As the carrier of scientific research papers, the evaluation of periodicals is related to the overall scientific research level of authors, publications, a unit and even a country. As a theory originated from literary work, with the development of scientific research and the maturity of the theoretical system of periodical evaluation, the application scope of core periodicals has gone far beyond the scope of literary work. In recent years, it has been widely used in academic achievement declaration, appraisal, professional title evaluation and job promotion, as well as scientific research achievements statistics of scientific research departments and personnel departments. Therefore, it is an indispensable part in the theoretical research of periodicals.
Section 1 Concepts and Characteristics of Core Journals
At present, the influence of core journals is very extensive, but its history is less than a hundred years. There are different opinions on the concept of core journals, and their characteristics are gradually becoming clear.
First, the concept of core journals
The concept of "core journals" came into being in 1930s and was put forward by Bradford in Britain. The term "core journals" was not introduced into China from the west until 1980s. Its original meaning focuses on the number of articles published in periodicals. With the deepening of theoretical research, the concept of core periodicals has now covered information quantity, academic quality and periodical utilization rate.
The famous British philologist B.C.Bradoford put forward the law of document accumulation and dispersion in 1930s, which quantitatively described the time sequence structure of documents. Its original intention is: "If scientific journals are arranged in descending order according to the number of papers published in a certain discipline, we can distinguish the' core' part with the highest example from all these journals, and the following areas contain the same number of papers as the core part. At this time, magazines in the core area and below are included. A is "Bradford constant", a >；; 1, a≈5, which can be counted by journals of specific disciplines. For example, the journals of a discipline are divided into three regions, and the number of journals is 10,50 (i.e. 10*5) and 250 (i.e. 10*25), which just conforms to this law. Of course, the reality will not be exactly the same, just basically the same. This is the famous Bradford law in information science. Although it is empirical and difficult to accurately reflect the characteristics of documents in different periods, it is still one of the most important basis for us to study and screen core journals today.
Regarding the concept of core journals, Feng Yuanjie thinks that there are four representative views: (1) whether a journal is the core journal of a certain discipline or specialty mainly depends on whether it has published the documents of the discipline intensively and become the main information source of the literature of the discipline; (2) In the final analysis, core journals are high-quality and high-level journals; (3) Core journals refer to journals that publish more information related to a certain discipline (or major), have a higher level, can reflect the latest achievements and frontier trends of the discipline, and are particularly concerned by readers of this major; (4) Core journals refer to journals with high quality, high intelligence content, high rejection rate, high citation rate and high borrowing rate, which are recognized as representing the contemporary level and development direction of disciplines (or majors).
To sum up, core journals refer to those journals with high information density, high content quality, long paper life, high citation rate, high citation rate, high rejection rate and high borrowing rate, which can represent the latest development level and trend of a discipline and specialty. This concept comprehensively reflects all aspects of core journals, but in actual judgment, few journals can meet all conditions at the same time, and generally only concentrate and synthesize all kinds of data for statistical analysis.
Strictly speaking, "source journals" are different from "core journals". Source journals are statistical sources selected by editors according to the purpose and requirements of compiling databases. They are different from core journals in academic nature and editing standards, and the quality of different source journals is also obviously different. However, the screening results of the two journals are similar, basically or mostly overlapping, especially the source journals with high academic standards and strict quality control are basically the same as the core journals. Therefore, in theory and practice, source journals are often regarded as core journals.
Second, the characteristics of core journals
Compared with general journals, core journals have the following characteristics:
1, concentration. Refers to the core journals with a small number of high-quality papers in a certain subject. 1934, British philologist Bradford revealed the law of document accumulation and dispersion, which laid the foundation for the research of core journals. Therefore, centralization is the most basic feature of core journals.
