Are volume numbers on article citations reliable? Are they predictable?

Scientific journal articles usually appear in one dedicated issue of a journal. There are cases they are split over more than one issue, too. In citation, this is referred to as issue number.

Aside from the issue number, there often is a volume number in articles’ citations, too. I know that libraries employ bookbinders who tie the incoming issues of a journal together into volumes. But: Are there rules on how many issues go into a volume? With other bibliographic information given, can the volumnumber be calculated algorithmically? Or is it proposed by the publishers and, if so, do libraries follow these proposals? If not, a volume number might rather be useless and even misleading if someone wants to find the article you cite in a library different from your own.

If there are rules, what are those rules? If not, why is a volume number included in the citation at all? In that case it would seem advisable better not to include the volume number in a citation at all.

Paramaeleon

• academic-libraries
• citations

Comments

• Joe: I remember looking into some journal that I had never heard of that was in its 12th volume, so we wondered how it could go 12 years without us hearing about it -- then it turned out that they were assigning new volumes each quarter (for a quarterly publication, with each issue numbered 1), so you really can't say anything about it, other than to hope that title+volume+issue uniquely identifies a publication.

Answer by Epicentre

The volume number is given by the publishers. However, going back to your title - "Are volume numbers on article citations reliable?" - I would have to say not 100%. There are many miscitings around, to say nothing of some journals being downright confusing with their numbering. Many journals have several volumes a year, so a year alone would be insufficient. The year/volume/issue/page normally defines an item. Less than that frequently would not.

Comments