A Structural Analysis of the Literature of Sociology

Abstract

This study explores some of the structural properties of the literature of sociology by using several newer techniques from information science. Through the concept of "nearness of information," sociology subject headings from the "Social Sciences and Humanities Index" (vol. 24, 1970-71) are related. Citations from journal articles listed under related subject headings are retrieved for bibliometric analysis. A core literature is identified. The general descriptive properties for the literature of sociology from the data base of 71 different journals used in this study are found to correspond closely to other sociology literature studies that use one, two, or three of the major journals from the discipline. This study has been organized for use by the librarian in terms of collection development. The Bradford law of scattering holds for the total body of journal literature for sociology. The use pattern of journals for sociology corresponds closely to the citation pattern of the literature. This strong isomorphic relationship between structure of use and structure of the literature suggests new methods for dealing with the problem of collection development.

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