2. representativeness. Papers in a group of core journals of a certain discipline represent the latest level and development direction of the discipline. This feature is determined by the centralization of core journals. Because a number of core journals concentrate most of the high-quality papers of a certain discipline, they naturally represent the research level and development direction of the discipline, and every progress in discipline research is basically reflected in the papers published in these core journals first. By tracking the papers in these journals, we can stand at the forefront of the discipline and keep up with the pace of discipline development.
3. disciplinary action. It means that the core journals are always associated with a certain discipline, and the core journals of a certain discipline are the core journals about the literature of that discipline. If it is placed in another subject journal, it is generally no longer a core journal. However, due to the rapid development of science and technology, the intersection and infiltration between disciplines are more complicated, so in some cases, a few journals may be the core journals of multiple disciplines, and it is normal for the core journals of a discipline to include some journals of related disciplines.
4. authority It means that the determination of core journals needs to be recognized. In the process of determining core journals, in addition to applying bibliometrics principles for screening, it is also necessary to absorb the opinions of representative subject experts to make up for the deviation caused by lack of subject knowledge. Its research methods must be recognized by subject experts, and its research results must be appraised by subject experts. Therefore, the authority of research institutions and the recognition of research methods of core journals are very important, otherwise the application results of core journals will not be recognized and it will be difficult to play their due role.
5. Hierarchy. Refers to the core journals are also divided into different levels, some are the most important authoritative journals in this discipline, and some are important journals with slightly lower levels. Core journals are revised regularly. For example, since the first edition of 1992 was published in Peking University, the abstracts of Chinese core journals have been revised every four years, and the CSSCI source journals published in NTU have been revised once a year. The authoritative periodicals at the forefront of core periodicals generally maintain the status of core periodicals and have continuity. However, important journals with a slightly lower level sometimes enter the core journals, and sometimes they are eliminated from the core ranks, which is unstable.
6. Theory of Relativity. Refers to core journals, which is relative to non-core journals, but not absolute. There are many methods to determine the core journals, but each method has its limitations. Although people generally combine various methods to learn from each other's strengths, they can't be very accurate. At the same time, the core area is artificially defined, and there is no obvious objective boundary between the core area and the non-core area. Therefore, core journals and non-core journals have only relative significance, but not absolute significance.
7. Dynamic. Refers to the core journal is a dynamic concept, not fixed. What is reflected here is not only the change of the total number of core journals, but also some qualitative changes. Science and technology are changing with each passing day, and scientific journals that record and reflect the achievements of scientific activities are also constantly developing and changing. On the one hand, this development and change is manifested in the publication, suspension, renaming, merger, cataloging and changing the publishing frequency of periodicals; On the other hand, there are changes in the quality and level of published periodicals, including changes in the ranking order of the original core periodicals and changes in the publishing types of core periodicals, that is, some core periodicals lost in the new selection because of the decline in the quality of running periodicals, and some general periodicals entered the ranks of core periodicals because of the improvement in the quality of running periodicals. Under certain conditions, core journals and non-core journals will be transformed. Therefore, after the core journals of a discipline are determined, they are not static and need to be constantly revised and improved.
Section 2 Functions of Core Journals
The concept of core periodicals originated from the library and information department. Its initial function was to guide the work of library and information departments, and later it was applied to academic evaluation and performance evaluation. The role of core journals is reflected in the following aspects:
1, which provides reference for optimizing periodicals, saving funds and evaluating collections.
There are a large number of periodicals, so it is impossible for any unit to order all the periodicals, not only the funds are not allowed, but also the collection space is not allowed, so it is necessary to choose the periodicals with better quality to order. The research of core periodicals was originally aimed at optimizing the collection service of library and information departments. Using limited funds to select and collect the most valuable and informative periodicals is a problem that library and information units should consider. Many libraries directly or indirectly use various core periodicals lists to order periodicals, which not only saves valuable funds, but also improves the quality of periodicals in their collections, obtains more high-level academic periodicals with less funds, meets the needs of readers and reduces the rejection rate. At the same time, it is of great reference for the collection units to determine the core periodicals or important periodicals in the collection. By looking at the list of core periodicals, it can guide the library and information department to adjust the periodicals ordered, and it can also guide the library and information department to reasonably eliminate the periodicals in the collection.
