A 30-year citation analysis of bibliometric trends at the Archives Of Environmental Health, 1975-2004.

This article describes a 30-year citation analysis of the Archives of Environmental Health (AEH), from the earliest available data in 1975, to 2004, when it became the Archives of Environmental & Occupational Health (AEOH). Longitudinal trends were examined regarding the number of items published, the number of citations received, the immediacy index, and the journal's impact factor. A list of the 5 most highly cited articles was also established, including citation frequency and citation lag times. Overall, this study demonstrates that citation analysis can provide an interesting look at the development of a journal over time. The examination of what articles, themes, and topics were being published, cited, or ignored also offers a unique insight into the direction of not only a particular journal, but also the discipline within which it exists.