Where to Spend our E-Journal Money? Defining a University Library's Core Collection Through Citation Analysis

This paper identifies core journals in the life sciences for Cornell University researchers by analyzing the frequency of Cornell-authored citations in Biosis Previews between 1996 and 2001. The distribution frequency of journals confirms Bradford's Law of Scatter or the 80/20 Rule. The top 240 journals, providing 80 percent of the citations, were analyzed by publisher type and institutional subscription price. In general, journals from society...