The JECS Core Journal Collection

An understanding of core journal collections is important for the development and management of periodical collections. This investigation explores the structure of a core journal collection related to the Journal of Early Christian Studies, a relatively new periodical in the sub-discipline of church history. Citations of journals extracted from three randomly selected volumes were tabulated and ranked. Library of Congress subject headings were used to categorize the subjects covered by the top-ranked cited journals. It was concluded that a core of nine journals contributed twenty-five percent of all citations. Church history journals predominated as the source of cited material; Roman and Byzantine subject journals were also highly cited. The core journal collection is concentrated around these three subject domains and, wherever early Christian studies is a prominent curricular focus, it is recommended that these nine journals be available in the library.