Circus Arts in Content Service Systems

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to identify scientific content and compilations related to circus arts available in subscription databases and in renowned and free academic information systems. After providing terminological definitions for circus and circus arts, the article describes the search strategies applied and the issues which emerged during the searches, and then introduces quantitative results, thereby also identifying the major periodicals and the most often referenced articles of the topic. The analysis provides useful input for representatives of other arts related to circus arts (e.g., performing arts, theatre arts, visual arts, musical arts) and of other academic fields (e.g., literary studies, history, media science); but first of all, it serves as an unparalleled library information service guide for navigating between electronic information sources.

Introduction

During the collection development process of our academic program aimed at creating the Central European Circus Arts Center based in Budapest (Hungary), the authors realized that circus arts and their academic background can be considered underrepresented in international art journals and databases, considering its history and significance. Based on the Visual Arts category of Scimago Journal Ranking (Scimago Journal & Country Rank, 2022), after reviewing the tables of contents of journals indexed in Scopus as well (Q1 and Q2), it can be established that the number of papers published related to circus arts has been very limited over the past 5 years. Therefore, the focus of this research was aimed at multidisciplinary databases. With these results, the authors wish to contribute to the international compilation process of the information service apparatus of traditional and electronic content (books, journal articles, posters, movies, etc.) related to circus arts.

The goals of this study are to (1) identify the terminology related to circus arts with the help of traditional information service tools of specialized libraries (dictionaries and thesauri); (2) quantify circus arts content in academic databases; (3) name the common document types found in databases; (4) identify the main information sources utilizable in LIS information service.

The National Circus Arts Centre has become a major circus arts center not only for Hungary, but for the whole of Central Europe, and it is also the only stone circus in Central Europe (Figure 1), and, as such, it deserves a short introduction. The goal of the large-scale developments launched recently is to build a modern, 21^st-century circus building illustrated in Figures 2 and 3, and to fill it with innovation and diversity. The circus building to be constructed, named “Csodagömb” (“Wonder Sphere”), is a circus-theatrical dream: it will be a manège; a dry, water, and ice stage; an arena with high ceilings; a welcoming public space; a conference venue; an education area; a workshop; a research center; an exhibition hall; a restaurant; and an observation deck all in one. In addition, it could also become an emblematic place of Budapest, the symbol of past and future which can combine modern technology with the magical world of traditional human play.

Fig. 1. The current building of the Capital Circus of Budapest, built in 1971. (Source: National Circus Arts Centre, Budapest: https://fnc.hu/tortenetunk-2-2)

Fig. 2. A model of the “Wonder Sphere” circus building. (Source: National Circus Arts Centre, Budapest, photo: Ádám Urbán)

Fig. 3. A visualization of the “Wonder Sphere” circus building (Source: National Circus Arts Centre, Budapest, photo: Ádám Urbán)

In the unique circus space of the “Wonder Sphere”, performing art, circus pedagogy, and circus studies could co-exist in close cooperation: the library of international circus history (https://konyvtar.circus.hu) with 1,500 volumes in its current collection, the circus arts museum and archive with 35,000 artifacts, and the audio narration and ethology research center. The scientific methodology units of the National Circus Arts Centre operate as a public research center and provide unique learning, research, exhibiting, and public relations opportunities to those interested. Figure 4 shows a 1985 poster from its collection.

Fig. 4. The poster of the performance titled “Van mááásik…!” (“There's another!”) (1985) of the Capital Circus of Budapest (Source: National Circus Arts Centre, Budapest)

Literature Review

When identifying and listing information service tools related to circus arts, first of all, the activities of different research institutes shall be mentioned. These usually help the audience by collecting, introducing, and organizing academic sources. The paper of Péter Kiszl and Etele Szüts, published in Hungarian, analyzes the activities of six research and information centers (Sirkuksen Tiedotuskeskus¹, École nationale de cirque Montréal², Centre National des Arts du Cirque³, National Centre for Circus Art, Circusland El Palau Internacional De Les Arts Del Circ⁴, Circus, Arts and Research Platform⁵).⁶ The same authors have also created a conference paper⁷ in English on the content service and education activities of circus arts centers during COVID-19.

