Citation Studies on “Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine”

In this paper, one of the famous textbooks of internal medicine, the first edition (1952) of Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine, was examined on the basis of citation studies. The following results were obtained: 1. There were 1, 750 citations in Harrison. The proportion of journal citations to total citations was 76.4%. 2. Harrison had 5 editors and 48 contributors. Most of them were affiliated with newly established medical schools in southern or western states. 3. The 15 most frequently cited journals are listed. The most important journal was JAMA. 4. The 5 most frequently cited books are listed. This list indicates that most of them were in the field of mycology. 5. The age of the citations indicates that the peak age was 2 years. The median citation age in journals was 5 years, and in books it was 6 years. 6. Harrison's textbook tended to cite English language journals in the references. The proportion of the citations written in English to total citations was 98%. The results were also discussed from the historical background in American medical education.