An Application of Bradford’s Law of Scattering and Leimkuhler Model: Identification of the Core Journals of India Cancer Research Productivity

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the theoretical aspects of Bradford’s Law and Leimkuhler Model, their relevance across subject areas, their implementation forms, and their significance in Indian cancer research literature. The study analyzes 16,914 research papers published in 2,277 journals on cancer research in India between 2012 and 2021, sourced from the Web of Science Core Collection database. The total number of citations obtained from these papers is 378,409, and a ranking table of journals and their citations is provided. The first phase of the study applies Bradford’s Law in verbal and algebraic forms to identify the journal distribution pattern, revealing a high percentage of error. The Leimkuhler Model estimates the number of journals in the core and successive zones, resulting in a minor percentage error of 0.00030171278%. The study identifies the International Journal of Cancer and PLoS One as core journals, emphasizing their importance in Indian cancer research. The findings can benefit oncologists, researchers, practitioners, and medical librarians in understanding scientific literature distribution and promoting research output effectively.

KEYWORDS:

• Bradford’s law of scattering
• Bradford’s multiplier
• core journals
• India cancer
• Leimkuhler model
• Web of Science

Acknowledgments

Gyanajeet Yumnam is a recipient of the Indian Council of Social Science Research Doctoral Fellowship. His article is primarily an outcome of his doctoral work sponsored by ICSSR, Government of India. The responsibility for the facts stated, opinions expressed, and conclusions drawn is entire to the author’s knowledge. The author sincerely thanks the ICSSR for awarding the “Doctoral Fellowship.”

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Authors contributions

Gyanajeet Yumnam: Conceptualization, Methodology, Data collection, Writing-Original Draft, Review & Editing, Data Visualization, Formal Analysis; Ch. Ibohal Singh: Supervision, Validation, Review & Editing.

Data availability statement

The data supporting this study’s findings are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Statements and declarations

It is to state and declare that all the authors have seen and approved the submitted manuscript. The article is the original work of the authors. It is not under consideration for publication or submitted for publication, nor has it been published in whole or in part elsewhere.

Supplementary data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/0194262X.2023.2237997.

Additional information

Funding

Funding was provided by the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), Government of India. Grant No.: RFD/2021-22/GEN/LIB/345.