Citation analysis of Internet resource use in molecular biology research

Abstract

Citation analysis was used to assess the role of Internet-based resources (e-sources) in molecular biological research literature. Ten research papers from each of ten of the most-cited journals in molecular biology for the years 1991, 1995, and 1999 (total 300 papers) were scored by physical examination for e-source citations (e-references) in the categories 'e-journals', 'online sequence databases and their records', 'Internet sequence analysis sites', 'other online databases or their records', 'e-conferences', and 'other e-sources'. All categories except e-conferences (for which no citations were found) showed an overall increase in citation frequency. ANOVA tests showed the only significant inter-year variation was in the proportion of papers citing 'all e-sources', which rose from 4% (1991) to 26% (1999) with an average of 13.67%; however, e-references were a low percentage of total references (average 0.69%) and were cited an average of 1.91 times per citing paper. Online sequence databases were the most frequently cited e-source, while e-journals were the least cited. These results confirm the relative importance of electronic sources of DNA sequence information in molecular biology, and the reservations among scientists concerning the credibility of e-journals. There was, however, evidence of an increase in the variety of e-sources being cited.