QUANTITY A N D DISTRIBUTION OF BIOCHEMICAL LITERATURE
37
Survey of the Quantity and Distribution of Biochemical Literature By ELLEN SHIRLEY E. SCHWARTZ and WENDELL H. POWERS Department of Chemistry, W a y n e State University, Detroit, Michigan Received April 2 5 , 1962
During the receLAtpast, several surveys have been conducted to determine which scientific periodicals contain the greatest number of articles of interest to chemists in special fields of endeavlx, and to determine the country of origin of the publications as well as the language in which the article was .written, F.S. Boig, with the collaboration of P. W. Howerton, has surveyed the literature of organic chemistry’.’ and analytical chemistryJ ‘ from this point of view. Boig, et. a / . ,have similarly surveyed the literature of pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and perfume chemistry,’ dye and textile chemistry,6rubber chemistry,’ petroleum chemistry,8and the industries of paint, varnish, and lacquers.’ M. Fleischer has recently reviewed the field of mineralogical and geological chemistry.” D. B. Baker, Director of Chemical Abstracts Service, has pointed out that the volume of reported fundamental and applied research !In chemistry and chemical engineering has increased eightfold in 50 years. Chemical ,4 bstracts systematically abstracted articles from 475 journals in its first year (of operation (1907) and from about 9800 journals in 1960, originating from 97 countries and appearing in about 52 languages.” During 1961 there appeared in Chemical Abstracts 118,337 abstracts of papers and 26,249 abstracts of patents. During the same year there were published in the section on “Biological Chemistry” 35,046 abstracts of papers. This represents 2.75 times the number of abstracts of papers (12,663) appearing in its nearest competitor, the section on “Organic Chemistry.”” These data indicate well the present-day importance of biochemistry as a field of chemical research. Our present survey was conducted t o determine which journals published the greatest number of articles on biochemistry topics, and to determine the countries of publication as well as the languages in which the papers were written.
COLLECTION OF DATA
T h e abstracts of biochemical articles, as published in the “Biological Chemistry” section of Chemical Abstracts, were counted for every .tenth year during the period 191060. Likewise the abstracts, as published in the “Physiologische Chemie” section of Chem. Zentr.. were tallied for the period 1880-1910. Polemic discussions and obituaries were eliminated from the study. The journal in which each paper was published was recorded. Whenever possible, the language of the article also was recorded. When not
specified in the abstract the language was assumed to be the same as that of the country in which the journal was published. I n the case of journals from multilingual countries, such as Switzerland, the language of the title of the journal was assumed to be the same as that of the article. Where it was impossible to determine the language of the original article in the above manner, a notation of “undetermined” was recorded. Most multilingual journals publish articles in English, French, or German; and citing articles therein as “undetermined” would cause little change in the relative position of the major languages as reported in this paper. The country in which each journal was published was determined from the “List of Periodicals Abstracted by Chemical Abstracts Service” ’’ or from the “U70rld List of Scientific Periodicals.” ” The year in which the journal started publication was obtained from the latter source.
DISCUSSION
I n Table I the major journals are listed with the number of abstracts ( A ) found in Chemical Abstracts or in Chem. Zentr. a t ten-year intervals from 1880 to 1960. A rank ( R ) is assigned to the journal to indicate its relative position of importance from the standpoint of the number of articles published in it during a particular year. T h e top twenty-five journals for the year 1960 are listed. Twelve other periodicals found in our survey in Chemical Abstracts to be importance for the years 1910-50 and eleven important journals found in our survey in Chem. Zentr. for the years 1880-1910 are included. Where no number is found under “A,” no abstracts were found in that periodical for that particular year, either because the journal had not yet begun publication, or for some undetermined reason no abstract had been taken from it during the year. Research scientists rely heavily on the most recent publications in their field. The majority of literature citations in the J . A m . Chem. Soc. and other leading chemical journals are to articles which have been published within the previous ten years.’””’ Much less use is made of the older literature. Thus, when libraries have limited funds for the purchase of biochemical journals, priority should be given to the journals near the top of Table I in the most recent years. The necessity of completing back files of the older journals has been questioned, especially if there is a choice between purchasing a journal of former importance or a newer journal of present day importance.’‘’
ELLEN SHIRLEY E. SCHWARTZ AND WENDELL H. POWERS
38
A simple count of abstracts does not distinguish between a short note found in Nature and a lengthy research report in the J . Biol. Chem. While the number of pages of an article is recorded in the abstract, no account is taken here of the length of the article. Emphasis is on the quantity of biochemical articles as determined by the number of abstracts, not the length of the article nor the quality of the research reported. There is also a chance that the literature has not been completely abstracted. Formerly Soviet literature was difficult t o obtain," but since the advent of Referativnyi Zhurnal. K h i m i y a in 1953, coverage of the Soviet literature in Chemical Abstracts has been as complete as Soviet coverage." I t can be assumed
that an article not abstracted in Chemical Abstracts is not readily available, and is, therefore, of limited use to chemists in general. Chemische Zentralblatt did not attempt to give a complete coverage of the literature until 1919, so that information recorded here before 1919 is somewhat distorted with greater emphasis on German articles in pure chemistry.j' The relative position of a journal in 1910 from Chemical Abstracts data is not the same as from Chem. Zentr. data for the same year. For example, from Chemical Abstracts data the first four journals are Compt. rend. soc biol., Biochem Z , Z . physiol. Chem., and Compt rend.. whereas from Chem Zentr data the order is Biochem. 2..