2. Provide a basis for the library to guide readers to read.
According to statistics, there are about 200,000 periodicals in the world. Faced with such a huge number of periodicals, it is impossible for a researcher to browse or read all the periodicals within his discipline. Undoubtedly, any scientific researcher can only selectively concentrate on reading the core literature of his major. Core periodicals can guide periodical information service personnel to recommend more valuable periodicals to users, help users to obtain maximum information in less time, and guide reference consultants to choose important periodicals for information development.
3, for scientific research management and scientific research institutions to expand the influence and improve the level of service.
Academic institutions can improve their academic status by encouraging their researchers to publish their achievements in core journals. Scientific research and personnel management departments can understand their academic status and influence in various disciplines and fields, determine academic leaders, formulate corresponding incentive policies and employment measures, and strengthen and improve scientific research management. At the same time, researchers expand their dissemination and influence by publishing papers in core journals, and constantly improve their scientific research ability, level and efficiency through their own understanding.
4. Expand the influence of periodicals and improve the academic level.
Periodical editors have long hoped that the periodicals they edit and the editing work they engage in can get more recognition from the society. Once their periodicals are selected into the list of core periodicals, their influence will expand, their circulation will increase, and their social and economic benefits will rise. At the same time, journals can attract more high-level contributions, thus continuously improving the academic level and quality of journals.
Although the official list of core journals has not been officially published by the relevant administrative departments of the state, the role of core journals in evaluating the academic and professional level of journals has been recognized in the official documents of the relevant departments of the state, such as "Quality Management Standards for Social Science Journals (Trial)" and "Academic Evaluation Standards for Sci-tech Journals" by the Press and Publication Administration.
5. Provide the basis for the quality evaluation of periodical papers.
In scientific research achievements, scientific research papers account for a large proportion, and the evaluation of the academic level of scientific research papers has become a very important part of the evaluation of scientific research achievements. For a long time, the evaluation of research papers has been done by experts. Due to its poor impartiality, objectivity and standardization, people gradually tend to measure and evaluate the academic level of research papers by periodical quality in recent years. Core journals are selected according to scientific methods and indicators, with strict peer review system and high academic quality. Using core journals to evaluate the quality of papers can not only simplify the evaluation procedure and improve the evaluation efficiency, but also solve the problem that the level of papers cannot be evaluated fairly because of different research fields or amateurs. Using core journals to evaluate the quality of papers can provide reference for scientific researchers' achievement evaluation, professional orientation, evaluation and promotion.
6. To provide a basis for the statistical analysis of social science and scientific papers in China.
Entrusted by the Ministry of Science and Technology, China Institute of Science and Technology Information regularly publishes the Annual Statistical Analysis Bulletin of Scientific Papers in China, and its basic work is to determine the list of source journals. In this announcement, scientific papers are divided into two categories: international and domestic. More than 3,000 SCI source journals were selected for international category, and 1000 source journals of China scientific papers were selected for domestic category as statistical basis. At present, there are many versions of core journals and source journals of comprehensive, humanities and science and technology in China, such as the catalogue of Chinese core journals published by Peking University, CSSCI published by NTU and source journals published by CSCD of Chinese Academy of Sciences, which have laid a good foundation for the statistical analysis of domestic academic papers.
7. Provide support for database construction.
With the development of modern science and technology, database construction is in the ascendant. Among all kinds of databases, full-text database is becoming more and more popular, but to establish full-text database of periodicals, we must first determine the scope of periodicals. The characteristics of core journals make them the first choice for full-text databases. As for the source journals of citation databases such as SCI, CSCD and CSSCI, they actually play the role of core journals, and many units regard the source journals of these databases as core journals.
