IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/scient/v98y2014i3d10.1007_s11192-013-1113-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Growth in the number of references in engineering journal papers during the 1972–2013 period

Author

Listed:
  • Iñaki Ucar

    (Public University of Navarre)

  • Felipe López-Fernandino

    (Public University of Navarre)

  • Pablo Rodriguez-Ulibarri

    (Public University of Navarre)

  • Laura Sesma-Sanchez

    (Public University of Navarre)

  • Veronica Urrea-Micó

    (Public University of Navarre)

  • Joaquín Sevilla

    (Public University of Navarre)

Abstract

The number of references per paper, perhaps the best single index of a journal’s scholarliness, has been studied in different disciplines and periods. In this paper we present a four decade study of eight engineering journals. A data set of over 70,000 references was generated after automatic data gathering and manual inspection for errors. Results show a significant increase in the number of references per paper, the average rises from 8 in 1972 to 25 in 2013. This growth presents an acceleration around the year 2000, consistent with a much easier access to search engines and documents produced by the generalization of the Internet.

Suggested Citation

  • Iñaki Ucar & Felipe López-Fernandino & Pablo Rodriguez-Ulibarri & Laura Sesma-Sanchez & Veronica Urrea-Micó & Joaquín Sevilla, 2014. "Growth in the number of references in engineering journal papers during the 1972–2013 period," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 98(3), pages 1855-1864, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:98:y:2014:i:3:d:10.1007_s11192-013-1113-6
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-013-1113-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11192-013-1113-6
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11192-013-1113-6?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pedro Albarrán & Javier Ruiz‐Castillo, 2011. "References made and citations received by scientific articles," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 62(1), pages 40-49, January.
    2. Wen-Yau Cathy Lin & Mu-Hsuan Huang, 2012. "The relationship between co-authorship, currency of references and author self-citations," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 90(2), pages 343-360, February.
    3. Olle Persson & Wolfgang Glänzel & Rickard Danell, 2004. "Inflationary bibliometric values: The role of scientific collaboration and the need for relative indicators in evaluative studies," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 60(3), pages 421-432, August.
    4. Günter Krampen, 2010. "Acceleration of citing behavior after the millennium? Exemplary bibliometric reference analyses for psychology journals," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 83(2), pages 507-513, May.
    5. Günter Krampen & Ralf Becker & Ute Wahner & Leo Montada, 2007. "On the validity of citation counting in science evaluation: Content analyses of references and citations in psychological publications," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 71(2), pages 191-202, May.
    6. Bluma C. Peritz & Judit Bar-Ilan, 2002. "The sources used by bibliometrics-scientometrics as reflected in references," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 54(2), pages 269-284, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Shing-Yun Jung & Ting-Han Lin & Chia-Hung Liao & Shyan-Ming Yuan & Chuen-Tsai Sun, 2022. "Intent-Controllable Citation Text Generation," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-17, May.
    2. Qing Cheng & Xin Lu & Zhong Liu & Jincai Huang, 2015. "Mining research trends with anomaly detection models: the case of social computing research," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 103(2), pages 453-469, May.
    3. Sánchez-Gil, Susana & Gorraiz, Juan & Melero-Fuentes, David, 2018. "Reference density trends in the major disciplines," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 42-58.
    4. Fatemeh Ghaffari & Mark C. Wilson, 2023. "A model for reference list length of scholarly articles," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(9), pages 5335-5350, September.
    5. Eugenio Petrovich, 2018. "Accumulation of knowledge in para-scientific areas: the case of analytic philosophy," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 116(2), pages 1123-1151, August.
    6. Jeppe Nicolaisen & Tove Faber Frandsen, 2021. "Number of references: a large-scale study of interval ratios," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(1), pages 259-285, January.
    7. Dirce Maria Santin & Samile Andrea De Souza Vanz & Sonia Elisa Caregnato, 2016. "Internationality of Publications, Co-Authorship, References and Citations in Brazilian Evolutionary Biology," Publications, MDPI, vol. 4(1), pages 1-13, February.
