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Densities of use, and absence of obsolescence, in physics journals at M I T

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  • Alexander Sandison

Abstract

Chen's data for the raw frequency of use of 138 physics journals in the science library at M I T are re‐examined and converted to densities of use‐per‐metre of shelf. Other units of size for obtaining densities, and their measurement, are discussed. There is no evidence for synchronous obsolescence in the 1955 to 1968 volumes of these journals: instead there is some statistically significant evidence of greater density of use with greater age. Similar evidence elsewhere is cited. The ranking order for heaviness of use is also radically altered by converting raw frequencies to densities of use. It is suggested that, for comparing the relative values of different journals, or age groups, in library use or citation studies, analyses of raw frequencies are valueless, and indeed potentially dangerously misleading, until they are converted to allow for the numbers of available items in each group examined.

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  • Alexander Sandison, 1974. "Densities of use, and absence of obsolescence, in physics journals at M I T," Journal of the American Society for Information Science, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 25(3), pages 172-182, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jamest:v:25:y:1974:i:3:p:172-182
    DOI: 10.1002/asi.4630250308
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    Cited by:

    1. Yanhui Song & Feng Ma & Siluo Yang, 2015. "Comparative study on the obsolescence of humanities and social sciences in China: under the new situation of web," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 102(1), pages 365-388, January.

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