Dissertation Information for Raymond E. DurranceNAME:
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SCHOOL: ADVISORS: COMMITTEE MEMBERS: MPACT Status: Fully Complete Title: A COMPARISON OF CHARACTERISTICS OF JOURNAL ARTICLES OF LABORATORY SCIENCEAND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE Abstract: A stratified random sample (n=600) of journal articles was examined using journal article analysis, a modification and expansion of citation analysis, to compare differences in characteristics of two inter-disciplinary literatures, environmental science and laboratory science. Environmental science was represented by ecology, meteorology, geophysics, and oceanography and laboratory science by genetics, biochemistry, physics and chemistry. Sources for selection of journal articles were major abstracting and indexing services covering the disciplines under examination. Characteristics examined where age of material typically cited, rate of journal citation, journal title dispersion, language dispersion, number of pages per article, number of references per article, and number of authors per article. Data were tested using a Mann-Whitney U-test procedure (P<0.05). Results indicate significantly greater differences between characteristics of test groups (environmental-laboratory science) than between control groups (life-physical science) in four of seven characteristics examined. Specifically, journal articles in environmental science have fewer authors and more pages per article, cite more non-English language materials and more non-journal formats. Test groups did not have significantly greater differences than controls in number of references per article, age of cited articles, and journal title dispersion. Journal article analysis is recommended to other researchers as a method for standardizing scientific literature characterizations and for developing standard profiles of journal articles in a variety of subject areas. It is a suitable method for comparing single disciplines and inter-disciplinary groups. |
MPACT Scores for Raymond E. DurranceA = 1 Advisors and Advisees Graph |