Section 3 Measurement Standards of Core Journals
The measurement standard of core journals should be based on the definition of core journals in principle, and its extension should be explained by the definition of core journals. Because of the different definitions and measurement standards of core journals, the evaluation methods and screening results of evaluation institutions are also different. However, as a core journal, some basic standards should be recognized, such as high quality of journal content, high citation rate, representing the development level and research direction of a certain discipline, etc. These standards can be used as the recognized standards of core journals to ensure the representativeness, accuracy and authority of the selected journals. In addition, the characteristics and influencing factors such as high utilization rate, high rejection rate and rich information are often used as the standards to measure core journals.
1, journal cited rate, cited rate, cited rate, requested rate
Citation refers to the number of citations of articles in related disciplines in a certain period of time. Citation rate refers to the average citation rate of each article in related disciplines in a certain period. Carfield analyzed the cited data of 196 1 year, and found that the average number of citations and cited papers of Nobel Prize winners were 3 0 times and 1 7 times that of all cited authors, respectively. This reflects from one side that the higher the citation rate, the higher the quality of the paper. Therefore, the citation rate is undoubtedly an important standard of rare papers. The high citation rate of papers in a journal shows that the journal has great influence and high level.
But the phenomenon of self-citation should be viewed objectively. On the one hand, self-citation shows the continuity of the research of journals or authors, on the other hand, it may be the result of narrow information exchange or self-presentation of journals or authors. Therefore, in order to reflect the objective situation of the cited papers as much as possible, it is best to separate self-citation from other citation.
Similar to the cited quantity and cited rate, there are also cited articles, cited articles rate, cited articles quantity and cited articles rate, which can be used as the criteria for screening core journals. The method is to determine the core journals according to the number and probability of a journal being included in famous abstracts or indexes. See section 4.
The determination of citation rate, abstract rate and retrieval rate of periodicals is influenced by the selected source periodicals, abstracts and indexes. Therefore, the selected source journals, abstracts and indexes should all reach the same level to be comparable.
2. Academic level of periodicals
This is a qualitative measure. In order to be objective and fair, core journal evaluation institutions generally invite a considerable number of professional experts to participate in the discussion. When determining the core journals, the 2004 edition of Overview of China Core Journals and the CSSCI edition invited thousands of experts to participate in the discussion or seek their opinions. They analyzed and compared the academic quality of related journals from their respective professional perspectives, which provided an important reference index for determining core journals.
In order to balance the number proportion of core journals in each major, and avoid too much difference in tightness between different disciplines and different experts, and too many or too few recommended journals, the journal screening personnel should first introduce the general situation and operating rules of core journal screening to experts.
3. Periodical utilization rate
Periodical utilization rate is to evaluate the importance of various academic periodicals by comparing their frequency of use by readers. Periodicals with high utilization rate are more important than those with low utilization rate.
Due to the particularity of periodical circulation management, computer management is rarely used in the circulation of current periodicals, and back issues are rarely borrowed. Therefore, it is difficult to comprehensively collect the utilization rate of periodicals, and sampling collection may not necessarily reflect the objective situation of periodical circulation. In order to objectively reflect the utilization of periodicals, it is necessary to collect and compare the utilization data of several comprehensive libraries.
4. Number of articles published in journals
The number of papers published in periodicals refers to the number of papers published in related disciplines in a certain period of time. The number of published articles is an important indicator reflecting the information content of a journal. The large number of articles published in a journal shows to some extent that this journal is rich in information, so it is more important. On the contrary, journals with few articles have less information and low importance. However, many people hold different views on this, thinking that the level of periodical papers with a large number of articles is not necessarily high; On the contrary, a journal with a small number of articles may also be an excellent journal. For example, some journals relax the control over the quality of papers and improve the rate of soliciting manuscripts, and the journals are changed from quarterly to monthly. As a result, the number of articles published in periodicals has increased, the information content of periodicals has increased, but the level of periodicals has declined.
