Stomatološki glasnik Srbije (Jan 2010)
Leading dental journals availability through academic network of Serbia
Abstract
In the last century a great progress was noted in all scientific disciplines. With the increasing number of scientific research, researchers and investment, the number of publications has grown exponentially. Besides, the development of information technologies and the emergence of the Internet, communication between scientists as well as the traditional roles assigned to the institutions responsible for information processing and provision has been changed. Due to the rapidly increasing subscription rates, libraries, although the primary participants in the scholarly communication process, lose their ability to meet user information needs. In order to overcome commercialization of scholarly publishing, libraries intensify use of different electronic resources, coordinate acquisition policy and form consortia. In November 2001, leading research libraries in Serbia launched an initiative to form the Consortium for Coordinated Acquisition of Serbian Libraries (KoBSON). Subscribed services, funded by the Ministry of Science and Technological Development of Serbia, currently include over 35,000 scientific journals, about 40,000 books and several citation databases. In the field of Dentistry, Oral Surgery and Medicine, 73.4% of total number of the most relevant dental journals is available in electronic form to Serbian academic community. This article presents a comprehensive overview of basic information about available journals: impact factor, productivity, publication continuity and frequency, language, services that they are available through, size of archives and existing formats. At present Serbian academic institutions have access to more than two thirds of the world’s most relevant dental journals, which justifies the Consortium founders’ initial idea of wide accessibility of scientific information and requires greater involvement of librarians in introducing available services to researchers in order to ensure their full utilization.
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