu reof mic robiology to such an extent du ring theperiod after 1945 that no research worker canhope to kee p himself abreast of the recentprogress made in various facets of thisdiscipline.

Further, from. a study of the WorldList of Sc ient i fic Pe riodicals, e d , 4, itcan be seen that the number of journals in thefield of rn ic robiology has inc reased from) 9 in1900 to 68 in r 920, 160 in 1940 and 286 in1960. Though the exact figu re from) 960

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SENGUPTA

onwards to date is not available, yet it is belie-ved that this upward trend will be even morein the year, ending in 1980. Thus large rnumbers of specialist journals, wide scatt-erof literature because of relevance to somany areas of study, and the multi-facetedpoints of view of investigations have allcombined to multiply the difficulty of trackingdown all relevant lite ratu re in this discipline.Like biochemist ry, mic robiology is also goingthrough a phase in which the area of study isexpanding in new directions, particularlyin such new aspects as immunochemistry,biochemical virology and molecular geneticsthat research results of importance arescattered to a considerable extent outsideperiodicals exclusively concerned with theestablished branche s of mic robiolog y. Suchresults are likely to go unnoticed if theliterature search is confined within the limitsof acknowledged rn icrobiolo gical literature.

Taking all these facts into account, wehave taken Annual Review of Mic robiology,Vol s , 22-24, 1968-70 as the source jou rned sfor citation counting and prepa ring a rankedlist of journals in the field of Mic robiology.Advantage 5 of selecting Annual Reviews assou rce journal have been discusssed by Sen-gupta [1] in one of his· earlie r pape r. TheAnnual Review of Mic robiology answe rs theneeds of m ic robiologists with diverseinte re sts , exhaustively supplements thetreatment of the more limited topics appearingin research journals and integrates thediffe rent points of view of Ie ading apec ial ist sin the field by publishing reviews of a criticalnature by different authors. It may thereforebe considered an authentic soa rc e journalfor citaticns. Further during recent yearsno ranking of pe riodicals in this field has beenmade and thus it is expected that this table mayhelp librarians, documentalists and researchworkers in choosing the microbiology journalswhich would most effectively cove r thesignificant literature in the subject

The results are presented anddiscussed in this paper.

Terminology and Techniques

In this communication the term "Serials"has been taken to denote publications broughtout in running numbered sequence to bepublished for an indeterminate period of time,generally at regular intervals, norrnally not

98

more than one year, although irregularityin frequency of publication is not ruled out.Proceedings of congresses, colloquia, rne et ingsetc. -he ld periodically are conside red serialsin case a permanent parent organizationexists for arranging their publication, other-wise they are treated as books. Also, if thecolloquia, lectures etc are not publishedin a numbered sequence, they have beennoted as non-serial publications. A similarclassification has been made for monographsof learned societies. Serial annual publicationsdevoted to recent advances, progress seriesand othe r nonprima ry se rial publicationsconsisting of review articles haw beengrouped together separately for purposes o fanalysis. ·Citations of secondary pe r iod ical shave not been included with the se rial citationsin case the names of primary jcu rria.ls inwhich the original articles appears are given.Unpublished data, personal communications,theses and dissertations, reports, papers inpress or awaiting publications are notedseparately and treated as non-serial citations.All citations published at the end of the articles,within the texts of the article, and in footnotes are counted.

The jou rnals appearing in the ove ralltanked list were classified broadly into 23 sub-ject groupings using the U. D. C. s cherne as aguide for classification: science (general)chemistry; biologiciilsciences (gene ral);experimental biology and medicine; genetics;cell biology; mic robiology; vi rology; immuno-logy; parasitology; biochemt st ry (includingmolecular biology and biophysics); botany;plant physiology; zoology; physiology; publichealth and hygiene; expe rimental medicine;pathology; medicine (general); medicine{s pecial it ie s}: agriculture; veterinary s.cience;indust rial mic robiology.

In order to assess growth of microbiologi·cal journals WorId List of Scientific Pe riodi-cals , ed. 4. has been scanned tho rough lyand the numbe r of titles devoted to mic robio~logy noted and a graph (vide fig. 1) drawn toshow the increasing number of periodicals inthis subject.

