Counts of U.S. and Soviet science and technology journals

Abstract

A detailed examination is made of the 1973 US and Soviet serials holdings of the British Library Lending Division (BLLD), the most comprehensive collection of active scientific and technological serials in the world. In total, 6075 US and 2399 Soviet serials were identified. These serials were then assigned on the basis of their titles to over 200 scientific and technological specialty areas. These assignments clearly show that the US is substantially more active than the USSR in the life sciences and social sciences, while the USSR is relatively more active in the physical and engineering sciences. When comparing the absolute size of the US and Soviet serial counts, it is seen that the US outpublishes the USSR in all major fields (i.e., clinical medicine, biomedical research, biology, chemistry, physics, earth/space science, engineering/technology, mathematics/statistics, psychology, and the social sciences).