The Use of Scholarly Monographs in the Journal Literature of Latin American History

Authors

Meiyolet Mendez, University of Alabama
Karen Chapman, University of Alabama

Date of this Version

Winter 2006

Document Type

Article

Citation

Electronic Journal of Academic and Special Librarianship (Winter 2006) 7(3). Also available at http://southernlibrarianship.icaap.org/content/v07n03/mendez_m01.htm.

Comments

Copyright 2006, the authors. Used by permission.

Abstract

Abstract

This study explores the use of the monograph in the journal literature of Latin American history through a reference study of Hispanic American Historical Review for the years 1985, 1995 and 2005. The authors found that the use of monographs as secondary sources increased over time. Monographs in Spanish and Portuguese were heavily used, although English was the predominant language. Distribution of publication dates varied somewhat over the period, with less use of works from the previous five years in 2005. The most frequently-cited publishers were university presses. The authors concluded that the monograph continues to play a vital role in scholarly communication for researchers in Latin American history, and the field is vulnerable to any crisis experienced by university presses.