Table I Important Biochemical Journals
From Chemical Abstracts (R = rank, A = number of abstracts)
Nature J . Biol. Chem. Biochim. et. Biophys. Acta Proc. Soc. Exptl. Biol. Med. A m . J . Physiol.
Date Country 1868-Engl 1905-USA 1947-Neth 1903-USA 1898-USA
1960 R A 1 936 2 661 3 635 4 607 5 385
Compt. rend. soc. b i d . Dissertation A bstr. Biochem. J Arch. Biochem. Bioph?,s. Compt. rend. Endocrinobgy Arch. intern. pharrnacodynamie Klin. Wochschr. Doklad? Akad. N a u k S . S . S . R . Naturuissenschaften
1849-Fr 1938-USA 1906-Engl 1942-USA 1835-Fr 1917-USA 1894-Belg 1922-Germ 1828-USSR 1913-Germ
6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
365 361 342 312 274 252 220 212 187 186
A rrnei m ittel . - khrsch. J . Pharmacol. E.&. Therap J . Biochem. (Tokyo) Ann. A\r. Y . Acad. Sci. J . Bacterid.
1951-Germ 1909-USA 1922-Jap 1823-USA 1916-USA
16 17 18 19 20
185 184 177 176 175
2.ges. exptl. Med.
J . physiol. (Paris) Can. J . Biochem. and Physiol. Arch. intern. physiol. et biochem. Experientia
1913-Germ 1899-Fr 1929-Can 1904-Belg 1945-Swit
21 22 23 24 25
172 167 166 164 162
Arch exptl. Pathol. Pharmakol., Naunyn-Schmiedeberg s J . Lab. Clin. Med. Lancet Z, p h)s io/,Chem, , Hoppe-Seder k Boll. sac. ital. b i d sper.
1873-Germ 1915-USA 1823-Engl 1877-Germ 1927-1 t a1
26 30 50
146 138 95 90 88
J . Physiol. (London) Deut. med. Wochschr. Byull. Ehsptl. Bioi. Med. Arch. ges. Physiol.. Pfluper's Munch. med. Wochschr.
1878-Engl 1875-Germ 1936-USSR 1868-Germ 1886-Germ
67 48 48 43
Z . Immu ni tatsforsch Biochem. Z
1908-Germ 1906-Germ
10
12
1'
60
Journal
Total number of journals
R 4 2 22 1 7 3 8 6 9 18 16 19 11
10 21 17
23
25
5
1950 A 277 524 96 598 235 391 6 228 243 192 128 138 106 183 55 187 13 101 133
R 13 2
1940 A 112 401
1 6
587 187
23 3
3
326
5
4 24
13
12
16
18
55 218
3
110
13 7
20 39
12
104
13
43
1
284
193
8
140
16
39
16
18
58 258 61 80 65' 45
11
129 34 26 162 la 43
5
77 10
4
84
112
10
138 43
6
69 118
35
14
97 19
22 13
23
8
94 11
48 13
14 17
17
42 91 44 43 254
8 10 22
9
8 27
7
5
13
15; 125 72 87 144
6 14
n-
13
1
12,855 1,054
22 97
11,064 1.081
R
1910 A
,
1
2
65
10
23
2
13 54 46 34
6
14
7 10 20
3
5 184
20
60 26
9 11
49 45
10 8
23 28
17
85 9
i
13 54
9 5
26 51
90 205
2
5 201
9 4
16 20
R
160 91 32 138 202
35 177
12
11
29,224' 2,365
1920 A 4 2 202
1930 A 18 2 266
R
6 1
160 474
7,139 655
4 1
3,101 484
1,873 258
39
QUANTITY A N D DISTRIBUTION OF BIOCHEMICAL LITERATURE From Chem isches Zentralbiatt
A
R
A
R
A
1880 R A
172 147 83
1 2
63 59
1 2
19 17
3 1
24 26
4
16 5
11 10 13 1 9
5
15 3
1 3
26 24
1910 Journal
Biochem. Z. Z. ph\,sio/. Chem.. Hoppe-Seder ‘s Compt. rend. Z, Imm ii nitatsfomch Arch. exptl. Pathol. Pharmakol., N a u nyn-Schmiedeberg ’s
Date
1906187718351908-
Country Germ Germ Fr Germ
R 1
1873-
Germ
5
Arch. ges. Phvsioi., Pfliiger’s 2 . Biol. Zentr. Physiol. Ber. deut. chem. Ces. Landu3irtsch. V e x - S t a .
