Characteristics of References in International Classification Systems Literature

The threefold purpose of this study is (1) to describe the characteristics of the international literature on classification systems published during the period 1981-90, (2) to examine the international communication patterns in the literature, and (3) to compare the results of this study and the results in other similar studies. This study analyzes 5,302 references in sixty-eight monographs and 352 journal articles indexed by the "Classification Literature" section of the journal International Classification. References are analyzed as to format, subject, language, geographic origin of publication, date of publication, and authorship. Some of the significant findings are (1) German- and Russian-language citations are the second and third most frequently cited, (2) foreign-language citations constitute 24 percent of all citations, and (3) the number of older sources is somewhat more important than in earlier studies.