5. Influencing factors
The impact factor is the ratio of the number of citations to the number of articles published in recent years. It is a parameter to test the importance and influence of a journal from the perspective of citation, which usually indicates the average citation frequency of papers in a journal. It is a measurement index for evaluating the influence of journals proposed by Dr. Garfield, the founder of SCI. Since Price, a bibliometrist, believes that scientific papers can not reach the peak of citation until one or two years after publication, the influencing factors generally take the last two years as the statistical period. Generally speaking, the greater the impact factor of a journal, the higher its citation rate, and the higher its influence and academic level. The influence factors reflect the average citation rate of journal papers in recent two years, reflect the current situation of journals, and to some extent eliminate the deviation of citation times caused by factors such as journal age. Instant index is a concept similar to impact factor, which refers to the ratio of the number of citations to the number of published articles in the current year.
Section IV Selection Methods of Core Journals
The key to determine the core journals is to choose more scientific and applicable methods, which basically went through a process from "empirical method" to "expert method" and then to "bibliometrics method". At present, the measurement method of bibliometrics has also changed from single factor analysis to comprehensive evaluation.
The key to establishing the evaluation system of core journals is to improve the scientific method of selecting core journals. At present, there are about 20 methods to screen core journals at home and abroad, such as citation method, abstract method, regional analysis method, image analysis method, cumulative percentage method, fuzzy set evaluation method, relative publication amount method, reader utilization method, expert opinion method, editing and publishing unit level method, utilization method, direct observation method, image analysis method, comprehensive analysis method, translation method, comprehensive weighting method and so on. At present, there are many evaluation systems for core journals in China, but due to the complexity of the problem, there is no perfect, recognized and operable evaluation method. The urgent task is to develop a new operational method, which can integrate the advantages of various methods with high accuracy and screen core journals from multiple angles and channels.
First, the main methods of core journals screening
At present, there are many ways to select core journals of disciplines or majors by using scientific principles. Here are some.
1, Bradford's law judgment method: mainly study the distribution of documents. Using Bradford image analysis method or regional analysis method, this paper selects relevant data listed in relevant retrieval tools such as periodicals or bibliographies as statistical data, lists Bradford-type data by hierarchical arrangement method, then selects appropriate coordinates as images, or divides the data into several regions, and finally determines the core journals by analyzing regional data and images.
2. Citation analysis: This is the further deepening and development of the theory of Brinell's Law by the famous American information scientist E Garfield. The principle of this method is that scientific papers are usually accompanied by a certain number of references, also known as "citations". There is always a certain relationship between references and cited topics. The mutual citation of papers shows the mutual inheritance and function of knowledge, which shows that humanities are developed on the basis of previous studies. Therefore, the number of citations of a journal paper can objectively reflect the academic level and value of the paper and even the journal from one side. Garfield's large-scale statistical analysis of journal citations in the 1960s shows that a large number of cited papers are concentrated in a few journals, while a small number of cited papers are scattered in a large number of journals, which conforms to Bradford's law. Therefore, the result of this selection method should be close to that of the first method.
The specific methods of citation analysis are as follows: ① Select a group of journals related to a certain discipline or specialty; (2) Counting the citation times of various journals where the "reference document" attached to the first document of a certain discipline or specialty is located; ③ Arrange the cited journals in descending order of cited times; (4) Take the top journals with certain citation times as the core journals of the discipline or specialty. Some people think that the top journals accounting for 70% of all journals can be identified as the core journals of this discipline or specialty.
3. Statistical method of abstracts and indexes: This method determines the core journals according to the number of abstracts, the abstract rate or the number of requests and the request rate of a journal. Take one or several well-known retrieval journals with strong authority and complete collection in a certain discipline or professional field, and judge whether they are core journals according to the number of journals picked, the rate of being extracted, the number of requests and the rate of being requested. That is to say, the number and proportion of journals included in statistical retrieval journals are arranged in descending order according to the number or proportion, and the top journals that have reached a certain threshold are selected as the core journals of a certain discipline or specialty.
