THE LITERATURE OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES: A SURVEY OF CITATION STUDIES

In: International social science journal: ISSJ, Band 23, Heft 2, S. 236-243

Abstract

15 citation analyses in the soc sci's, representing res completed in the US & the UK, are compared & analyzed. Fields represented include pol'al sci, sociol, business admin, econ's, & educ. According to the findings of these studies, writers in econ's & in the applied fields of educ & business administration tend to draw their sources from a rather narrow range of subject fields. In the 'pure' soc sci's, about 90% of the references are from English language sources. This % rises much higher in the applied fields. Roughly 50% of the materials used by soc sci'ts are monographs as opposed to periodicals & other serials. Humanists apparently use a larger proportion of monographs, while natural sci'ts depend much more on periodicals. In age, about 50% of the references used by authors in soc sci are 10 yrs old or less. This age is slightly greater than that of literature used by natural sci'ts; & noticeably less than the age of sources used by humanists. Modified HA.