INDEXES OF JOURNAL CITATION RELATEDNESS AND CITATION RELATIONSHIPS AMONG AQUATIC BIOLOGY JOURNALS

Simple quantitative indices of pair-wise journal citation relatedness (based on the numbers of references given to and received from a journ al title, which are provided by Science Citation Index database) are t ranslated by an automatic clustering procedure into a meaningful map d iagram reflecting topical relatedness of journals within a field of sc ience. Such a map for 60 journals in marine and freshwater biology and related sciences published in 1987 reveals a tight cluster of marine biology journals quite distinct from the freshwater biology journal cl uster and from the fisheries cluster. The journals within the marine b iology cluster and those with strongest pair-wise links with them can be regarded as the core journals in marine biology. Indices of unilate ral citation relatedness are used to obtain diagrams, which we term ci tograms. The citograms visualize patterns of citation relatedness of a journal (its citing and being cited). Journal self-citation can be me aningfully estimated using the bilateral index of relatedness. Self-ci tation is high in specialized or regional journal titles. It also appe ars to be quire substantial in journals of broader scope, which possib ly reflect authors' subjective preferences.