The ranked .Ii st is essentially a practicaltool designed to help the librarian andresearch scientist to select the journals ofmaximum utility in relation to thei r cove rageof new and important literature in particularsubject areas. However, because of the large

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CHOOSING MICROBIOLOGY PERIODICALS

volume of research effort in frontier areasof science where two or more subject fieldsove rlap, publications of importance to anindividual area of study tend to appear inc rea-singly in journals devoted to gene ral scienceor broad areas of science covering more thanone speciality, Such jou rnals naturally arevoluminous publicaticn s. To view the impor-tance of individual titles in clear perspectivein respect of a particular area of study it istherefore necessary to analyse the number otcitations from a journal in relation to the totalnumber of papers published in a year and theaverage length of the papers. This has beenattempted in respect of the first ten titles in theranking list in Table 9.

Discussions

Table 1 shows the frequency of distri-bution of serial an.d non-serial publications.The.distribution is very al rni l a r to whatSengupta[2] reported in the case of bioChemist-ry. This close similarity ma y be thought t oreflect in part the predominantlv biochemicalbias of present day m.icrobiological research,and in part a general pattern c ha rac te ri al ngpublicati on practice in all scientific di sclp-lines.

No ranking of journals in micrObiologyhas been published so far. Table 2 providesa ranking list of periodicals in the field ofmicrobiology. The journals listed in thistable rnay be cons ide red the preferred mediafor the reporting of new microbiologicalknOWledge. The list can be regarded as freefrom any national or regional bias as it hasbeen prepared on the basis of citations inA •. Rev. Microbiol. which publishes articlesreviewing the progress of knowledge in areasof mic;:robiological research solely on t he basisof cur rent scientific interest and wr Itt en byleading workers in the concerned t opi c drawnfrom different parts of the world. It shouldtherefore serve as an authentic tool for theselection of journals which publish articles ofinterest to microbiology. In this study 624titles have been. noted and out of these only thefirst 141 titles have-been shown in Table 2.The bulk of 483 titles whlch have been refe r r edto less than 7 t irne s , i ,e. less than I% of thehighest cited periodical (12,24,23,50,92 and282 titles have been clted b.5,4, 3, 2 and 1times respectlvely) have been left out so thatthe list rnay not be unduly lengthy. It is

Vol 21 No 3 Se pt 1974

expected that the pre sent ranking Il s t shouldhelp researchers, librarians and docurnents.-lists of rnlc r cb lol ogtc al research centres toformulate their acquisition policy for serialpublications and also for p r epar ation andcirculaHon of documentation lists emphas izingthe contents or abstracts of highly rankedjournals for the gnidance of their potentialreaders,

One of the Ieatu r e s of this ranked li stcalling for c ornrne nts is the high position ofjourna l.s in the field of general science andbiochemistry. Out of the first t.en titles in theranking list, three (n05.2, 4 and 10) ar ejournals of general science and four (nos. 5.6.7and .9) are of biochemistry. The r e as on forthis may be the present predominant interest 'inmolecular biology to wh ic h , besides bioche=i-cal journals, general science journals alsodevote a major portion of their space. Thisview is also bo rrie out by the hi.gh rankingof journals in vi i-o log y (nos.3, 18 etc ) a discip-line basic to present experim.ental work inmolecula r biology. J. Bact. occupi es the toppos ition in the list. The reas on for th isjournal occupying the first position may be itscomprehensive coverage which includes:Taxonomy and Ecology; Morphology and Ultra-structure; Genetics and Molecular Biology;Physiology and Metabolism; Enzymology,cIe ar-l y indicating the coverage given by thisjournals to topics like molet;ular biology andbiochemistry. The high position of J. molec.Bio l, (t.•!.5) undoubt edl y r efl ect s the newdirections of interest in pr es e nt day biologicall'esearch. Many post-war journals (nos. 3,5,7,8, 9,16, 18, 19, Z0, 21 etc) occupy relatively highpositions. This conforms to expectation andwas pr~aicted by Sengupta[3] ire an ea r l ie rpaper. The papers published ir. these jo u rrra l sr ef le c t the present day trends and areas ofresearch interest in this neld. Journalsprimarily related to medical microbiologye.g. J. infect. Di s , ; J. Hyg., Camb.; and ,"Path. Bact, occupy r el at iv el y lower positions(n:Js.23. 49,60 respectively). This may perhapsbe due to the shift of re sea rch int er est fromthis area to etu die s at molecular and sub-rnc le c ular levels.

