Método gráfico para medir la obsolescencia de la literatura de geología: el caso de la Revista Geológica de Chile

Studies 1158 document citations published in the Revista Geologica de Chile between 1995 and 1996 and isolates 748 of these citations as being journal articles. The sample size is 13% of all articles published in this journal from 1974 to 1996. Of the 194 individual journals identified, only seventeen are cited more than ten times. To measure the rate of obsolescence of this literature, the graphic method proposed by Brooks is used. It finds a high monotonic negative correlation of -0.757 between frequency of citation and age of the literature cited. It also shows that the r2 is equal to 0.574. The annual aging factor is 0.92, the median life 8.3 years, and the half-life 12 years respectively. Removal from the shelves the aging issues of this journal after seventeen years is recommended. This action will satisfy 75% of the possible demand and should satisfy the other 25% of this demand through the acquisition of photocopies or by recovering the older issues from a central deposit.