CITATION BEHAVIOR AND PLACE OF PUBLICATION IN THE AUTHORS FROM THE SCIENTIFIC PERIPHERY - A MATTER OF QUALITY

This research examines the communication pattern of a selected group o f Croatian scientists in the field of biomedicine related to citing ar ticles published in domestic sources. It studies a possible difference in attitude of Croatian scientists toward domestic and international journals. The research included as analysis of references and a survey of authors. Using 1988 and 1989 Science Citation Index on compact dis c, as well as a sample of domestic journals and domestic journals cove red by Science Citation Index, we identified papers by Croatian author s and confirmed that the same authors apply different criteria in citi ng relevant literature, depending on the type (domestic or foreign) of the journal in which they are to publish their paper. Domestic litera ture is cited four times less often in foreign than in domestic journa ls, so there is a complete absence of national bias in citing earlier literature by the same authors. The relationship between citation beha vior and place of publication could be related to the general approach of Croatian biomedical authors to domestic and international journals , and could be indicative of a poor quality of scientific papers publi shed in domestic journals.