    8. Feng Hu & Lin Ma & Xiu-Xiu Zhan & Yinzuo Zhou & Chuang Liu & Haixing Zhao & Zi-Ke Zhang, 2021. "The aging effect in evolving scientific citation networks," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(5), pages 4297-4309, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lowe, D. Jordan & Van Fleet, David D., 2009. "Scholarly achievement and accounting journal editorial board membership," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 197-209.
    2. Sánchez-Gil, Susana & Gorraiz, Juan & Melero-Fuentes, David, 2018. "Reference density trends in the major disciplines," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 42-58.
    3. Wu, Jiang & Ou, Guiyan & Liu, Xiaohui & Dong, Ke, 2022. "How does academic education background affect top researchers’ performance? Evidence from the field of artificial intelligence," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 16(2).
    4. Abramo, Giovanni & D'Angelo, Ciriaco Andrea & Di Costa, Flavia, 2021. "The scholarly impact of private sector research: A multivariate analysis," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 15(3).
    5. Fiorenzo Franceschini & Maurizio Galetto & Domenico Maisano & Luca Mastrogiacomo, 2012. "The success-index: an alternative approach to the h-index for evaluating an individual’s research output," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 92(3), pages 621-641, September.
    6. Olle Persson & Wolfgang Glänzel, 2014. "Discouraging honorific authorship," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 98(2), pages 1417-1419, February.
    7. Mike Thelwall, 2017. "Judit Bar-Ilan: information scientist, computer scientist, scientometrician," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 113(3), pages 1235-1244, December.
    8. M. Ausloos, 2013. "A scientometrics law about co-authors and their ranking: the co-author core," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 95(3), pages 895-909, June.
    9. Mehdi Toloo & Rouhollah Khodabandelou & Amar Oukil, 2022. "A Comprehensive Bibliometric Analysis of Fractional Programming (1965–2020)," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-21, May.
    10. Masaki Eto, 2013. "Evaluations of context-based co-citation searching," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 94(2), pages 651-673, February.
    11. Lutz Bornmann & Werner Marx, 2014. "How to evaluate individual researchers working in the natural and life sciences meaningfully? A proposal of methods based on percentiles of citations," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 98(1), pages 487-509, January.
    12. Wen-Yau Cathy Lin & Mu-Hsuan Huang, 2012. "The relationship between co-authorship, currency of references and author self-citations," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 90(2), pages 343-360, February.
    13. Chaocheng He & Jiang Wu & Qingpeng Zhang, 2021. "Characterizing research leadership on geographically weighted collaboration network," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(5), pages 4005-4037, May.
    14. Hassan Bougrine, 2014. "Subfield effects on the core of coauthors," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 98(2), pages 1047-1064, February.
    15. Carlo D'Ippoliti, 2021. "“Many‐Citedness”: Citations Measure More Than Just Scientific Quality," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(5), pages 1271-1301, December.
    16. Pedro Albarrán & Juan A. Crespo & Ignacio Ortuño & Javier Ruiz-Castillo, 2011. "The skewness of science in 219 sub-fields and a number of aggregates," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 88(2), pages 385-397, August.
    17. Ruiz-Castillo, Javier & Costas, Rodrigo, 2018. "Individual and field citation distributions in 29 broad scientific fields," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 868-892.
    18. Wolfgang Glänzel & Lin Zhang, 2018. "Scientometric research assessment in the developing world: A tribute to Michael J. Moravcsik from the perspective of the twenty-first century," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 115(3), pages 1517-1532, June.
    19. Xiaojun Hu & Ronald Rousseau & Jin Chen, 2012. "Structural indicators in citation networks," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 91(2), pages 451-460, May.
    20. João M. Fernandes & Paulo Cortez, 2020. "Alphabetic order of authors in scholarly publications: a bibliometric study for 27 scientific fields," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 125(3), pages 2773-2792, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:98:y:2014:i:3:d:10.1007_s11192-013-1113-6. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.