Table 3 analyses the frequency of cita-ti on s of pub} ic a t io us other than primaryjournals. Here citations of nonv prl rna r yserials are the highest. P'r oc eed lng s of irregu-lar conferences/symposia etc are seen to bebec ernlng increasingly important. The high

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SENGUPTA

proportion of c Itat lons in the 'miscellaneous'category would be expected in reviewsprepared by scientists actively working on thetopics of the reviews, because they would tryto give a balanced account of the state ofknowledge in the manner they regularly assessit, that is on the basis not only of publishedItte ratur e.but also unpublished work, personalcommunications, theses and dissertations etc.

Table 4 provides a ranking list of somenon-primary serial publications. It bringsout the importance of Bact. Rev. and AnnualReviews. This list again reflects the lm.por-tantoplace of m.olecular biology in pres ent-day research in m.icrobiology.

Table 6 is an ana.lysis of citations of thefirst twentyfive journals in the present listaccording to the period of publication of citedarticles. Citations of each journal have beengrouped into eight sequences (prior to 1901,1901':'20,1921-40,1941-50,1951-55, 1956-60,1961-65 and 1966-70). It may be seen thatnearly 85 ··900/0 of the citations are of articlespublished during 1960-70, with an even greaterpredominance of post -1965 articles. Thus itis seen that 55; 02 '10 of total citations of these25 journals relate to the period 1966-70,30.72%tol961-65, 8.58%to 1956-60,2.89'10to 1951-55,2.6% to 1941-50, 0.59'10 to 1921-40and 0.03 '10 to the period 190130. Except inthe cases of J. expo Med. and J. infect. Dis ,no references to articles earlier than 1921 arenoted. This distribution of citations isaccording to expectation, because in a phase ofrapid development of new frontier areas ofresearch like molecular biology, older litera-ture relating to the classical interests of ascientific discipline ceases to be the stimulusto new research activity. This analysis willhelp in selecting back issues of journalswhich are in infrequent demand for storageand will help in solving the space problem in alibrary as suggested in one of Sengupta.'s[4]ear lier publications.

Table 5 gives an analysis of the first 141periodicals of the present list according to sub-ject classification (vide Table 2). Four subjectfields namely, biochemistry (23.6%), mlcro-biology (22.4'10), science, (general) (18.1 %)and vi rology (10%), out of the 23 subject classi-fications cover nearly 74% of the total citations.It supports our view about the predominant biastowards molecular biology and declininginterest in medical aspects of rnlcrobiology,

100

It also reflects the decline in the interest on thepart of the medical scientist in infectiousdiseases which have now been mostly containedor •.-re amenable to therapy. .As observedearlier, the high frequency of citations (18.1 %)of journals of general science may perhaps bedue to the good coverage given by thesejou rnaIs to microbiological studies at themolecular level.

Growth in the number of journals In thefield of Microbiology from 1860 - 1960.

~220ctZII:::l 180o'?II.oII: 140LUIII~::l 100Z

60

20

1860 80 1900 20YEAR

Fig. - I.

40 60

Table 7 indicates clearly that English isthe main medium of communications in micro-biology. Nearly 58. 9% journals are publishedin English. Next corne trilingual journals(19.2%) with English, French and German ofwhich. however, the major proportion ofpapers is in English. The position of journalswith French as text (5 '10) is hi gher than journalswith Germ.an as text (2. 1'10). Thus the declinein importance of German as an exclusivelanguage of scientific com.m.unications isfurther cor r oborate.d by Brown [5] andSengupta [6,1].

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Table 8 provides as analysis of country-wis e distributlon of the journals in the rankinglist. U.S.A., U.K., Germany, Japan,France, Netherlands and the Scandinaviancountries are the rna ln producers, in thatorder, of journals which constitute the import-ant media for the communication of new know-ledge in microbiology. However, 58.03 '1.citations are covered by 54 journals publishedin the U. S. A.; 23. 24 % by 29 Englis h periodi-cals. It is interestlng to note that 4.9%clt at ions are covered by 5 journals fromNetherlands which is higher than the citationscovered by 11 German periodicals and 8French Journals, the German and Frenchperiodicals roughly cover 4.2 % and 2.5 % ofcitations respectively.

