TITLE COVERAGE OF 7 INDEXES TO RELIGIOUS PERIODICALS

Title coverage of seven English-language indexes to religious periodic als is assessed by counting total titles covered by each service, exam ining overlapping coverage, and analyzing the unique contributions of each service. Indexes included in the study are Religion Index, Religi ous and Theological Abstracts; Old Testament Abstracts, New Testament Abstracts, Christian Periodical Index, The Catholic Periodical and Lit erature Index and Index to Jewish Periodicals. An overall duplication rate of 44.6 percent was found. Similar data are presented for various combinations of the seven indexes. Suggestions for coordination among the services and further study of the true extent of overlap between Old Testament Abstracts and New Testament Abstracts are made.