The coverage of Indian literature in social science bibliographic databases on CD-ROM - Sociofile, EconLIT, LISA and PsychLit

Abstract

The study of four bibliographic databases in social science on CD-ROM, namely, Sociofile, EconLIT, LISA and PsycLit, show that the coverage of Indian publications and Indian periodicals, on the average, amounts to only 0.5 % and 1.16 % respectively. Of the 626 Indian periodicals published in Sociology, Economics, Library and Information Science, and Psychology, 489 (78.1%) periodicals are published in the English language. Among these 489 English periodicals, only 45 (9.2%) are covered in the four bibliographic databases under study. Therefore, there is a need to publish bibliographic databases covering Indian literature in the above areas on CD-ROM and other machine-readable forms, preferably by private enterprises, to ensure promptness in publication and market oriented approach.