LETTERS
SAMPLE PREPARATION BOMBS FOR TRACE METAL ANALYSIS Available in a variety of sizes and styles, our teflon-lined Acid Diges tion Bombs are designed for microwave and convection heating. Use them to treat in organic samples in HF, HC1 and other strong mineral acids.Or to digest organic samples in strong alkali or oxidizing acid at elevated temperatures and pressures.
Our Oxygen Combustion Bombs decompose any combust ible solid or liquid — quickly and completely. The sealed bomb contains and converts materials to a soluble form while allowing complete recovery of all elements. Now available in a new longer-lasting mat erial for high halogencontaining substances. For complete details ask for our free Brochure #4700.
PARR INSTRUMENT COMPANY 211 Fifty-Third Street Moline, IL 61265 309-762-7716 Telex: 270226 Fax: 309-762-9453
More on U.S. Academic Analytical Programs Sir: Giddings's letter (1) on academic analytical programs displayed interest ing data on the publication productivi ty of some U.S. analytical chemistry schools. Such an evaluation, however, gives too simple and one-sided a pic ture of the topic, and studies using a more sophisticated, scientific method are available (2). The use of citations as raw data for academic evaluation has a long and debated history (3). However, the extent to which authors and papers are cited appears to correlate with oth er, more direct criteria (4). Table I ranks the most important an
alytical chemistry journals (2) accord ing to their average citation rate for the five-year period of 1981-1985. These data fully confirm the statement that " A N A L Y T I C A L C H E M I S T R Y is general
ly considered to be the flagship journal of the worldwide analytical communi ty" (/). Table II lists the number of papers (excluding A-page articles) published by U.S. universities in A N A L Y T I C A L
C H E M I S T R Y during the same five years
(1981-1985). Using information from the Science Citation Index (Philadel phia, PA), we determined the number
Table 1. Citation ranking of analytical chemistry journals (1981- 1985) Rank 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Journal ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
CRC Critical Reviews of Analytical Chemistry Journal of Chromatography Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry Journal of Chromatographic Science Chromatography Analytica Chimica Acta Journal of Liquid Chromatography Separation and Purification Methods International Journal of Environmental Analysis The Analyst Journal of the Association of Official Analytical Chemists Separation Science and Technology Talanta Journal of Analytical Applied Pyrolysis Analytical Letters A Radiochimica Acta Journal of Labelled Compounds Analusis Thermochimica Acta Analytical Instruments Mikrochimica Acta Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry Bunseki Kagaku Microchemical Journal Journal of Thermal Analysis Annales de Quimica Β Chemija Analltyczna Afinldad Journal of Analytical Chemistry (Moscow)
CIRCLE 125 ON READER SERVICE CARD 526 A · ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY, VOL. 6 1 , NO. 8, APRIL 15, 1989
Citations per paper 5.55 4.73 4.14 4.01 3.93 3.35 3.01 2.93 2.62 2.47 2.34 2.17 2.12 2.07 1.72 1.61 1.35 1.28 1.22 1.17 1.12 1.11 1.09 0.98 0.97 0.91 0.61 0.48 0.40 0.02
of first author citations (including selfcitations) to the papers included in Table II for the same five-year period (Table III). The relative citation rate (RCR) is defined as the ratio of the actual number of citations the group of papers receives to the average citation rate for papers in the same journal. A paper or group of papers with an RCR of over 1.0 is considered to be of aboveaverage impact (5). Many conclusions can be drawn by comparing the rankings in Tables II and III. Routine paper counting, while giving some indication of productivity, results in a ranking that differs substantially from that based on citation counting. The RCR values in Table III can be used to assess the impact of a set of papers from a certain school com-
pared with the average impact of all papers published in ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY during the same period. A l t h o u g h 214 U . S . schools p u b l i s h e d papers in ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
between 1981 and 1985, only those schools publishing at least 16 papers during those five years are listed in Tables II and III. A complete list and ranking is available from the authors. References (1) Giddings, J. C. Anal. Chem. 1987, 59, 1137 A. (2) Braun, T.; Bujdoso, E.; Schubert, A. Literature of Analytical Chemistry: A Scientometric Evaluation; CRC Press: Boca Raton, FL, 1987. (3) Garfield, E. Current Contents 1983, 44, 5.
Table II. No. of papers published by U.S. universities in ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY (1981-1985) Rank
University
No. of papers
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
Iowa State University University of Utah Purdue University Indiana University University of North Carolina University of Pittsburgh University of Michigan University of Florida University of Washington Cornell University University of Illinois University of Delaware University of Cincinnati University of Houston Ohio State University State University of New York at Buffalo University of Wisconsin University of Arizona University of Wyoming University of California, Riverside University of Virginia Oklahoma State University Michigan State University Texas A & M University Virginia Polytechnic Institute University of Nebraska Brigham Young University New Mexico State University Johns Hopkins University University of Maryland
54 45 43 43 43 38 35 32 31 30 30 29 27 26 26 25
17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
25 24 24 24 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 18 17 16
(4) Cole, J. R.; Cole, S. Social Stratification in Science; University of Chicago Press: Chicago, 1973. (5) Braun, T.; Glanzel, W.; Schubert, A. Scientometric Indicators; World Scientific: Philadelphia, 1985.
Tibor Braun Institute of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry L. Eotvos University Budapest P.O. Box 123 1443 Budapest, Hungary Andras Schubert and Sandor Zsindely Information Science and Scientometrics Research Unit Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences P.O. Box 7 1361 Budapest, Hungary
Table III. Citations per paper and relative citation rate (RCR) of publications by universities in ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY (1981-1985) Rank
University
1 Brigham Young University 2 Purdue University 3 Colorado State University 4 Massachusetts Institute of Technology 5 University of Massachusetts 6 Virginia Polytechnic Institute 7 University of Washington 8 University of New Hampshire 9 University of Houston 10 University of Nebraska 11 Johns Hopkins University 12 University of Iowa 13 Seton Hall University 14 University of Maryland 15 University of Florida 16 Indiana University 17 Kansas State University 18 Texas Tech University 19 Florida State University 20 University of Utah 21 University of Arizona 22 Iowa State University 23 University of California, Berkeley 24 University of Colorado 25 University of North Carolina 26 Oregon State University 27 Oregon Graduate Center 28 University of Rhode Island 29 University of Cincinnati 30 State University of New York at Buffalo
Citations Relative per paper citation rate 15.72 11.77 11.58 11.50
2.83 2.12 2.09 2.07
11.50 11.15 10.03 10.00 9.62 9.47 9.12 8.21 8.00 7.94 7.44 7.42 7.08 7.07 6.91 6.56 6.46 6.41 6.38
2.07 2.01 1.81 1.80 1.73 1.71 1.64 1.48 1.44 1.43 1.34 1.34 1.28 1.27 1.25 1.18 1.16 1.16 1.15
6.38 6.33 6.00 5.80 5.80 5.70 5.48
1.15 1.14 1.08 1.05 1.05 1.03 0.99
ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY, VOL. 61, NO. 8, APRIL 15, 1989 · 527 A
