The distribution of reference citations in two agricultural journals

The average numbers of references cited in papers published inN. Z. Journal of Experimental Agriculture (JEA) andN. Z. Journal of Agricultural Research (JAR) are compared. The papers inJAR have a greater number of references per paper than doJEA papers, probably becauseJAR papers are longer.ForJEA papers there is a steady increase in the average number of references per paper as the number of authors per paper increases. ForJAR there is no such steady increase but there is a marked increase in the average number of references per paper for 3- and 4+-author papers.There is a clear difference betweenJEA andJAR papers in the distribution of references between the different sections of the text. ForJEA papers 49% of references are cited in the Introduction and 52% are cited in the Results & Discussion sections. ForJAR the figures are 38% and 65% respectively.It is suggested that the distribution of cited references in the different sections of the text may be an indicator of the appliedness of a paper or of a journal.