• Journal of Korean Library and Information Science Society
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.31-50
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• 2007

This paper presents a scientometric analysis of the growth of literature output in the field of Hepatitis covered in three bibliographic databases namely MEDLINE, CINAHL and IPA. The literature covered in three databases for the period 1984-2003 was considered. MEDLINE covered the maximum of 75750 records during the study period 1984 to 2003. This is followed by CINAHL and IPA databases. It is found that the annual growth rate of literature in a particular field of knowledge will not be uniform and in order to measure the rate of growth from year after year, the application of RGR is quite appropriate. The RGR has shown a decreasing trend, with a slight fluctuation of growth rate for the years 1985 and 1997. The output by colleges, universities, corporate sector and research institutions with reference to RGR and Dt has shown mixed results such as increasing trend, decreasing trend and fluctuation trend. Hepatitis research indicates a different picture when the RGR and Dt were calculated by year-wise both in terms of number of papers and number of pages.