Bibliometric study of AIDS literature, 1981-84

Abstract

<span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height: 115%;font-family:" times="" new="" roman";mso-fareast-font-family:"times="" roman";="" mso-ansi-language:en-us;mso-fareast-language:en-us;mso-bidi-language:ar-sa"="" lang="EN-US">A bibliography comprising 316 items on AIDS for the period, 1981-84 was analyzed to study the characteristics of AIDS literature. The rate of growth has been found to be exponential after the first publication appeared in 1981. A large number of letters to the editors, comprising a total of 83 is a special observation made in the study. 671 authors have contributed 261 items, of which 78 items have been contributed by single authors. AIDS research has been found highly collaborative. In all 22 journals have published 272 items, (173 journal articles). A core of 5 journals has been identified for AIDS literature. A new journal - AIDS Research has been founded in late 1983. Bradford's law did not apply to the journal productivity distribution while Lotka's law with <img src='/image/spc_char/alpha.gif' border=0> = 3.2 was found to be applicable to author productivity distribution.</span>