From: Greg Youngen <gyoungen_at_physics.uiuc.edu>
The message previously posted contained data from ISI's Web of Science.
This data should not have been included because the search system operates
differently from SciSearch available on Dialog. The trends identified
don't change, and a single source for the data lessens the confusion.
Please disregard the previous posting and use this one instead.
Greg Youngen
Here are the numbers supporting my observations of citations to the xxx
eprints. I originally ran the search in April and have updated it with
another search Sept. 21 (including 1998 citation data).
The process involves isolating the physics & astronomy literature,
counting the total number of citations in this group, and from that
extracting the citations to the eprints.
The numbers have remained pretty consistent over the time period. Of
course the percentage of eprints will diminish in time as more and more
articles are published citing the print literature. However, citations to
eprints do represent a significant number of the total citations to the
most current literature.
My article describing the growing trend of citations to eprints has been
published in the journal, "College and Research Libraries," Vol. 59(5)
September 1998. An earlier version of the paper can be found at:
http://www.physics.uiuc.edu/Physics/library/preprint.html
Citations in the Physics & Astronomy Literature
Source: Science Citation Index using KR Dialog
Citations to (April 1998) (September 1998)
articles
published in: 1995 1996 1997 1995 1996 1997 1998
Physics 143114 84408 28381 168301 110386 51093 7837
Astronomy 20784 13401 5946 24318 17011 9177 2337
Total 163898 97809 34327 192619 127397 60270 10174
Citations to
Eprints 3328 4351 2161 3585 5301 4395 443
2% 4% 6% 2% 4% 7% 4%
DIALOG 9/21/98 - Citations to:
1995 1996 1997 1998 Total
astro-ph 282 491 439 47 1259
cond-mat 300 587 769 88 1744
gr-qc 240 343 210 27 820
hep-ex 28 56 128 10 222
hep-lat 178 286 257 18i 739
hep-ph 843 1307 1095 81 3326
hep-th 1625 1902 1144 129 4800
nucl-ex 10 6 18 1 35
nucl-th 79 157 186 14 436
quant-ph 166 149 28 343
Total 3585 5301 4395 443 13724
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Greg Youngen
Physics/Astronomy Library Phone: 217-244-2096
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Fax: 217-333-3207
Urbana, IL 61801 youngen_at_uiuc.edu
Received on Tue Aug 25 1998 - 19:17:43 BST