CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS = ⅳ
ABSTRACT = ⅴ
LIST OF TABLES = ⅹ
LIST OF FIGURES = xii
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY = 1
Nursing Science as an Innovation = 1
The Characteristics of Post-Modem Science = 2
Communicating the Idea of Nursing Science = 2
The Characteristics of a Young Science = 4
Significance of the Study = 8
Purposes of the Study = 10
Research = 10
Assumptions Questions = 10
Definitions = 11
Limitations = 13
CHAPTER 2 REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE = 14
Scientific Communication in Nursing Science = 14
The Community of Scholars Who Investigate Scientific = 15
The Publication Process = 15
The Use of Nursing Literature = 16
The Diffusion of Research Findings = 16
The Scholarly Community in Nursing Science = 16
Reviews of Research Activity in Nursing = 18
Qualitative Reviews of Nursing Research Literature = 18
Formal Investigations of Nursing Research Literature = 23
Formal Investigations of Nursing Research Literature in Subfields = 29
Bibliometric Analyses of Nursing Literature = 34
The Conceptual Development of a Field of Inquiry = 39
The Definitional Environment of MCN = 40
History and Nursing Science = 43
Summary = 44
CHAPTER 3 METHODS = 46
A Conceptual Overview of Bibliometrics = 46
Citation Analysis = 47
Reliability and Validity of Citation Data = 51
Specific Limitations of Citation Data = 52
Summary = 54
Design = 55
Population and Sample = 55
Inclusion Criteria for MCN Published Research Articles = 56
Reliability of the Selection of Published MCN Research = 58
Instrumentation = 59
Procedure = 59
Consent to Collect Citation Data = 64
CHAPTER 4 ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA : PART Ⅰ = 66
Overview = 66
The 15-Year Data Set : 1976 to 1990 = 67
General Characteristics of the 325 Source(Citing) Articles = 67
Primary Authors of Source(Citing) Articles = 70
Cited Authors in Source Articles = 77
The Two 3-Year Data Sets : 1979-1981 and 1988-1990 = 82
General Trends in Source Articles = 82
Journal Citations = 83
Subject classification of die journal citations = 83
Citation age of journal citations = 89
Summary = 89
CHAPTER 5 ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA : PART Ⅱ = 91
Overview = 91
The First Author Set = 91
The Second Author Set = 95
Summary = 98
CHAPTER 6 SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS = 99
Overview of the Study = 99
Summary of Study Findings = 100
Research Question 1 : Evolving Patterns of Scholarly Activity in the MCN Subfield = 101
The 15-year data set from 1976 to 1990 = 101
The two 3-year data sets = 102
Conclusions = 105
Research Question 2 : Intellectual Structure of the MCN Subfield, 1986-1990 = 106
The first author set = 106
The second author set = 107
Conclusions = 108
Implications for Theory, Research, and Practice = 108
Recommendations for Further Research = 113
APPENDIX A : Specialization Models = 116
APPENDIX B : Source Articles = 118
APPENDIX C : Lea of Permission = 135
REFERENCES = 140
VITA = 153