core dental journals according to production and citation rates

core dental journals according to production and citation rates dr. sdj. ghazi mirsaeid * *assistant professor of medical library and information sciences dept., faculty of allied medical sciences and dental research center, tehran university / medical sciences. abstract background and aim: given the rapid expansion of dental journals in one hand, and limitation of resources on the other, it makes the establishment of best journal selection criteria inevitable. this investigation was designed to determine the core dental journals by employing the article publication rate (production) and citation variables. materials and methods: by using analytical survey method, the index medicus, medline data base as well as the science citation index were reviewed. the list of all available dental journals was obtained from the index medicus-dental section. the medline data base was used to identify the article publication rate and the science citation index of 1988 was used to evaluate the citation reports. the spss software was used for statistical analysis and bradford&apos;s law was used to determine the core dental journals. results: about 11% and 17% of dental journals were indexed in journals citation report and index medicus respectively. out of 341 dental journals that were identified, only 38 journals had information on both variables of interest. we found significant correlation between these two variables (p<0.05). using bradford&apos;s law and conducting further analyses, 5 journals with the highest publication and citation rates were identified. conclusion: aside from identification of 5 dental core journals, another important finding of this study was the list of 38 journal titles that could be considered as the most popular and extensively used journals according to bradford&apos;s law. key words: core dental journals - article production - journal citation – medline - science citation index corresponding author: medical library and information sciences dept., faculty of allied medical sciences, tehran university / medical sciences. e.mail: [email protected]