Although the basic science researchers expressed a positive attitude toward the library, they did not view its resources or services as integral to their work. To maximize their use by researchers, library resources must be accessible via departmental websites. Use of library services may be increased by cultivating relationships with key departmental administrative personnel. Despite their self-sufficiency, subjects expressed a desire for centralized information about ongoing research on campus and shared resources, suggesting a role for the library in creating and managing an institutional repository.
This paper identifies the core literature of athletic training and determines which major databases provide the most thorough intellectual access to this literature.
Methods:This study collected all cited references from 2002 to 2004 of three journals widely read by those in the athletic training field. Bradford's Law of Scattering was applied to the resulting list to determine the core journal titles in the discipline. Three major databases were reviewed for extent of their coverage of these core journals.Results: Of the total 8,678 citations, one-third referenced a compact group of 6 journals; another third of the citations referenced an additional 40 titles. The remaining 2,837 citations were scattered across 1,034 additional journal titles.
Conclusions:The number and scatter of citations over a three-year period identified forty-six key journals in athletic training. The study results can inform athletic trainers of the core literature in their field, encourage database producers (e.g., MEDLINE, SPORTDiscus, CINAHL) to increase coverage of titles that are not indexed or underindexed, and guide purchasing decisions for libraries serving athletic training programs.
Highlights• This paper reviews the development of athletic training as a recognized health sciences profession and current issues and trends in the profession. • This is the first published study to characterize the nature and scope of the literature of athletic training and to identify its core journal titles. • This study identified six titles that constitute the core journal titles in athletic training and forty additional journal titles that are the next most heavily used. The citing patterns of these journals indicate that the literature of athletic training draws heavily from the fields of sports medicine, physical therapy, rehabilitation, orthopedics, and physiology.
Implications• Comprehensive literature searches must be performed in multiple databases, as no one product covers the field of athletic training thoroughly. • The findings serve as a guide for making journal and database purchasing decisions in academic and health sciences libraries. • MEDLINE, SPORTDiscus, and CINAHL can add value to their products by increasing coverage of the forty-six titles identified in this study.
The knowledgebase of radiation therapy draws heavily from the fields of oncology, radiology, medical physics, and nursing. Discipline-specific publications are not currently well covered by major indexing services, and those wishing to conduct comprehensive literature searches should search multiple resources.
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