Mapping the literature of nephrology nursing.
OBJECTIVE
A bibliometric investigation was done to identify characteristics of the literature that nephrology nurses utilize. It is one component of a broader study, "Mapping the Literature of Nursing," by the Medical Library Association's Nursing and Allied Health Resources Section Task Force to Map the Literature of Nursing.


METHODS
Following a standard protocol, this project utilized Bradford's Law of Scattering to analyze the literature of nephrology nursing. Citation analysis was done on articles that were published from 1996 to 1998 in a source journal. Cited journal titles were divided into three zones, and coverage in major article databases were scored for Zones 1 and 2.


RESULTS
During the three-year period, journals were the most frequently cited format type. Eighty-one journals were cited in Zones 1 and 2. As Bradford's Law of Scattering predicted, a small number of the cited journals accounted for the most use. Coverage is most comprehensive for cited journals in Science Citation Index, PubMed/ MEDLINE, and EMBASE. When looking just at cited nursing journals, CINAHL and PubMed/MEDLINE provide the best indexing coverage.


CONCLUSIONS
This study offers understanding of and insights into the types of information that nephrology nurses use for research. It is a valuable tool for anyone involved with providing nephrology nursing literature.
Allison
Melody M
MM
Biology Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 101 Burrill Hall, 407 South Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA. mmalliso@uiuc.edu
D000043:Abstracting and Indexing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015706:Bibliometrics; D016206:Databases, Bibliographic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006079:Government Publications as Topic; D006801:Humans; D009398:Nephrology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010506:Periodicals as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011642:Publications / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012013:Reference Books; D051437:Renal Insufficiency / Q000451:nursing*; D013041:Specialties, Nursing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States