4. Cumulative percentage method: this method intercepts a certain amount of periodicals corresponding to cumulative literature as core periodicals. The specific method is to arrange all journals related to a certain discipline in a table according to the number of papers published in a certain period from large to small, and list the journals accounting for 80% (or 70%) of the total literature as the core journals of the discipline.
5. User survey method: User survey method is a survey method often used by document collection institutions, also known as questionnaire method. This determines the core journals. A formal and rigorous user survey method includes the following steps: ① determining the survey scope and sampling objects; (2) determine the problem item; (3) Prepare the investigation and revise the questioning items; (4) sending a questionnaire; ⑤ Recycling; ⑥ Statistical analysis and determination of core journals. User surveys sometimes use simplified methods such as expert consultation and user discussion as reference auxiliary factors to determine core journals.
6. Comprehensive evaluation method. There are many methods to determine core journals, but these methods all have their own advantages and limitations. Using a single method is not convincing enough in terms of science and accuracy. In order to make up for this defect, randomness should be minimized when determining core journals. At present, the combination of quantitative and qualitative methods and comprehensive evaluation method should be adopted to determine the core journals, which is conducive to overcoming and reducing randomness and improving scientificity and accuracy. The comprehensive evaluation method needs to give the weight of each individual index. The so-called weight refers to the proportion of an index in the whole evaluation system.
In the actual screening, various indicators are often considered comprehensively, and different weight values are set for each indicator according to the characteristics of different disciplines. After weighting the indicators and impact factors, we comprehensively analyze and absorb the opinions of experts from various disciplines, and finally select and determine the core journals.
7. Several technical problems in the selection of core journals.
(1) time coefficient weighting. As mentioned above, core journals are dynamic. According to the gradual change, more consideration will be given to the status quo of various periodicals when determining the core periodicals, that is, from the confirmation of the core periodicals, the periodicals with short time intervals have strong influence and can accurately reflect the development trend of periodicals, and the status of articles published in these years should be aggravated. On the contrary, the influence of distant years is weak, which can not accurately reflect the development trend of periodicals, and the status of articles published in these years should be weakened. This situation is more prominent for the catalogue of core periodicals that has been updated for many years. Accordingly, the absolute number of published articles in each year can be multiplied by an appropriate time coefficient as the relative number of published articles in each year, and then the sum of the relative numbers of published articles in each year can be regarded as the total relative number of published articles. The total relative number of papers published is the ranking basis for determining the number of papers published in core journals. For determining the time coefficient, we can set the median age of a specific period as 1, and the year-on-year difference is 0. 1. The time coefficient weighting method can effectively eliminate or greatly weaken the discrete influence of journal papers, which is conducive to improving the objectivity and accuracy of core journal tables.
(2) Effective time domain. Theoretically, the effective time domain of core journals can be understood as the cycle of core journals, and the effective time domain of core journals in different disciplines is different. Because all indicators reflecting the information content of journals, academic level of papers and readers' attention of this subject are counted in a certain time domain, the result is the basic overview of core journals in the statistical time domain. Therefore, the starting time of the effective time domain of core journals should be counted from the statistical time domain. However, from the application point of view, in order to facilitate the operation, it is generally unscientific to take the publication date of the core periodical catalogue as the starting time of the effective time domain of the core periodical and the interval of publication time of each edition as the effective time domain of the core periodical. Due to the lag of core journal research, there is often a long time interval from the beginning of statistics to official publication, and the time difference has a great impact on the quality of core journals.