Table 9 analyses the number of citationsin relation to size of journal and averagelength of the papers published. We had pro-posed this method of analysis in order toeliminate the bias due to the bulk of a researchperiodical and unrelated to the scientific valueof individual papers published in it that isinevitable in ranking lists prepared on thebasis of numerical counting of citations ofindividual periodicals [Sen Gupta (2),1972].The value DlA is an index of the sci ent ific valueof the papers published in a journal, correctedfor the bulk of material published in a year,which varies considerably from journal tojournal. When titles in the uncorrected rankinglist are re-ranked according to the value Of}

the revised list puts the journals in order oftheir scientific value without bias due to bulk.Sitnilarly the index .Q enables 11. listing of

Cthe titles in order of scientific value of thepapers published, with a weightage introducedfor compactness of presentation. From Table9lt is seen that in the case of the first ten titlesof the present ranking list, re-ranking on thebasis of D/A puts the titles in the order -Virology; J. gen. Microbiol.; J. Bact.; J.molec. BioI.; Proc. natn. Acad. Sc i, U.S.A.;Biochem. biophys. Res. Comnun.; J. bl ol ,Chem.; Sciences, N. Y.; Nature, Lond.; andBiochim. bt ophys , Acta. Priority in acquisi-tion may therefore be given in this order.

Fig.l shows the growth of rnic r obto lcg i-cal periodicals upto 1960. The steep rise of thecurve indicates the exponential inc r eas e inresearch activity and in the number of journalsin the field of microbiology.

Finally, the results of this study, as inour ea rli er study on biochemi st r y, als 0 justi -

Vol 21 No 3 Sept 1974

fies the validity of Bradford's Law of Scattering[7] and Sengupta's[2] Extension of Bradford'sLaw. The findings of Tabl e 2, however, donot suppor-t Garfield's Law of Concentration(8].

Acknowledgement

I am grateful to Dr , A. Narayanaswamifor his Inte r es tLn the work and for helpfulsuggestions. I also thank Prof. R. N. Chakra-varti, Director, Indian Institute of Experi-.mental Medicine for his kind permission topublish this paper.

References

[1] Sengupta I N: Impact of scientiIic seri;~.lson the advanc ern ent of knowledge: Anobjective method of analysis. Int. 'Libr.Rev. 1972, ~, 169-95.

[2] Sengupta I N: Recent growth of the Utera-ture of biochemistry and changes inranking of periodicals. (Communlcatedfor publication).

[3] Sengupta I N: Factors determining changesin ranking of scientific periodicals: Aat udy in relation to biomedical journalsduring the post-war period. Int. Libr.Rev. 1971, ~, 271-85.

(4] Sengupta I N: Problems of storage andstacking of periodicals in a researchlibrary. IASLIC Spl. Publ. No.12,lOO-1071969

[5 J Brown C H: Scientiflc serials: Characte-ristics and lists of most cited publlcationsin mathematics, physics, cberntst ry,geology, physiology, botany, zoology andentomology. ACRL monograph No.16.Chicago: Association of college andreference libraries. 1956

[6] Sengupta I N: Ranking of periodicals in thefield of biomedical sciences from theIndian scientist's point of view: analysisof data for 1959-68. UNESCO Bull. Llbr.1970, 24, 143.

[7] BRADFORD S C: Documentation.Washington, D. C., Public Affairs Press,1950, p.156.

[8] Garfield E: The mystery of the transposedjournal lists. Curro Cont. 1971,14(31),5 -6.

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Frequency of distribution of serial and non-serial publications

Table 1

Category of publications percentage of total citationsNumber of cltations

Primary journals

Non-primar y s eri al publications

Non-serial publications

8951 8b.00

493 4.7

964 9.3

10408 100. 00

Ranked list of journals in microbiology

Table 2

Rank Name of Journal (in abbreviated form) Country ofpublication

YelLr--oTpublication

Number of Percentage ofcitations total journal

____________________c_i_ta_ti_·_o_n _

J. Bact.2 Proc. natn. Acad. Sci, U. S. A.3 Virology4 Nature, Lond.5 J. mo1ec. BioI.6 J. bioI. Chern.7 Biochem. biophys. Acta8 J. gen. Microbiol.9 Biochem. biophys. Res. Commun.

10 Science, N. Y.11 B't"ochem. J.12 J. e~p. Med.13 Cold Spring Harb. Syrnp. quant. Bi ol ,14 J. Immun.15 Arch. Mikrobiol.16 Archs Biochem. Biophys.

(formerly: Archs Biochem. )17 Proc. Soc. expo BioI. Med.18 J. Virol.19 Biochemistry20 Can. J. Microbio121 Bact. Proc.21 Genetics23 J. infect. Dis ,24 AnnIs. Inst. Pasteur, Pari.s25 Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci,25 C. r. h ebd, Seanc. Acadr Sct , , Pari.s27 J. Cell BioI. (formerly: J biophys.

bioc hem. Cytol.)28 App l, Microbial.29 J. natn. Cancer Inst.

