Average no. of articles in academic journals Phil Davis 03 Dec 2003 17:49 UTC
ISI's Science Citation Index's Comparative Statistical Summary (the blue softcover book that accompanies the print version) does totals for the source publications covered by ISI. I had the 2001 Summary on my desk. Here are their figures: Total Source Publications: 3,727 Total Number of Articles: 579,666 By my calculations, that results in 156 articles per title, which seems higher than Steve's estimate, but within the same ballpark considering the source. Please be mindful that: 1) There is no "average journal". Some publish hundreds of articles per year, others a few dozen 2) The definition of a journal 3) The definition of an article 4) ISI is not a representative sample of the universe of journal publications (Ulrichs may be a better tool) ISI cumulates these figures each time they publish this report, so it wouldn't be difficult for this professor to plug them into a spreadsheet and look at the trend (I did a couple of years ago). Both publishers and librarians are in agreement that journals (on average) are getting bigger -- this was an argument from a large publisher to substantiate egregious price increases. Respectfully submitted, Phil Davis Cornell University >Date: Tue, 2 Dec 2003 09:51:06 -0500 >From: Steve Black <blacks@MAIL.STROSE.EDU> >Subject: Re: Average no. of articles in academic journals > >For Question 1, I searched in EBSCOhost's Academic Search Elite, limiting to >full text, peer-reviewed, for 2002, for [blank] in default fields. That >retrieved 110,168 hits. The database information claims that there are 1300 >peer-reviewed journals in full text, so that comes to about 85 articles per >title per year. There are of course caveats & cautions with using this >number, but it's probably a pretty fair estimate for all disciplines lumped >together. I'd just want to be sure the professor doesn't want to apply the >85 to any one discipline, because the count would almost surely be >different. > >I'll leave Question 2 to some other brave soul. > >Steve Black >Reference, Instruction, and Serials Librarian >Neil Hellman Library >The College of Saint Rose >392 Western Ave. >Albany, NY 12203 >(518) 458-5494 >blacks@mail.strose.edu > > > >-----Original Message----- >From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum >[mailto:SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU]On Behalf Of Ann Ercelawn >Sent: Monday, December 01, 2003 3:17 PM >To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU >Subject: [SERIALST] Average no. of articles in academic journals > > >Hello, >A professor here has asked thetwo questions below. Can SERIALST >readers help with this query? >Thanks, >Ann > > >> Question: What is the average number of articles published > >> annually in individual academic journals? I am interested in an > >> average number per journal over a wide range of journals. > >> > >> Similarly, what is the average page count annually per journal? > >>