Mapping the Literature of Allied Health: Project Publications

BULLETIN OF THE MEDICAL LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, 1997 Jul 85(3)
Symposium: Mapping the Literature of Allied Health

Introduction
[full-text available at http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=226269]
Barbara F. Schloman

Mapping the literature of allied health: Project overview
[full-text available at http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=226270]
Barbara F. Schloman

The Nursing and Allied Health Resources Section of the Medical Library Association (MLA) created the Task Force on Bibliographic Access for the Allied Health Literature to identify the core journals of various allied health fields and assess the coverage given these titles by the major indexing and abstracting services. The larger objective is to influence increased bibliographic access to the core literature. This paper introduces the Project for Mapping the Literature of Allied Health and the common bibliometric methodology used for the five specific studies reported in the accompanying papers. Findings relating to format used, age of citations, dispersion of literature, and indexing coverage for the different fields are compared. Journals are the most heavily cited format. Fields differ by the currency of cited material, with physical therapy and speech language pathology displaying use of the oldest citations. The set of core journals is small for each field, particularly in speech-language pathology. MEDLINE provided the strongest indexing coverage overall, followed by EMBASE. Information such as that reported by the project can help librarians in improving information transfer for the allied health professionals they serve.

Mapping the literature of health education
[full-text available at http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=226271]
Barbara F. Schloman

Health education is a relatively new multidisciplinary field concerned with educational programs that empower individuals and communities to play active roles in achieving, protecting, and sustaining their health. Its practitioners have bachelor's, master's, or doctoral degrees and work in educational, worksite, health facility, or agency settings. This bibliometric study was part of the Medical Library Association (MLA) Nursing and Allied Health Resources Section's Project for Mapping the Literature of Allied Health. It sought to identify the core journals in health education and to determine the extent to which these titles are covered by the standard indexing sources. Cited references appearing from 1991 through 1993 in articles of four journals published by the major professional associations in the field were analyzed. It was found that only thirteen journals supply one-third of all references in the study. Another eighty journals provide the second third. MEDLINE gives the best indexing coverage with nearly 69% of the journals receiving indexing for at least half of their articles, followed by EMBASE (52%) and PsycINFO (43%). Limited coverage is given by the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (16%) and ERIC (14%). The findings name titles that should be added by indexing services and those that should have more complete coverage.

Mapping the literature of physical therapy
[full-text available at http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=226272]
Eileen M. Wakiji

Physical therapy is a fast growing profession because of the aging population, medical advances, and the public's interest in health promotion. This study is part of the Medical Library Association (MLA) Nursing and Allied Health Resources Section's project to map the allied health literature. It identifies the core journals in physical therapy by analyzing the cited references of articles in two established physical therapy journals, Physical Therapy and Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, during the period 1991 through 1993. This bibliometric analysis also determines the extent to which these journals are covered by the primary indexing sources, Allied and Alternative Medicine (AMED), the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, EMBASE, and MEDLINE. In this study, fourteen journals were found to supply one-third of all references studied. Ninety-five journals provided an additional third of the references. MEDLINE rated the highest as the indexing tool of choice for these 109 journals. The study results can assist in collection development decisions, advise physical therapists as to the best access to their core literature, and influence database producers to increase their coverage of the literature important to physical therapy.

Mapping the literature of radiologic technology
[full-text available at http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=226273]
Judy E. Burnham

While analysis of the literature of radiology has been conducted in the discipline, none of the studies have focused on identifying the core journals. The bibliometric method was used to conduct research to identify the core journals in the radiologic technology field and determine the extent of indexing of those journals. This study was a part of Medical Library Association (MLA) Nursing and Allied Health Resource Section's project to map the literature of allied health. Findings indicate that there is a small core of literature with a heavy reliance on the journal literature. Books are used to a lesser extent. The majority of the citations analyzed were published during the fourteen years between 1980 and 1993. MEDLINE and EMBASE provided the best indexing coverage of the radiologic technology literature; minimal coverage was provided by the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature and HEALTH.

Mapping the literature of respiratory therapy
[full-text available at http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=226274]
Judy E. Burnham

Little research has been conducted on the characteristics of the literature of respiratory care. The bibliometric method was used to identify the core journals in the discipline and the extent of indexing of those journals. This study was a part of Medical Library Association (MLA) Nursing and Allied Health Resources Section's project to map the literature of allied health. Findings indicate that the research writings of the discipline cite journal articles most heavily, with the majority of the citations published between 1980 and 1993. The literature has a small core of cited journals with a wide dispersion. MEDLINE and EMBASE provided the best indexing coverage of the literature, and minimal coverage was given by the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature and HEALTH.