102

USA 1916 744 8.31USA 191:> 619 6.92US 1955 577 6.45UK 1869 452 5.05UK 1959 436 4.87US 1905 353 3.94Netherlands 1947 313 3.50UK 1947 301 3.36US 1959 223 2.49US 1883 217 2.42UK 1906 196 2.19US 1896 156 1. 74US 1933 121 1. 35US 1916 114 1. 26Germany 1930 113 1. 26US 1952 106 1. 18

US 1903 101 1.13US 1967 98 1.09US 1962 96 1. 07Canada 1954 88 0.98US 1950 78 0.87US 1916 78 0.87US 1904 73 0.82France 1887 67 0.75US 1823 66 0.74France 1835 66 0.74US 1955 63 O. 70

US 1953 60 '1.67US 1940 55 0.61

Continued

Ann Lib Sc i Doc

3031313134353637383940404242

44444647

484949515151545456565859606062626464646768687070

70707475

757575757580

CHOOSING MICROBIOLOGY PERIODICALS

Fedn. Proc. Fedn. Am. Socs. exp, BioI. USEur. J. Biochem. (formerly: Biochem. Z.) GermanyExpl. Cell Res. US.T. gen. Virol. UKAntonie van Leeuwenhoek NetherlandsJ. Biochem., Tokyo JapanCancer Res. USJ. appl, Bact. UKGenet. Res. UKZentbl. Bakt. Parasitkde, Abt. Originale GermanyAm. J. trop. Med. Hyg. USArch. ges. Virusforsch. AustriaActa virol., Prague CzechoslovakiaJ. cell Physiol. (formerly: J cell US

comp. Physiol.)J. Protozool.Phys io'log t a Pl.Z. Naturf.Molec. gen. Genet. (formerly: Z.

VerebLehre)Trans. R. Soc. tr op. Med. Hyg.J. Am. chern. Soc.J. Hyg., Carnb,PI. physiol., LancasterPr oc, R. Soc. Ser. B.Am.J. Bot.Am. J. vet. Res.LancetAm. J. Enol. vtue.Bull. WId. Hlth.Org.Br. med. J.ImmunologyJ. c ornp. physiol. Psycho!.J. Path. Bact.PhytopathologySymp. Soc. gen. Microbio1Hoppe -Seyler's Z. physiol. Chern.J. mar. bi ol, Ass., U. K.J. Phycol.Br. J. expo Path.Acta microbiol. pol.Bull. Off. into Epizoot.Int. J. CancerJ. Invertebr. Path.

(formerly: J. Insect Path. )J. Ultrastruct. Res.Mutat. Res.Biophys. J.Agric. bioI. Chern. (formedy: Bull.

ag r ic, chern. Soc. J anan)Ann. trop. Med. Parasit.DokI. Akad, Nauk SS5RHered tasHereditas

J. gen. appl, Microbiol.AnnIs Technol. Agric.

Vol 21 No 3 Sept 1974

USDenmarkGermanyGermany

UKUSUKUSUKUSUSUKUSSwitzerlandUKUKUSUKUSUKGermanyUKUSUKPolandFranceDenmarkUS

USNetherlandsUSJapan

UKUSSRSweden

JapanFrance

19421967195019671934192219411938196019021952193919571932

5150505047454140393836363535

1954194819461908

33333231

190718791901192619051914194018231954194718571958194718921911194918771877196519201951193119661959

302929282828272726262523222221212020.201918181717

1957196419601924

17171615

190719221920

151515

19551952

1514

C.570.560.560.56O.530.500.460.450.440.420.400.400.390.39

0.370.370.360.35

O. 340.32O. 320.310.310.310.30O. 300.290.290.28O. 260.250.250.230.23O. 220.220.220.210.200.200.190.19

O. 190.190.180.17

0.17O. 17O. 17

0.17O. 16

Continued

103

80808080

80.8087878787878793939393939393

100100100100

100100100107107107107107112

112112112116116116116116116116116124124124124124124124124124

Aust. J. expo BioI. med. ScLBiken's J.J. Am. med. Ass.J. Cell. ScL (formerly: Q. J. microsc.

