据本周Science杂志(July 18 issue of Science Magazine)发表了芝加哥大学社会学家James Evans的研究成果表明：“随着越来越多的期刊可在线获取，出版的研究论文的参考文献列表中的被引用文章数却越来越少”（“as more journals become available online, fewer articles are being cited in the reference lists of the research papers published within them. ”）

另一个说法是：当研究者获得越多的论文，他们在自己的科研工作中引用论文数却越少。(when researchers have access to more papers, they cite fewer of them in their own work)

Dr Evans的研究数据是基于Thomson Scientific的引文索引（citation indexes）而做，作者统计源包括6000种最突出的学术期刊，有些期刊可以追溯到1945年。通过cross-referring方式形成一个数据库(称为Fulltext Sources Online), 主要是了解哪些期刊已经提供web获取以及过刊电子化情况。

问题：
1、它与OA论文及其影响因子的不断提高、引用率上升有些不符。
2、与自己最新看的奥地利、德国、瑞士的科学研究报告有些不符（或许侧重与切入点不同）。

所以：我想在想阅读《Science》上作者的原文，看作者如何计算，谁能查《Science Online》搭个手？

后注：James A. Evans, et al.Electronic Publication and the Narrowing of Science and Scholarship[J].Science 321, 395 (2008) 谢谢云影提供PDF文章，自己上传Google DOC，却没能共享成功

文章的摘要如下：
Online journals promise to serve more information to more dispersed audiences and are more efficiently searched and recalled. But because they are used differently than print—scientists and scholars tend to search electronically and follow hyperlinks rather than browse or peruse—electronically available journals may portend an ironic change for science. Using a database of 34 million articles, their citations (1945 to 2005), and online availability (1998 to 2005), I show that as more journal issues came online, the articles referenced tended to be more recent, fewer journals and articles were cited, and more of those citations were to fewer journals and articles. The forced browsing of print archives may have stretched scientists and scholars to anchor findings deeply into past and present scholarship. Searching online is more efficient and following hyperlinks quickly puts researchers in touch with prevailing opinion, but this may accelerate consensus and narrow the range of findings and ideas built upon.
随着更多的期刊卷期上网，文章更多地引用近期所发表的文章，同时越来越少的期刊和文章被引用，而这些被引用的文献集中在更少的期刊与文章之中。(这算是比较准确的表述了吧)

作者的另一种表达是：I will show,however, that even as deeper journal back issues became available online, scientists and scholars cited more recent articles; even as more total journals became available online, fewer were cited.

参考阅读：
Great minds think (too much) alike
Online researchers have access to more articles but cite fewer
Database statistics applied to investigate the effects of electronic information services on publication of academic research – a comparative study covering Austria, Germany and Switzerland

相关日志

• 2008-07-16 -- 揭下面纱：OCLC 2008 研究报告 (1)