Mapping the literature of speech-language pathology
[full-text available at http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=226275]
Linda G. Slater

The purpose of this study, part of the Medical Library Association (MLA) Nursing and Allied Health Resources Section's project to map the allied health literature, is to identify the core journals in the field of speech-language pathology and to identify indexing and abstracting services that provide access to these journals. Four representative speech-language pathology journals were selected and subjected to citation analysis to determine which journals were cited and how many times each was cited. Bradford's Law of Scattering was applied to the resulting list of journals to identify the core journals of this discipline. Six indexing and abstracting services were selected and scanned to determine coverage for the speech-language pathology core journals. The core journals received broad coverage in the health sciences and social sciences indexing and abstracting databases surveyed, although there was no one database that provided complete coverage of all core journals. The full Current Contents database provides the most extensive coverage of core journals. For individuals without access to the complete Current Contents database, a combined search of both MEDLINE and PsycINFO provides very comprehensive coverage of core journals.

BULLETIN OF THE MEDICAL LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, 1999 Jul 87(3)
Symposium: Mapping the Literature of Allied Health Phase II

Introduction
[full-text available at http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=226584]
Barbara F. Schloman

Mapping the literature of dental assisting
[full-text available at http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=226585]
Sara Anne Hook and Crystal F. Wagner

The purpose of this study was to identify core journals and the databases that provide access to these journals for the field of dental assisting. This study was completed as a part of the Medical Library Association (MLA) Nursing and Allied Health Resources Section's project to map the literature of allied health. There were three original journals selected for analysis using the prescribed methodology, Dental Assistant, the journal of the American Dental Assistants Association; Journal of the CDAA, the journal of the Canadian Dental Assistants' Association; and Dental Teamwork, published by the American Dental Association. Dental Teamwork ceased publication in December 1996; however, it was considered a necessary part of the analysis due to its extensive coverage of dental assisting as well as its numerous scientific articles with references. In Dental Assistant, there were 16 source articles, containing 206 citations. In Dental Teamwork, there were 31 source articles with 308 citations. In Journal of the CDAA, there were only 3 source articles with 14 citations. Bradford's Law of Scattering was applied to the journal citations. Four databases, MEDLINE, the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, and HEALTH were analyzed for their coverage of these cited journals. This study may encourage the dental assisting profession to take a close look at its existing journals and to consider enhancing the content of these journals or the publication of additional journals in the field. Dental assistants of today need substantive literature that deals with all aspects of their chosen profession in order to meet the challenges of providing dental health care in the future.

Mapping the literature of dental hygiene
[full-text available at http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=226586]
Ardis Haaland

Despite the long history of the dental hygiene profession, little research has been conducted on the characteristics of its literature. In this study, the bibliometric method was used to identify the core journals in the discipline and the extent of indexing of these journals. The study was a part of the Medical Library Association (MLA) Nursing and Allied Health Resources Section's project to map the allied health literature. Five journals were found to provide one-third of all references studied. Forty-two journals yielded an additional one-third of the references. MEDLINE had the best indexing coverage with 87% of the journals receiving indexing for at least one-half of the articles included. Limited coverage was provided by EMBASE/Excerpta Medica (11%) and the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (9%). The findings identified titles that should be added by indexing services as well as those that should have more complete coverage.

Mapping the literature of diagnostic medical sonography
[full-text available at http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=226587]
Barbara M. Walcott

Diagnostic medical sonography has been evolving as a recognized allied health occupation since the early 1970s, but no bibliometric studies of the literature of the field have been published. This study, part of the Medical Library Association Nursing and Allied Health Resources Section's Project for Mapping the Literature of Allied Health, attempted to identify the core journals in diagnostic medical sonography and determine how well these journals are indexed by MEDLINE, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, and the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL). Citation analysis was done using the three journals listed for the field by the Brandon/Hill list. Characteristics of two of these three journals affected the results to the extent that more data should be gathered to reach conclusions about the literature of diagnostic medical sonography as a whole. Results of the analysis do suggest that the literature of echocardiography, which is a special area of diagnostic medical sonography, is indexed much more completely by MEDLINE and EMBASE/Excerpta Medica than by CINAHL. Suggestions are made for librarians making collection development decisions in this area of allied health.

Mapping the literature of dietetics
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Aida Marissa Smith

Research on the literature of dietetics, apart from the broader field of nutrition, has not been reported in the literature. The purpose of this bibliometric study was to identify the core journals of dietetics and to determine the extent of indexing coverage for these journals. The study was conducted as part of a larger project, the Project for Mapping the Literature of Allied Health, sponsored by the Nursing and Allied Health Resources Section of the Medical Library Association. Citations appearing in three journals between 1995 and 1997 were analyzed by the methodology common to studies in the project. Results revealed that dietetic literature relies heavily on journal literature and on those journals that are from associated health sciences fields. Of the indexing services examined, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica and MEDLINE provided the most complete coverage of the literature. The study's findings have implications for those involved with the literature of dietetics.