ScL)PI. Cell Physiol.. TokyoProc. into Congr. Microbio1Am. J. Epidem. (formerly: Am. J. Hyg. )Biotech. BioengngJ. gen. Physiol.MicrobiologiyaTr ansp1antationZentbl. Vet. Med.Acta chern. scand.Angew. Chern.Ann. Bot.Folia mtc r obto l, , PrahaJapan. J. Mi cr obiol ,Limnol. Oceanogr.PI. Soil.Acta path. microbiol. scand.Ana1yt. Biochem.Med. BioI.Mitt. Hoheren Bundeslehr Versuchsanst

Wein-Obst Gartenbau KlosterneuburgSerie A Rebe Wein.

Res. vet. ScLZentbl. Bakt. ParasitKde. Abt. II.New Engl. J. Med.Bull. Soc. Chim. bioI.Expl. Par as it,J ap, J. in ed, ScL Biol.J. theor. BioI.Vinod. Vinogr. SSSRAnnali Mi cr-obi ol. Enzimol

(formerly: AnnaH Microbiol. )Bull. Acad. pol. ScL CI. II. Ser. ScL bioI.Bull. Off. into Vin.J. Par as it.Arch. Protistenk.Bull. Soc. Path. exot.Can. J. Bot.Indian J. Malar.J. elin. Invest.Par asi to1ogyPhotochem. Photobiol.Publ. H1th. Rep. Wash.Biochem. Soc. Symo.BloodBull. math. BiophysEntomophagaExperientiaFEBS Lett.G. Microbiol.Irn m unoc he rn i s tr-vJ ap, J. Genet.

104

SENGUPTA

AustraliaJapanUSUK

JapanUSUSUSUSUSSRUSGermanyDenmarkGermanyUK

Czechoslovakia·JapanUSNetherlandsDenmarkUSJapanAustria

UKGermanyUSFranceUSJapanUKUSSRItaly

PolandFranceUSGermanyFranceCanadaIndiaUSUKUSUSUKUSUSFranceSwitzerlandNetherlandsItalyUKJapan

1924195818831966

14141414

1959 1414131313131313121212121212·1211111111

19211959191819321963195319471888188719591957195619481924196019421954

196018951928191419511952196119391949

11111110101010109

19531928191419021908195119471924190819621878194719-461939195619451968195519641921

99988888888777777777

O. 16O. 16O. 16O. 16

0. 160. 160.15O. 150.15O. 150.150.150.130.130.130.130.13{l.13O. 130.12O. 12O. 12O. 12

0.120.120.120.110.11O. 110.110.110.10

O. 100.10O. 100.090.090.090.090.090.090.090.090.080008O. 080.080.080.080.080.08Q.08

Continued

Ann Lit? Sci Doc

SENaUPTA

124 J. chern. SOC;. UK 1849 7 0.08124 J. expo Bot. UK 1950 7 0.08124 J. Hyg. Epidem. Microbiol. Immun. Czechoslovakia 1957 7 0.08124 J. Pharmac. expo Ther. US 1909 7 0.08124 Phytochemistry UK 1962 7 0.08124 Revta Cte nc ia apl. Spain 1947 7 0.08124 S. Afr. J. ag r ic, set. South Africa 1958 7 0.08124 Trans. N. Y. Acad. ScL US 1881 7 0.08124 Vi.tis . Germany 1956 7 0.08

141 Other titles (each having citations less than 7) covering citations 8,051 89.954:83' Total: 900 10.05

624 G.T. 8951 100.0C

Tl\BLE 3

*Frequency of citations of publications other than primary journals.

No. of Percentage Pe r centage of allCategory of publications c rtat Iqn s citations counted

N9n-primary serialpublications 493 33.84 4.74

Books and monographs(without regular sequence) 374 25.67 3.59

Irregular conference/Sympo sium/Proceeding s 206 14.14 1.98

These s/Dissertations 40 '2.75 0.38

Reports 30 2.06 0.29

In press and to bepublished data 28 1.92 0.27

Patents and standards 6 0.41 0.06

Miscellaneous (incompletereference, unpublished data, 280 10.22 2.69per sonat communication, inpreparation etc. )

Total:- 1457 100 14.00

Vol 21 No 3 Sept 1974 105

CHOOSING MICROBIOLOGY PERIODICALS

Ranking of fi r st.-Ll non-primary serial publication TABLE 4

Rank Name of non-primary Number of Percentage of total non-se r ia.l publication citations primary serial citations

