Obsolescence of information in journals in the editorial and publishing area

Abstract

Obsolescence is the decrease in the usefulness of information over time or a type of chronological noise in the process of scientific communication. The objective of this work is to determine the degree of obsolescence of the information published in four international journals in the editorial and publishing area, in addition to quantifying its annual loss of usefulness in a given period. The method used is a multisynchronous bibliometric study of indexed, refereed and active journals, with more than 20 years of antiquity. The variables analyzed were: year of publication of the source articles, year of the references, as well as the age of the latter. From the references of the original articles published between 2013 and 2018, variables and indicators were obtained through the Brooks mathematical model and the half-life method. Among the results, obsolescence measures and average values of the variables were obtained for each journal. The values indicated a half-life of 5.5 years; average currency of 52.83%, aging factor of 87.30%, loss of utility of 12.70% annually, which represents the obsolescence of the literature on this topic. On the one hand, it is concluded that the journals in the editorial and publication area are fertile ground for carrying out bibliometric analysis, on the other hand, given the operability of the references, it is close to the range for all sciences.