Library and Information Science

The present paper is a survey report on the papers made by Japanese oto-rhino-laryngological researchers published in the decade from 1967 to 1976, having an aim to find the tendency and level of papers of the researches in the field.

The basic data are collected from Science citation index (SCI) in the said period and from the papers themselves made by bio-medical researchers of seventy-two Japanese medical schools and published in foreign journals. To find the level and evaluation of the papers by Japanese researchers in the oto-rhino-laryngological field, they are checked against the lists in the Year book of otolaryngology (former Year book of the ear, nose, and throat) covering the period of ten years from 1968 to 1977. References cited in the three world famous otolaryngological textbooks are also explored to find the degree of contributions by Japanese researchers in the field.

A total number of the papers in the field published in foreign journals in the decade are 257; a total number of the journal titles publishing the Japanese contributions 31; and a total number of paper-authors 674, or 542 real authors. The annual growth rate of the number of Japanese papers shows an increasing tendency in the decade. Among 72 Japanese medical schools, a total of 38 (52.8%) had the researchers who contributed to the journals in the field. The names of the leading medical schools can be listed in the order of productivity as: Kyoto University School of Medicine (40 papers), the University of Tokyo School of Medicine (33 papers), Shinshu University School of Medicine (18 papers), Yamaguchi University School of Medicine (17 papers). The titles of journals accepted Japanese contributions are Acta Otolaryngol. (58 papers or 20,6% of the total), Ann. Otol. Rhinol. Laryngol. (39 papers or 15.2%), Arch. Otorhinolaryngol. (37 papers or 14.4%), etc., and these three journals publish 50.2% of the total Japanese papers published in foreign journals. The number of Japanese papers published in the decade and cited in the Year book shows an acute increasing tendency from 1975, and the largest number of Japanese paper citations are found in the field of the “Nose and Throat.” The three major text-books have not cited a large number of Japanese papers published in foreign journals. Other major findings acquired by the present survey are that institutional movements of some researchers and the continuity of their research contents have been clearly identified, and that the fields of oto-rhino-laryngology, especialy “Ear” and “Nose and Throat,” have been at the Japanese researchers’ best.