186818651887-1921 1868-1945 1859-1938
Germ Germ Germ Germ Germ
Arch. pathol. A n d . u . Physioi., Virchoic’s
1847-
Germ
2 3 4
43 29 22 19 6 3
3 5
28 14 8 4
1
The number of
2. physiol. Chem., Compt. rend., and 2 . Immunitatsforsch. No direct comparison can be made between 1880 and the later years because in 1.880 biochemistry, medicinal chemistry, and pharmacy were combined in one section, while in later years there wen? separate sections for biochemistry, medicine, and pharmacy. The year 1880 is included in Table I only to give am indication of the major journals shortly after 2 .physiol Chem. began publication. Distortion may occur if a journal has been unavailable for several years, such as during a war, then a t a later date Chemical Abstracts obtains issues and abstracts several years of the journal a t one time. For example, the November 20, 1930, issue of Chemical Abstracts records 9 7 abstracts from 2. Immunitutsforsch. covering a period of two years. Such examples are rare, however. From the 1 9 6 0 issue of Chemical Abstracts the editors eliminated abstracts of material recorded in more than one place, translations, unpublished papers given a t society meetings, titles of standards such as ASTM, and cross references of certain patents.” This reduced the volume of Chemical Abstracts by around 3$. In 1 9 1 0 Chemical Abstracts carried an “Immunochemistry” section in addition to the “Biological Chemistry” section. Our count for that year involved only those biochemical articles abstracted in the “Biological Chemistry” section. Later the editors of Chemical Abstracts incorporated into the “Biological Chemistry” section all of the abstracts formerly separately printed in the “Immunochemistry” section. Over the peri’od of years included in this study, such editorial changes affect the absolute count of abstracts classed as biochemical. The most noticeable feature derived from the data of Table I , as plotted in Fig. 1 , is the rapid increase in biochemistry literature. I t can be seen that from 1930 to 1 9 6 0 the volume of abstracts doubled about every fourteen years. If only 1 9 5 0 to 1 9 6 0 is considered, the number of abstracts doubled within a period of eight years. When yearly counts of the a,bstracts are taken, great decreases
7
6 6 3
0
1.129 109
‘ Articles were in the foreign language edition, Compt. rend acad. sei. U.R.S.S.” D. B. Baker, Chemical Abstracts Service, explains that Biochem. 2. was skipped by their abstractor for several years and not discovered until late 1961. The journal is much
1890
70
7
Total number of abstracts Total number of journals
more important than this table indicates.
1900
4
361 67
2
12 270’ 61
254 63
abstracts appearing in the top 25 journals for 1960 is 7663 or about 26rc of the total. This value does not agree exactly with the count (29,299)published in reference (15). e Merged in Arch. ges. Physiol.. Pflueger’s. Continued as Chem. Ber. Contains biochemical, medicinal, and pharmaceutical articles.