1. Bact. Rev. 86 17.44

2 a. Rev. of Microbiol. 72 14.60

3 A. Rev. Biochem. 56 11.36

4 a. Rev. Genet. 28 5.68

5 Adv, Enzymol. 19 3.85

6 A. Rev. Med. 17 3.45

7 Adv. Virus Res. 15 3.04

8 Prog. med. Virol. 14 2.84

9 Adv. Immun. 10 2.03

9 BioI. Rev. 10 2.03

9 Prog. Nucl. Acl d Res. mol e c, Bt ol, 10 2.03

Analysis of citations according to subject classification of periodicals Table 5

Sl. Subject classification No. of titles Total No. ofNo. in ranking list citations

1 Science (General) 9 14562 Chemistry 7 1073 Biological Sciences (General 8 2594 Experimental Biology and'Medicine 3 1255 Genetics 6 1876 Cell Biology 4 1447 Microbiology 23 17998 Virology 6 8039 Immunology 2 137

10 Parasitology 4 6011 Biochemistry 17 190312 Botany 6 9613 Plant Physiology 3 7514 Zoology 1 1715 Physiology 3 7016 Public Health and Hygiene 3 5017 Experimental Medicine 1 15618 Pathology 5 7019 Medicine (General) 7 12820 Medicine (Specialities) 11 23721 Agriculture 4 4822 Veterinary Science 4 6923 Industrial Microbiology 4 55

Total: 141 8051

106

Percentage of totalc itat ion s of first141 journals

18.081. 333.221. 552. 321. 79

22. 359.971. 700.75

23.64l. 190.93O. 210.870.62l. 940.871. 592.940.600.860.68

Ann Lib Sc i Doc

100

Table 6< Analysis of citations of the first twentyfive journals of the£.

Npresent list according to period of publication of cited article.-

Z0 Journal and present Percent citations of articles publ iahe d duringVol rankingtIl (Year of first publ I-, I:Jpto 1901- 1921- 1941- 1951- 1956 1961- 1966- Total(I cation in pa r en - 1900 '20 '40 '50 '55 '60 '65 '701l.

theses)- (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9)-o....•

"" J. Bact - - (1. 48) (2.55) (3.76) (7.26) (30.38) (54.57) 744(1916)

2 Proc. natn, Aca d. - - (0.48) (1.45) (0.81) (4. 85) (32.63) (59. 77) 619Sci, U. S. A.

(1915)

3 Virology - - - - (0.35) (9. 53) (31. 89) (58.23) 577(1955) tIl

MZ

4 Nature, Lond. - - - (0.-89) (6.19) (10.40) (34. 29) (48.23) 452 C)(1869) , c

'1:l.,5 J. moIec, BioI. ~ - - - - (1. 61) (28.44) (69.95) 436 >

(1959)

6 J. biol; Chern. - - (0.85) (3.97) (5.10) (11.61) (30. 88) (47. 59) 353(1905)

7 Bf.o ctu m, biophys. - - - - (3.51) (9.27) (38. 66) (48.56) 313Acta(1947)

8 J. gen. Mic r obiol, - - - (0.99) (3.99) (17.61) (35.'55) (41. 86) 301(1947)

9 Biochem. Biol,>hys. - - - - - (3.59) (39. 56) (56. 95) 223Res. Commun.(1959)

10 Science, N. Y. - - - (2. 30) (2.76) (9.22) (30.41) (55. 30) 217(1883)

0....•11 Biochem. J. - - (1.53) (4.59) (4.08) (13.78) (23. 98) (52. 04) 196

(1906)Continued

-0OJ

12. J. expo Med. - (0.64) (8.33) (4.49) (J.. 2.8) (5.13) (32.. 69) (47. 44) 156(1896)

13 Cold Spring Harb, - - - (1. 65) (4.96) (2..48) (2.9.75) (61. 16) 121Symp. Quant. Bj ol;

(1933) .14 J. Immun. - - (7.89) (4. 39) (3. 51) (6. i4) (28.07) .. (50.00) 114

(1916)(')

15, Arch. Mikrobiol.:c- - (0.88) - (5.31) (17.70) (29.20) (46; 90) 113 0

(1930) 0(II

Z16 Archs Biochem. - - - - (5.66) (40. 75) (21.70) (51.88) 106 o

Biophys. ~(1952) o

!lII0

17 P'r oc, Soc. expo - - (0.99) (8. 91) (2.97) (4. 95) (31.68) (50. 50) 101 ~BioI. Med, 0

(1903) t'"0o

18 J. Virol. (100) 980<- - - - - - . -

(1967) "dtzl!lII•...

