Citation analysis based on the information science is important not only to evaluate the reference but also to know which one or which journal should be retrieved in future. Such analyses, however, have scarecely been reported by medical or dental scientists because of difficulty in getting huge energy to perform the job.
The present study was ai m ed to analyze the references cited in the cleft lip/palate articles. The subjects were 2,905 references appeared in the journals (cited references) which were the majority of 3,294 references cited in the 125 articles published in the J. Jap. Cleft Palate Assoc. of the volumes 1 through 9. The years and the names of the journals in which the references were appeared (cited journals) were analyzed, and were related to the theme of the articles in the J. Jap. Cleft Palate Assoc. (theme).
Some of the results were as follows.
1. Many of the cited references w ere appeared in a few journals. On the contrary, from most of the cited journals only less than five articles were cited. These tendencies were more evident in t h e foreign language references and journals.
2 In most themes J. Jap. Cleft Pala te Assoc., Jap. J. Oral Maxillofac. Surg., Cleft Palate J. and Plast. Reconstr. Surg. were cited frequentry, and in some themes references from journals ot h er than these were also often cited.
3 The numbers of the cited ref erences per one J. Jap. Cleft Palate Assoc. article were large in such themes as jaw development, speech, statistics, complications in the Japanese cited referenc e s, and in jaw development, velopharyngeal function, complications in the foreign langua g e ones,
4. In both Japanese and foreign language ones, the numbers of the cited references per one cited journal were large in such themes as jaw development, velopharyngeal function, speech and orthodontics.
5. Approximately 70% of the Japanese cited references had been published in previous about 5years, but about 60% of the foreign language ones had been in previous about 10 to 15 years.
6. Most of the foreign language cited references were written in English, a few in Germany, an d few in other than these two. The cited references written in other than English were published about ten years prior to the English ones.
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