Citation Analysis: A Method for Collection Development for a Rapidly Developing Field

Abstract

Citation analysis was used to determine if the Sciences-Engineering Library at the University of California at Santa Barbara is meeting the needs of an interdisciplinary group of 60 faculty members at the new California NanoSystems Institute. The latest three publications of each faculty member (published within the last two years) were analyzed in two ways using the Science Citation Index: 1) the journals they were published in, and 2) the journals where cited articles were published. The results indicate that the library subscribes to 98 percent of the journals in which faculty members are published or are citing frequently. This information is useful to map the citation patterns of a new interdisciplinary field and can be used for future collection management decisions.