Works on collective bargaining published in Spanish journals prior to 1995 and covered by ISOC database. A bibliometric approach

Abstract

Legal literature is one of the areas most neglected by bibliometric studies, both in Spa in and abroad. Within this context, the general aim of this note is to check the utility of national databases in the retrieval and overview of the legal literature published in Spanish journals. 447 papers on collective bargaining and allied subjects published before 1995 and included in ISOC database have been retrieved. Using a computer file of these papers, the distributions by years, number of authors per paper, institutions of origin, journals and specific subjects was analysed from a bibliometric approach. As a case study, distributions of the publications which have been used in a research paper on a specific subject of collective bargaining are also included. The results obtained indicate the utility of national databases for two reasons: 1) the systematic retrieval of legal literature which is different from, and at very least complementary to, the information retrieved using traditional methods, 2) the bibliometric approach provides an overview of questions of relevance when researching specific legal subjects.