Mapping the literature of occupational therapy
[full-text available at http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=226589]
Kathlyn L. Reed

Occupational therapy, formally organized in the United States in 1917, is considered an allied health field. Mapping occupational therapy literature is part of a bibliometric project of the Medical Library Association's Nursing and Allied Health Resources Section's project for mapping the literature of allied health. Three core journals were selected from the years 1995 and 1996 and a determination was made of the extent to which the cited journal references were covered by standard indexing sources. Using Bradford's Law of Scattering three zones were created, each containing approximately one-third of the cited journal references. The results showed that three journals made up the first zone, 117 journals the second, and 657 the third. The most cited journal was the American Journal of Occupational Therapy. In the second zone, journals from twelve disciplines were identified. While MEDLINE provided the best overall indexing, the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) was the only database that indexed the three most cited journals plus nine of the currently active titles in occupational therapy. MEDLINE could improve its coverage of occupational therapy by indexing the journals of the British, Canadian, and Australian national associations.

Mapping the literature of perfusion
[full-text available at http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=226590]
Ellen F. Hall

Perfusionists select and operate the equipment necessary for monitoring, supporting, or temporarily replacing the patient's circulatory or respiratory function. There are over 3,000 perfusionists working in U.S. hospitals, medical and perfusionist groups, and as independent contractors. The purpose of this study was to identify the core literature of perfusion and to determine which major databases provide the most thorough access to this literature. This paper is part of the Medical Library Association Nursing and Allied Health Resource Section's project to map the literature of the allied health professions. It uses a bibliometric methodology to identify core journals. A group of forty-three journals was determined to make up the core journal literature of perfusion. MEDLINE provided the best overall indexing coverage for these journals, but librarians and perfusionists will wish to supplement its use with the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature in order to access the journals written primarily for perfusionists. The study results can guide purchasing and database searching decisions of collection development and reference librarians, encourage the database producer to increase coverage of titles that are unindexed or underindexed, and advise perfusionists of the best access to their core literature.

BULLETIN OF THE MEDICAL LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, 2000 Apr 88(2)
[full-text available at http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=35217]

Mapping the literature of cytotechnology
Sheryl R. Stevens

The major purpose of this study was to identify and assess indexing coverage of core journals in cytotechnology. It was part of a larger project sponsored by the Nursing and Allied Health Resources Section of the Medical Library Association to map the literature of allied health. Three representative journals in cytotechnology were selected and subjected to citation analysis to determine what journals, other publication types, and years were cited and how often. Bradford's Law of Scattering was applied to the resulting list of cited journals to identify core titles in the discipline, and five indexes were searched to assess coverage of these core titles. Results indicated that the cytotechnology journal literature had a small core but wide dispersion: one third of the 21,021 journal citations appeared in only 3 titles; another third appeared in an additional 26 titles; the remaining third were scattered in 1,069 different titles. Science Citation Index Expanded rated highest in indexing coverage of the core titles, followed by MEDLINE, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, HealthSTAR, and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL). The study's results also showed that journals were the predominantly cited format and that citing authors relied strongly on more recent literature.

JOURNAL OF THE MEDICAL LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, 2003 July 91(3)
[full-text available at http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=164393]

Mapping the literature of clinical laboratory science
Frances A. Delwiche

This paper describes a citation analysis of the literature of clinical laboratory science (medical technology), conducted as part of a project of the Nursing and Allied Health Resources Section of the Medical Library Association. Three source journals widely read by those in the field were identified, from which cited references were collected for a three-year period. Analysis of the references showed that journals were the predominant format of literature cited and the majority of the references were from the last eleven years. Applying Bradford's Law of Scattering to the list of journals cited, three zones were created, each producing approximately one third of the cited references. Thirteen journals were in the first zone, eighty-one in the second, and 849 in the third. A similar list of journals cited was created for four specialty areas in the field: chemistry, hematology, immunohematology, and microbiology. In comparing the indexing coverage of the Zone 1 and 2 journals by four major databases, MEDLINE provided the most comprehensive coverage while the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature was the only database that provided complete coverage of the three source journals. However, to obtain complete coverage of the filed, it is essential to search multiple databases.

p.303-10

JOURNAL OF THE MEDICAL LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, 2007 April 95(2)

Mapping the literature of athletic training
[full-text available at http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1852615]
Frances A. Delwiche and Ellen F. Hall

Purpose: 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.

p.195-201

Mapping the literature of health care management
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Mary K. Taylor, Meseret D. Gebremichael, and Catherine E. Wagner

Objectives: The research provides an overview of the health care management literature and the indexing coverage of core journal literature.

Method: Citations from five source journals for the years 2002 through 2004 were studied using the protocols of the Mapping the Literature of Allied Health Project and Mapping the Literature of Nursing Project. The productivity of cited journals was analyzed by applying Bradford's Law of Scattering.

Results: Journals were the most frequently cited format, followed by books. Only 3.2% of the cited journal titles from all 5 source journals generated two-thirds of the cited titles. When only the health care management practitioner–oriented source journals were considered, two-thirds of the output of cited journal titles came from 10.8% of the titles. Science Citation Index and PubMed provided the best overall coverage of the titles cited by all 5 source journals, while the cited titles from the 2 practitioner-oriented journals were covered most completely by Social Sciences Citation Index and Business Source Complete.

Conclusions: Health care management is a multidisciplinary field. Librarians must consider the needs of their users and assist them by providing the necessary materials and combination of indexes to access this field adequately.