‘
in the number of abstracts are found at the close of a war period.” This is observed in our data as plotted in Fig. 1 for 1 9 2 0 and 1950. The points representing the number of abstracts for these years are below the curve connecting the points for the peacetime years. The J . Biol. Chem. has been the major biochemical journal for the greatest length of time in the recent past. I t has been in second position since 1920. Nature a t present has more articles abstracted from it than the J . Biol. Chem.. hut many of these are very short. The Proc. Soc. Exptl. B i d . Med. was a t the top of the list in 1 9 4 0 and 1950, but dropped in rank in 1960, even though the number of abstracts increased. The French journals 30,OOC
25,000
20,000 v)
b-
o
a
Fl5,OOO v)
m 4 LL
010,000 IT
w m
Z 5,000 3
z o+ 1890
u
1980
1910
1920
1930
1940
1950
19
YEAR
Fig. 1 .-Increase in the number of abstracts of biochemical articles. on the abscissa, d a t a for 1890-1910 are taken from Chemisches Zentralblatf; Data for 1910-60 are taken from Chemical Abstracts
ELLEN SHIRLEY E. SCHWARTZ AND WENDELL H. POWERS
40
Compt. rend. and Compt. rend. soc. biol. have been consistently among the major journals. Compt. rend. is especially noteworthy since it has also been a leader among organic chemistry journals throughout its long history.' The German journals 2.physiol. Chem. and Biochem. 2.. have shown a tremendous drop in importance since the First World War. Biochem. 2. was the major biochemical journal in 1920 and 1930, and 2. physiol. Chem. was a t the top of the list in 1890 and 1900. Figure 2 shows graphically the rise and fall of four of the important journals. The USSR,Japan, and Italy have few journals among the major twenty-five, but each of them has very many scientific and medical journals which have a n occasional article of biochemical interest. There is nothing to indicate that Soviet journals are tending to displace American journals from the top of the list in biochemistry as they are tending to do in analytical and organic chemistry.' The international journals, such as Biochim. et Biophys. Acta, Arch. intern. pharmacod>,namie, and Arch. intern. phvsiol. et. biochem.. have shown a great increase in importance in 1960 over previous years. The importance of journals which print many brief reports is also increasing noticeably. Nature, Naturlcissenschaften. and Experientia are prime examples. Science is not found in Table I, but it does have many articles of biochemical interest each year. Dissertation Abstracts is a monthly compilation of abstracts of doctoral dissertations submitted to the journal. Many biochemical dissertations that are not printed elsewhere are found here. This journal has made an amazing climb into the classification of a major source of biochemical information in abstract form. The 1911 volume of Chemical Abstracts was studied in comparison with 1910 to determine the validity of assigning a rank to the journals in any given year. I t was found that the order of the top three journals was exactly reversed in 1911 over what it was in 1910. 2.physiol. Chem.. having 211 abstracts, was first in 1911, but third
1000
800
I
N,'
I
Fig. 2.-lncrease in the number of abstracts of biochemical articlps from four of the maior journals: ZPC for Zeitschrift fur physiologische Chemie, Hoppe-Seylers, CRSB for Comptes rendus des seances de la societe de biologie et de ses filiales, JBS for Journal of Biological Chemistry, N for Nature. The data for the year 1910 are taken from Chemical Abstracts.
in 1910 with 184; Biochem. 2.was second in 1911 with 192 abstracts, and also second in 1910 with 201; Compt rend. soc. biol. was third in 1911 with 135 abstracts, but first in 1910 with 284. The only other important change was a rise in the rank of the J . B i d . Chem. with 18 abstracts in 1910, but 82 abstracts in 1911. Thus, where few abstracts are recorded in a given year. a slight variation in the number of articles abstracted or a fluctuation in the number of articles published may cause some change in the relative position of any particular journal, but there
Table II Number of Articles in the Major Languages
From Chemical Abstracts (R = rank, A= number of abstracts, 5 = percentage of totali Language
R
English German French .Japanese Italian Russian I:ndetermined Spanish
1 2
Polish
3 4 5
6 8 9
1960 A
1950
R
1,5350 3.125 2.610 2,168 1.615 1,522
52.5 10 7 R9
5.6 52
4
199 429
1.5
8
13 1.o
6
299
1 7 1
i 4
>
R
4 ,56.9
i.308 11:31 14:ii 374 837 ,512 ;32? 435
104 11.2 "fi 6.5 4.0 25 3.4
1 2 .i fi 5 4
i
1940 A 61.38 145; 93' 439 557 619 292
19:io
R
4
',
R
ii.4 122
1 2 3
40.5 31.3 8.9 1.0
I 2 :3 6 4
1192 89.5
4
2892 2234 639 283 47s
7
144
6
189
a
110
2.0 2.6 15 5
60
8.4 4.L) 50 5R 2.i
5
Dutch Total numher oi languages
16
21
isin
1900 A
__
'9')
37
From Chemisches Zentraiblatt Language
R
A
German English French Italian Swedish Dutch Russian Estonian
1
i31 154 1.51 38 '?!j 13
Total number of lanpuazei
2 3 4 3
6
R 64.8 1t1.6 13 4 34 18 1.2
1
"1
i
"(1
2
94
4
11
61 '3 5.5 26.0 1.1
1
2 4
1.1 1.1
6
11
R
9
1
1890 .A
'*
7 2
161 25 34
4
19
13.1 i 1
6
3
I?
