Drug information services activity, 1961-1979: a citation analysis

In an attempt to determine the interrelationships of articles published regarding drug information services activity, a citation analysis was performed. The period chosen for study was 1961-1979. During this period, some 258 publications were identified as meeting the operational definition of drug information services activity. A subset of publications was selected for further study and showed that (1) less than 1/3 of the articles in the subset cited one another, (2) the "classic" article(s) are seldom cited, and (3) authors tend to cite themselves more frequently than others. A historiograph is presented which shows all of the citation interrelationships of the subset of publications.