A bibliometric analysis of published maternal and child health nursing research from 1976 to 1990

The two purposes of this bibliometric analysis were to explore and describe (a) the evolving patterns of scholarly activity and (b) the evolving intellectual structure of the scholarly community in the maternal and child health nursing (MCN) subfield as represented in the citation patterns of published nursing research from 1976 to 1990. Research articles in Journal of Advanced Nursing, Nursing Research, Research in Nursing & Health, and Western Journal of Nursing Research (N = 325) were used as the source of citation data for this bibliometric analysis. The research literature of the MCN subfield has a structure resembling that of a scientific literature. The majority of the total number of citations in the MCN research literature were to journals. The median age of the journal citations in the two 3-year sets of data (1979-1981 and 1988-1990) was less than 10 years. Over 60% of the cited journal literature originated within the subject classification of Medical Sciences. The findings of this study demonstrated an increasing trend of recurring authorship patterns (citing authors) among published MCN researchers. The trends in cited author patterns supported the emergence of increasing numbers of nurse authors into the citation networks of MCN research literature. These citation characteristics supported the emergence of a community of nurse researchers with citation and research histories in the MCN subfield. The limited intellectual structure in the MCN subfield was evident in the generally low consensus among citing authors in the referencing of authors' works as well as the relationships (cocitations) among authors' works in the MCN subfield. These data supported the emergence of a network of MCN scholars with increasing citation histories and cocitations in the research specialty area focused on maternal behavior during the prenatal period, postpartum period, and/or early infancy period. Research recommendations included the continued application of bibliometric strategies to selected bodies of the nursing literature to track the evolution of intellectual development, to identify the contributions of nurse authors, and to serve as an adjunct to qualitative analysis of scientific development in subfield and general field levels of nursing.