7
6
2.1
9
1921 .A
',
6:3.4
9.8
67
333 47 122
1;
1910
',
R
A
'I
18.1
3 1 2
263
9X!
14 0 19.1
16i
11.9
1
166
I1
29.8 11.1 1.5
19
1.9
17
QUANTITY AND DISTRIBUTION OF BIOCHEMICAL LITERATURE
41
country t o the total. I n the case of international journals, it must be noted that the country in which the article was published is not necessarily the same as the country in which the research was done. The United States produces by far the most biochemical literature. Five of the top ten journals and about 30' of the total number of biochemical articles are published in the United States. Japan, perhaps surprisingly, is in second place. About lo$ of the current biochemical literature is found in Japanese journals. Many articles in Japanese journals are written in English, so that the position of the Japanese language on our lists is lower than that of the country. England and Germany are a t about the same level (9%) in 1960, followed by France (6.6$), Italy (5.75), and the Russian Soviet Federated Socialists Republic (4.9%). Poland, Czechoslovakia, and the Ukrainian S.S.S.R. make their first appearance in 1960 among the nations producing a t least one per cent. of the biochemical literature. This is indicative of a general trend toward greater biochemical research in communistic countries. Canada and India also show a gradual increase, as do other nations of the British Commonwealth that are not listed.
should be little significant overall change. I n the earlier years there is greater possibility of error, but the error should decrease as the number of abstracts increases. Table I1 records the number of articles written in each language by rank, R , number of abstracts, A , and percentage of the total, 'T. English is, by far, the language of the literature of biochemistry, and has been ever since World War I . Over 5 0 ' r of all biochemical articles are written in English a t the present time. Before World War I , German was the language of biochemical literature. For the year 1 9 1 0 , 4 9 5 of the abstracts in the biochemical section of Chemical Abslracts were from articles written in German, while for the same year about 65'r of the abstracts in the biochemical section of Chem Zentr were from articles written in German. This reflects the emphasis placed by the editors clf Chem Zentr upon the German literature. French and 1 talian have remained high on the list as major languages over the years, whereas Russian and especially Japanese have shown tremendous growth in the more recent years. Table I11 shows the number of articles published in each country, the rank, and the percentage contribution of each
Table I l l Number of Articles From the Major Countries From Chernicai Abstracts (R = rank. A = number of abstracts, ' c = percentage of the totali
isin K I
> 4
12 1.1
1.4
I4 1i 115
1.2 1.2 1.1
a 9 111 11
ot
29 6 10.1! 9,:i 9.2 6.6
5.: 4.9 'L1 2.4 2 :i 15 1.4
6
l'irral
R 1 1
4 'i 1
6 9 11 I :i
R
A 5286 44 1
1211 104P 1154 82 I ,512 ?li 207 182
41.1 i.1 9.4 P.l
6 3 2
90
J
64
10 17 1.6 I .i
16 14 l(!
129 146 "16
1 [I 11
8
'329
12 1.i
195 1.37
2.6 1.5 11
numher countries
1
4 9 10
1
659
gin 1177 i45 543
I
40.2 6.0
8.6 10.6
6.7 1.9
850
-,.,-
1i5 12:
1.6 1.1
11
11:i
1.0
X
1%
1.;
i9
190il A
6 4 1
i ,5
I
10
PR
8.0
1 2 '3
6i
5
1RO ' A 1124 5; 284 821 2% 122
6
65
9
4'3
8
52
2.1 1.1 17
11
.ll
1.1)
10
'37
1.2
',
2; .i 6.5
79 29 '1
R I
i
',
R
.!6.2
4
1.8 9.2 26 4 96 3.9
5 1 2 :i
2.0
12
6
93 ll!l
l'i 14
1890
R
A
60.4 9i.2
1
154
?
w
?
6
4
1.1
J
,
3 1
16
4.4 .'