19 Biochemistry - - - - - - (15.63) (84. 38) 96 0(1954) ·s

(')

>20 Can. J. Microbiol. - - - - (2.27) (18.18) (34. 09) (45.45) 88 l"'

(II(1954)

21 Bact. Proc. - - - - (1.28) (6.41) (19.23) (73.08) 78(1950}

> 21 Genetics (1.28) (1.28) (3.85) (3. 85) (30. 77) (58.97) 78;:s - -;:s(1916)

t-'0: 23 J. infect. Dis, - - . (6. 85) (2Q. 55) (12.33) (17.81.) (19. 18) (21.92) 73{II (1904)n•...tl 24 AnnIs Inst. - - (2. 99) (8. &61 (5.97) (7.46) (2.9. 85) (44.78) 670

Pasteur, Paris.n(1887)

Continued

< 25 Ann. N. Y. Acad. - - - - (6. 06) (13.64) (28. :;'9) (51. 42) 662-Sci.

N (1823)-Z 25 C. r. heb d, Seanc, - - (1. 51) (1. 51) (22.73) (37. 88) (36. 36) 660 -""

Acad. Sei•• Paris11835)

(JlIt

~Total: - - (0.03) (0.59) (2. 16) (2.89) (8.58) (30.72) (55. 02) 5852-o •-J~

TABLE 7

Frequency of English and non-English Journals in the present ranking listC/l- ~English Fren<;h uerman Russian Other English. French Biling51al Multilingual

Text Text Text Text languages German (Multi- of which with 4 or oc:Ungual with 2 English more larr- Total -eor 3 of these is one guages of >.,)

)-languages) language which 3 are

E. F. G

Number of 83 7. 3 3 6 27 3 9 141title s

Percentage 58.87 4.96 2.13 2.13 4.26 19. 1: 2.13 6.38 100of aII title s

o-o

--o

TABLE 8

Gountrywise distribution of journals in the present ranking list

Country of publication Number of journals Citations of journals in column 2as % of total

AustraliaAu st r IaCanadaCzecho slovakiaDenmarkFranceGermanyIndiaItalyJapanNetherlandsPolandS. AfricaSpainSwedenSwitzerlandU. K.u. S. A.U. S. S.R.

122348

1112

9.521112

29.54

3

0.170.581. 190.670.912.474.160.100.201.784.920.340.090.090.190.41

23.2458.030.47

o:x:oo~os()lOo~oe-oo0<

~lO•...oS2o>t"'tIl

>S

TOTAL: 141 100.00

t"'c:fiIo•....tloo

Table 9

< Analysis of number of cltatlons in relaHon to size pf journal and ave eag e length2-of the pap~!"~ publlshed

N-Z --~-0 Name of Journal No. of papers Total Total No. No.of D C D x 104

publlshed dur- No. of of words cltatlons A A -c -(,.U

tIl ing the year pages noted for (No. of cita- (Average leng- (No. of cltatlons~ 1%9 tions per th of paper in relatlon to~..• (A) (B) ~C) (D) paper pub- in V\'O rds) ove r.al I size of

-o lished) volum.es publish--J ed dur log the". year)

J. Bact.Vo1s. 97 -100,169 833 5272 2699264 491 0.589 3240.4 1.8

Pzoc natn. Acad. Sei. U~S. A.Vol. 62-64, 1969 597 4100 1435000 196 0.328 2403.7 1.4

Virology tIl

Vola.37-39,1969 306 , 2356 883500 192 0.627 2887.3 2.2 ~oc::

Nature, Lond. 'tlVol. 221 -224,196 9 2297 5317 3349710 114 0.050 1458.3 0.3

>-:I:>

J. mo1ec. BioI.Vols.39-46, 1969 385 4671 1os 0975 164 0.426 2729.8 1.6

J. bioI. Chern.Vol. 244, 196.9 902 6708 3823560 138 0.153 4239.0 0.4

Biochim. biophys.ActaVols.l 71 -I 95, 1969 1878 14522 4066160 7Z 0.038 2165.2 0.2

J. gen. Microbial.Vols.55-59,1969 23Z 2153 734173 139 0.599 3164.5 1.9

Bloc hern, biophys. Res. ~mmun.Vola. 34 -37, 1969 592 3922 686350 109 0.184 1159.4 1.6

Science, N. Y.Vols.163-166. 1969 1209 6057 3694770 77 0.064 3056.1 0.2-..--