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The purpose of this research is to examine the practical potentials of Bradford's law in relation to core‐journal identification.

Literature studies and empirical tests (Bradford analyses).

Literature studies reveal that the concept of “subject” has never been explicitly addressed in relation to Bradford's law. The results of two empirical tests (Bradford analyses) demonstrate that different operationalizations of the concept of “subject” produce quite different lists of core‐journals. Further, an empirical test reveals that Bradford analyses function discriminatorily against minority views.

Bradford analysis can no longer be regarded as an objective and neutral method. The received view on Bradford's law needs to be revised.

The paper questions one of the old dogmas of the field.

Any statistical regularities found in documentation should be fully exploited to produce estimates or predictions and to save documentalists work. But present formulations of the Bradford distribution demand penetrating search for peripheral papers and tedious computation in application. The present paper shows that the Bradford distribution is closely related to the Zipf distribution. It requires data on only the most productive journals, is mathematically simple and amenable to graphical methods if a proposed idea of the ‘completeness’ of a search is accepted. For comparability of results, certain conditions, which include a specified minimum level of productivity of journals, need to be standardized. A standard form is suggested. It is found, however, that a modified form of the Bradford distribution is required when Bradford‐type collections of journals are merged into larger collections, when ‘saturation’ of the most productive journals occurs.

The UK public sector has had a long‐standing policy commitment to equal opportunities, alongside limited access to managerial positions for women, ethnic minorities and people with disabilities. In place of equal opportunities, a new paradigm, managing diversity, originating in the USA, has been proposed. This paper examines five areas of difference between equal opportunities and managing diversity: an internal or external driving force; an operational or strategic focus; the perception of difference; the focus of action; and finally, the epistemological basis. The paper discusses the application of this model to the public sector, discussing power and equity, the relevance of the “business case” argument, the focus on customer responsiveness, and a possible explanation for the 1980s backlash. There are case studies of an NHS Trust and a local authority. The paper discusses necessary attitudinal changes and skills to implement the managing diversity paradigm in the public sector.

The metaverse offers great potential for creating a new educational environment with unique experiences. Currently, it has been integrated into many stages of education, including classroom study aids, clinical skill interaction and image training simulators, thanks to a new generation of Internet applications. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive systematic review using bibliometric analysis on the metaverse in health education and analyze the trends and patterns of research output within the field.

The paper conducts bibliometric analysis and follows the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines to ensure a rigorous and transparent review process. Specifically, this article identifies research questions, develops a data-collection strategy and establishes a screening approach that includes determining relevant keywords and applying inclusion and exclusion criteria.

A bibliometric analysis is conducted comprising 231 studies from 145 scientific journals to assess the trends, patterns and collaboration networks in research on the use of metaverse technology in health education. This paper provides insights into the research themes, publication trends and countries leading in this field, which can guide future research in this field.

The use of metaverse technology in health education has gained momentum in recent years. Despite this interest, comprehensive studies to review and analyze the existing literature on this topic systematically are lacking. In response, this paper provides a systematic review that explores the potential role of the metaverse in health education. By considering the current research, key trends, research hotspots and opportunities for future investigations are identified. The findings not only shed light on the current state of research but also offer guidance for advancing this exciting field.

This article analyzes the difference between the budgetary expense and the opportunity cost of defense inputs. If inputs are obtained by the government from a market economy with undistorted prices, the price paid for the last unit of each input acquired equals the opportunity cost. However, taxes create a distortion between opportunity cost and unit price. An additional complication, discussed using the case of military personnel, is that premarginal units may have an opportunity cost lower than the unit price determined at the margin. Principles used to determine the social discount rate are also discussed in the analysis.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a standard procedure for Bradford analysis: export citations from research databases to a bibliographic management tool, separate the desired citation fields with bibliographic output styles, and then manipulate the empirical data, formulate graph and analyze linearity with Microsoft Excel.

The methodology mainly employed by the paper is to test the theory of Bradford's law of scattering. Based on research work and experiments, a standard procedure for Bradford analysis is to be developed.

A standard procedure for Bradford analysis is developed. The study also shows that the literature in systems librarianship follows Bradford distribution.

Many fields or disciplines of literature have been found to follow Bradford's law, which seems to offer a great potential promise for solving library problems. However, empirical Bradford analysis demands tedious computation, and sophisticated graphical formulation. This paper develops an easy operational procedure for Bradford analysis, which will shed light on problem solving in a similar bibliometric analysis.

Haitun has recently shown that empirical distributions are of two types—‘Gaussian’ and ‘Zipfian’—characterized by the presence or absence of moments. Gaussian‐type distributions arise only in physical contexts: Zipfian only in social contexts. As the whole of modern statistical theory is based on Gaussian distributions, Haitun thus shows that its application to social statistics, including cognitive statistics, is ‘inadmissible’. A new statistical theory based on ‘Zipfian’ distributions is therefore needed for the social sciences. Laplace's notorious ‘law of succession’, which has evaded derivation by classical probability theory, is shown to be the ‘Zipfian’ frequency analogue of the Bradford law. It is argued that these two laws together provide the most convenient analytical instruments for the exploration of social science data. Some implications of these findings for the quantitative analysis of information systems are briefly discussed.

This paper aims to explore the effective ways to utilize current awareness services (CAS) for library and information science (LIS) professionals. It seeks to identify core journals for systems librarianship based on Bradford analysis.

The study explored the methods for CAS based on literature review, followed by Bradford analysis of systems librarianship literature, which was conducted by the quantitative analysis approach.

A core journal list for systems librarianship was built based on Bradford analysis. Three effective ways to utilize CAS by table of contents (TOCs) alerts were identified.

To keep up to date with the latest literature in the field of interest, LIS professionals should take advantage of CAS. The study found three effective ways to utilize CAS by TOCs alerts and identified core journals for systems librarianship. The research can help LIS professionals efficiently navigate the information tsunami to obtain the reliable and relevant information that deserves their time and attention, and stay aware of new developments in their area of interest.

The Bradford law is explored theoretically by means of a very mixed Poisson model which, it is claimed, elucidates the uncertainties surrounding the law and its applications. It is argued that Bradford succeeded in formulating an empirical regularity which has pure and hybrid forms but that all the variants can be subsumed under a simple logarithmic law which, for reasons explained, escapes exact expression in conventional frequency terms. The theoretical aspects discussed include the hybridity of form, estimations, sampling problems, the stability of ranks, homogeneity of data, and tests of significance. Some numerical examples, some simulated and some drawn from social contexts outside bibliography, are used both to illustrate theoretical issues and also to indicate the wide generality of the Bradford law. Possible applications and developments of the theory are indicated.

A probabilistic mechanism is proposed to describe various forms of the Bradford phenomenon reported in bibliometric research. This leads to a stochastic process termed the Waring process, a special case of which seems to conform with the general features of ‘Bradford's Law’. The presence of a time parameter in the model emphasises that we are considering dynamic systems and allows the possibility of predictions being made.