Bibliometric Analysis of the International Turfgrass Society Research Journal, Proceedings, and Supplements 1969-2013

A bibliometric description of the publications in the International Turfgrass Society Research Journal, Proceedings, and supplements from 1969 to 2013 provides a longitudinal view of authorship and paper trends. To date, there have been few bibliometric analyses of these publications or of turfgrass literature as a whole. Using the Turfgrass Information Center’s Turfgrass Information File database, bibliometric metadata were examined for these 1685 unique papers to analyze paper length, number of authors, number of references, host countries, authors’ national affiliations, title words, section headings, content keywords, and rates of institutional collaboration. United States–affiliated authors wrote 67.5% (n = 1137) of all papers, more authors produced jointly written papers over time, and the growth of domestic institutional collaboration outpaced the growth of international collaboration. Overall, most content was focused on areas such as field trials, evaluations, and cultural and chemical maintenance practices rather than on specific industry sectors.