Drilling Deeper Into the Core: An Analysis of Journal Evaluation Methodologies Used to Create the "Basic List of Veterinary Medical Serials," Third Edition (Report‪)‬

INTRODUCTION Library professionals have created core lists of journals for nearly every discipline they serve. The major uses for core lists include guidance in journal selection, retention decisions, and collection assessment. Core lists have proved their value as collection management tools to the point that many existing lists continue to receive regular updates and new core lists are emerging to address the growth of interdisciplinary programs. Often core lists are relied on because it is presumed that professionals have "already performed the background work by assessing journal quality, relevance, subject and patron need" [1]. Recent studies of core lists have explored the methodologies used for title selection and have described a wide spectrum of possible approaches to creating a core list, ranging from strictly bibliometric measures to processes based primarily on subjective opinion [2-4]. This article explores the impact of different criteria used to build a core list in veterinary medicine and compares resulting lists generated from each of these individual criteria.