Úcar Marqués, IñakiLópez Fernandino, FelipeRodríguez Ulibarri, PabloSesma Sánchez, LauraUrrea Micó, VerónicaSevilla Moróder, Joaquín2020-09-072020-09-0720140138-913010.1007/s11192-013-1113-6https://academica-e.unavarra.es/handle/2454/38032The number of references per paper, perhaps the best single index of a journal’s scholarliness, has been studied in different disciplines and periods. In this paper we present a four decade study of eight engineering journals. A data set of over 70,000 references was generated after automatic data gathering and manual inspection for errors. Results show a significant increase in the number of references per paper, the average rises from 8 in 1972 to 25 in 2013. This growth presents an acceleration around the year 2000, consistent with a much easier access to search engines and documents produced by the generalization of the Internet.11 p.application/pdfeng© Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, Hungary 2013Number of referencesCitation densityEngineeringCiting behaviourReference analysisinfo:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess