The purpose of this study was to examine the impact factor of cognitive psychology journals indexed in the Science and Social Sciences edition of "Journal Citation Reports" ("JCR") database over a period of 10 consecutive years. Cognitive psychology journals were indexed in 11 different subject categories of the database. Their mean impact factor…

In recent decades the field of higher education has grown exponentially; however, little research examines a particular journal and its impact on the field. The purpose of this study was to conduct a brief bibliometric analysis and discuss the impact of "The Journal of Higher Education" (1998-2002), a premier journal in the discipline. (Contains 6…

Social work research and teaching draw on the literature of other disciplines. While the use of interdisciplinary sources has been discussed at length and citation patterns in social work literature have been studied, no research has identified specific sources from other disciplines that are important for social work scholarship. Based on…

The problem of how to rank academic journals in the communication field (human interaction, mass communication, speech, and rhetoric) is one of practical importance to scholars, university administrators, and librarians, yet there is no methodology that covers the field's journals comprehensively and objectively. This article reports a new ranking…

The goal of this analysis was to obtain local citation behavior data on undergraduates researching history, political science, and sociology papers. The study found that students cited books and journals even with the availability of web sources; however, usage varied by subject. References to specific websites' domains also varied across subject…

Reviews the historical context of core journal lists, current uses in collection assessment, and existing methodologies for creating lists. Outlines two next generation core list projects developing new methodologies and integrating novel information/data sources to improve precision: a national-level core psychology list and the other a local…

Open access publishing is now an accepted method of scholarly communication. However, the greatest traction for open access publishing thus far has been in the sciences. Penetration of open access publishing has been much slower among the social sciences. This study surveys 309 authors from recent issues of open access journals in education to…

This study examines references from three journals, "Communication Monographs," "Communication Research," and "Journal of Communication," for the years 1985, 1995, and 2005 to investigate the role of the scholarly monograph in the discipline of communication. The authors found that both the percentage of references to monographs and the average…

Meta-analysis is a technique used in a variety of disciplines to combine and summarize the findings of previous research. One step in the production of a meta-analysis is a thorough literature search for relevant studies. A variety of methods can be used to increase the number of studies that are found. This study examines the extent to which some…

The move to electronic forms of communication has changed the way educational research is communicated. In particular, it has led to an increased reliance on journals. This change has been more precipitous than one might expect. As journals become a larger proportion of the body of current scholarship, authors and readers seek new methods of…

Imparting practical legal knowledge and skills to social workers is a growing concern for social work educators. The rigorous social work curriculum, especially at the graduate level, leaves little room for basic legal research instruction to be included. This article documents some of the difficulties associated with legal research in an academic…

This study examines the extent to which databases support student and faculty research in the area of public administration. A list of journals in public administration, public policy, political science, public budgeting and finance, and other related areas was compared to the journal content list of six business databases. These databases…

Methods for determining core anthropological journals are reviewed, including basic lists, user studies, and citation analysis. Merits and limitations of each method are assessed. Twenty-six references are cited. (EJS)

This pathfinder was originally prepared for "Biomedical Research and Animal Rights," a session sponsored by the Veterinary Medical Libraries and Research Libraries Sections of the Medical Library Association. Current resources are described, from bibliographies to electronic bulletin boards, which relate to the issue of laboratory animal…

Discusses Web sites as useful tools for information storage and retrieval and describes ways librarians can find information more easily. Highlights include finding useful Web sites in print, including magazines and newspapers; links pages; examples of helpful Web sites; and querying the Webmaster of favorite sites for further information. (LRW)