Library and Information Science

Through analyzing existing indexes, it will be possible to differentiate the importance of periodicals, the characteristics of a given subject field and of the indexes and to gain basic data for preparation of new indexes. Based upon this idea, the author analyzed four Japanese indexes in the field of broadcasting (excepting engineering aspect) and tabulated the findings according to appropriate factors. and for evaluating the new method adopted finally compared the results with survey through counting citation frequencies. Results of the research are given on (1) the frequency of periodical articles being indexed, (2) subject coverage, subject specificity, subject consistency of each of the periodicals, (3) distribution of specific subjects in the field of broadcasting, (4) relative importance of periodicals in each specific subject, (5) change of frequency of occurrence of each specific subject in each of the years surveyed.