Library Review

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the bibliographic references contained in the scientific papers (articles and technical notes) published from 1985 to 2005 in Zootecnia Tropical (ZT), a scientific journal.

Design/methodology/approach – A retrospective descriptive study is conducted using one-dimensional bibliometric indicators such as: output, bibliographic density, institutional affiliation, recentness of the documents cited, document typology, self-citations and scientific collaboration. Univariate descriptive analysis is used to study the indicators.

Findings – A total of 349 scientific papers (300 articles and 49 technical notes) are reviewed; output ranged from a maximum of 34 papers in 2001 to a minimum of four in 1990, with a mean of 15 papers per volume. The papers analyzed contain a total of 5,651 bibliographic references, with an average of 19?±?9 references per paper; the largest number of references (19?±?33) are found in the articles and the smallest (10.5?±?13) in the notes. Venezuelan institutions account for 89 per cent of the papers and international institutions for the remain in 11 per cent; of the Venezuelan institutions, most (62 per cent) are National Institute of Agricultural Research (INIA) bodies and the rest universities and other organizations, especially the Universidad Central de Venezuela (UCV) and Universidad de Oriente (UDO). Universities are also among the most frequent international contributors, most prominently Marianga State University in Brazil and Tucumán National University in Argentina. Around 60 per cent of the references were more than ten years old when they were cited; 21 per cent were between five and ten years old and 19 per cent less than five years old. Journal articles, with 57 per cent, are the document type most frequently cited, followed by books, with 23 per cent; the rest consisted in postgraduate theses (3 per cent), undergraduate theses (2 per cent) and congress, conference and seminar proceedings (12 per cent). The self-citation or endogamy rate in the journal is 4 per cent. Over half (53 per cent) of the papers are written by authors with the same affiliation. Inter-institutional papers account for the remaining 47 per cent, with 34 per cent involving national collaboration, particularly between the INIA and the UCV; international co-authorship comes to 13 per cent, primarily involving Brazilian and Argentine universities.

Originality/value – This paper analyzes the use of information in the Venezuelan scientific community from the vantage of a specific journal, ZT. These studies constitute useful and objective tools for evaluating scientific activity.