International Seabed Authority

The bibliographic database contains references to scientific papers that may be of interest to anyone interested in the resources that the Authority regulates or the areas in which they occur.  Currently the publications in the database mainly concern polymetallic nodules and the central pacific but this will be increased during the next stage. 

The database is designed such that the information is available to anyone with internet access and is not confined to large institutions that have vast bibliographic databases at their disposal.  It is possible for the user to identify relevant papers using the database and then use the links within the database to get direct access to the journals.  This is a useful component for researchers without well stocked libraries or those who work away from their library.  The database currently contains approximately 2,500 references published between 1878 and 2005 but will be continually updated.  The database can also be used by institutions when deciding the journals that they wish to subscribe to by highlighting those with the most articles relevant to the work of the Authority.

The database as been shown to be a useful tool (see below for an analysis of the database).  However, it would be greatly enhanced if individuals inform us if and when they have written articles that are suitable for inclusion in the database.  Please contact Adam Cook if you have any appropriate articles for inclusion or any other comments.

Analysis Of The Database I - Journals

Currently there are a 456 journals recorded in the database, with the maximum number of articles within a single journal being 156.  The 10 most frequently used journals are shown in the table below with the average number of months between relevant articles also indicated.

Table 1 - Analysis of the most commonly occurring journals within the database.

However, it may be appropriate to determine the overall value of a particular journal by combining both the frequency of relevant articles and the total impact of those articles to determine the total impact of a particular journal.  This is shown below.

Table 2 - Analysis of total impact of journals based on a combination of the number of articles in the database and the prestige of the journal

However, it may be appropriate to determine the overall value of a particular journal by combining both the frequency of relevant articles and the total impact of those articles to determine the total impact of a particular journal.  This is shown below.

Table 3 - Analysis of the overall value of different journals based on the number of articles in the database that have been published by the journal and the total impact of those articles

Analysis Of The Database II - Authors

There are 2500 authors in the database, with the most prolific author producing 67 articles.  The top 20 authors with the most publications are shown in the table below.  An author is credited with a publication if his/her name appears anywhere in the publication list so does not only count first authorships.  167 of the articles only listed the first author citing their name followed by “et al.”.  Once copies of these papers are obtained, the full list of authors for these papers can be put into the database and the numbers in the table below may change.  The top 20 authors could be considered leaders in the field, although some may not be currently working on relevant issues.  Further analysis of the database could cross reference the leading authors against the years in which they published articles to see who is currently most active. 

Analysis Of The Database III - Publication Year

Since the mid-1970s publication rate has been between approximately 60 and 90 relevant articles each year, peaking at the beginning and end of the 1980s.  This can be seen from the graph below which shows the number of articles published each year.  The drop in rate since 2001 is probably an artefact of lack of citations of recent articles hence they are harder to discover.  The number of articles in the database for 2002-2005 is expected to increase with time as more publications from this period receive citations.

Figure 1 - Analysis of the number of articles in the database from each publication year. 13 records in the database were published between 1878 and 1950 but for better graphical representation they are not included in this graph

When looking at 5-year intervals, it can be seen that scientific interest, and hence number of publications, generally appeared to increase with time until the mid-1980s with the highest number of articles being produced between 1980 and 1984 (averaging almost 7 articles published each month over the 5 year period).  The rate of publications has decreased since the mid-1980s.  This can be seen from the graph below which shows the number of articles produced in each 5-year period.  Again, the reduced number of publications in the period since 2000 may be an artefact as mentioned previously.

Figure 2 - Analysis of the number of articles in the database from each 5-year publication period. 14 records in the database were published prior to 1955 but for better graphical representation they are not included in this graph.  Data for records published since 2004 have not been included as the 5-year period is not yet complete.