1986 Volume 32 Issue 2 Pages 76-88
This report presents both the interrelation among methods of user study and the organization of foreign journals of biotechnology in agricultural chemistry.
It is based on the results of three methods of research, i.e. citation analysis, questionnaire analysis and analysis of the use of copy service. Comparison and synthesis of the above three studies have provided significant results. The following points should be mentioned.
1. All three studies group core journals on the same biochemical journals (Anal. biochem., Biochemistry and Eur. J. biochem).
2. As next core journals both the secondary journals (Biol. abstr., Chem. abstr.) and general journals (Science, Sci. Am.) are grouped by the questionnaire analysis based on the interdisciplinary character of this field. Specialized journals (Acta biol. med., J. mol. biol. metabolism) are grouped in the analysis of the use of copy service because of the specialized character of this field.
3. According to the results of 1. and 2. above, at least three methods, i.e. citation analysis, questionnaire analysis and analysis of the use of copy service are needed for a complete analysis of use in an interdisciplinary field.
4. Synthesizing the three results, core journals of this field are grouped on existing journals, esp. biochemical journals.
5. The above result (4.) indicates that biotechnology in the field of agricultural chemistry up to now could not exist independently.
6. Comparing these results with the results from such complex fields as agriculture, medicine and pharmacology, chemical and biological journals are used far more frequently in this field.
7. Because of the short time span of ten years of this interdisciplinary field, only some types of use are represented, i.e. consistent core journals, increasing specialized journals, decreasing European specialized journals and irregular faculty furnished journals, and they indicate the tendencies of use in this field.