(3) the core ratio. According to Bradford's law, at least 30 professional journals should have a core journal, accounting for about 3.3%. Too small or too large a proportion is not conducive to the development of the discipline. The screening of core journals is too wide, which directly reduces the research level of this discipline, and will also affect the image and international competitiveness of this discipline. When determining the core journals, we also need to refer to the subject scale, development degree, number of published journals and the number of existing researchers of each discipline.
Two. Discipline, collection and core journals of colleges and universities
The core journals of disciplines are similar to those of collections and universities, but not exactly the same. The following is a comparison of the standard categories and screening methods of the three.
1, the difference between standards and categories
Generally speaking, core journals refer to the core journals of disciplines, which have high information density, high content quality, long paper life, high citation rate, high retrieval rate and high borrowing rate, and can represent the latest development level and trend of a discipline and specialty. Strictly speaking, there can only be one standard for the core journals of the discipline in the world, and these journals can truly reflect the current world development level and development trend of the discipline. The comprehensive core journals of disciplines include important journals of all disciplines and majors in the world today.
Core periodicals in collection refer to periodicals that should be collected for a long time according to the nature, tasks, collection characteristics and readers' main needs of the library. The core periodicals of the library are highly utilized, professional and knowledgeable, and relatively stable. Due to the differences in nature, task, subject direction and service focus, libraries should determine their own core journals under the macro guidance of subject core journals, combined with their own nature, tasks, characteristics and books and periodicals funds.
Core journals in colleges and universities are selected from a large number of relevant academic journals according to the discipline setting and research focus of colleges and universities, and serve as the basis for academic evaluation, examination promotion and scientific research management of professionals in our school. Generally, the selection is organized by the personnel and scientific research management department of colleges and universities, and its development purpose is different from that of the core periodicals in the collection. However, since the basic goals of the two are to combine the professional direction and key disciplines of the school, it is necessary to build a scientific and reasonable core periodical system with discipline specialty setting as the main body and professional characteristics as the leading factor. Therefore, in principle, the screening results of university core journals should be similar to those of university libraries. However, due to historical reasons or the need to cooperate with the construction of * * *, some periodicals in some libraries are listed as key collection characteristic periodicals, but they may not belong to the core periodicals of colleges and universities. The core journals of colleges and universities and the core journals in their collections do not include professional journals unrelated to their universities, and their scope is smaller than that of core journals of comprehensive disciplines.
2. Comparison of screening methods
The determination of subject core journals generally adopts Bradford's law, citation analysis, summary statistics, percentage distribution, subject expert evaluation and comprehensive evaluation. The evaluation of the core periodicals of the library takes the utilization of readers in the library as an important reference, and often adopts the methods of readers' citation and reference literature statistics, readers' borrowing statistics, referring to the catalogues of various core periodicals, and directly soliciting the opinions of readers and relevant experts. When selecting core journals, the selection of indicators should follow the principles of reflecting both the utilization rate and the quality of journals, emphasizing operability, requiring statistical data to be easy to collect and calculate, and focusing on the combination of dynamic evaluation and static evaluation.
The selection method of university core journals is between discipline core journals and collection core journals. On the one hand, it affirmed the selection method of discipline core journals and recognized the status of existing authoritative core journals. Therefore, colleges and universities generally do not do a lot of statistical work by themselves, but choose the list of core journals (or source journals) with more influence as the blueprint and the list of other influential core journals as the reference. Generally, the utilization of periodicals and the construction of characteristic collections are not considered. From this point of view, its method is close to the screening method of subject core journals. On the other hand, the selection of core journals in colleges and universities and the collection of core journals is closely combined with the professional setting and key disciplines of the school, excluding journals unrelated to the school's major and attaching importance to the opinions of school experts. From this point of view, it is similar to the screening method of core journals in the collection.
Section V Development of Core Journals in China
The rapid development of science and technology leads to a sharp increase in the number of periodicals, which leads to the social demand that periodicals must be evaluated. The research on core periodicals in China began in the 1970s, when the price of foreign periodicals was low.