A valuable compilation was published on the website of the Fédération européenne des écoles de cirque professionnelles (FEDEC),⁸ an organization devoted to international services supporting education and research, and to encouraging the development of creative arts. The Circostrada⁹ is aimed at the European experts of various street arts. The European Circus Arts Bibliography is linked to this organization; it collects the information sources of circus arts in nine chapters, organized into thematic groups.¹⁰ A similar compilation is available at the website of the Cnac National Arts Centre Du Cirque.¹¹ Therefore, the authors decided to focus their analysis mainly on the content services of multidisciplinary databases.

Methodology

It is essential to define circus and circus arts using dictionaries and thesauri in order to identify the topics and disciplines, and to determine the appropriate search strategy. The representation of circus arts content was created by analyzing the following databases and services:

Full-text databases

• • The EBSCO International Bibliography of Theatre & Dance,

• • JSTOR,

• • ProQuest Performing Arts Periodicals Database.

Citation databases

• • Dimensions,

• • Scopus,

• • Web of Science.

In order to review the disciplines of the databases, the authors used a thesaurus to identify the expressions most closely linked to circus arts. An excerpt from the thesaurus of the Library of Congress¹²:

• – Variations

  • ◦ Circuses

• – Broader terms

  • ◦ Amusements

• – Narrower terms

  • ◦ Amateur circus

  • ◦ Flea circuses

  • ◦ Horse circuses

  • ◦ Wild west shows.

The research process started with the expression circus or circuses, and the list of results was narrowed down by choosing the broader discipline in the classification system of the given database, if this option was available. The advanced search function of the literature databases was used.

The circus, due to its diversity and interdisciplinary nature, can be analyzed from multiple aspects, therefore, it can appear in a number of different disciplines. By browsing multidisciplinary databases, and by using advanced search platforms, the authors saw that if the only keyword given was circus, more of the results were related to medical fields and ornithology, due to the frequent occurrence of the Latin word. This is explained by the fact that this expression is present in word combinations in the medical field (e.g., Circus movements), and in the Latin names of birds in ornithology (e.g., Circus pygargus, Circus cyaneus, Circus aeruginosus). Therefore, it was essential to narrow down the list of results to certain disciplines. This will be discussed in more detail later.

Results – Full-text databases

The EBSCO International Bibliography of Theatre & Dance

The EBSCO International Bibliography of Theatre & Dance is a comprehensive database of theatre art and performing art providing access to full texts. The compilation of the bibliography was initiated by the American Society for Theatre Research. It contains more than 1.1 million articles, books, book chapters, and the excerpts of theses from 126 countries. There are over 560 full text titles in the database, 170 of which are journals (including: Canadian Theatre Review, Dance Chronicle, Dance Teacher, Modern Drama), and 360 are books.¹³

The expression circus OR circuses was entered in the field “Subject Terms” to perform the search. In this way, all records were listed which had the term circus or circuses in the field “Subject Terms”. Therefore, those result were also displayed where the word was part of a complex expression: circus performers, circus lighting, etc. This yielded 5,174 results in the database International Bibliography of Theatre & Dance with Full Text. To narrow down the list of results to those containing only circus or circuses, the filed code “DE” had to be used. With these parameters, the search yielded 3,846 results. This service provides users 10 options in total to further narrow down the results:

1. 1. Limit to: Full Text, Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals, Cover Story,

2. 2. Publication Date,

3. 3. Source Types,

4. 4. Subject,

5. 5. Publication,

6. 6. Publisher,

7. 7. Company,

8. 8. Language,

9. 9. Geography,

10. 10. NAICS/Industry.

Based on the results received when using the command line DE circus OR DE circuses, it can be established that the majority of the records are from magazines. It was also found that 513 works were published between 2017 and 2021. The sources of the records are shown in Table 1. The full text of 3,418 records are available through the service.

Table 1. Source of records in the database EBSCO International Bibliography of Theatre & Dance with Full Text

In the database, users can choose the exact subject field under the menu item “Subjects”. The highest number of results, 1,632 records, was yielded by the expression circus performers. The expression amusement parks yielded 386 results in the database. The results are shown in Figure 8 in the Conclusion section.

JSTOR

JSTOR provides access to 12 million academic articles, book chapters, books, etc. The bundle called Primary Sources contains four collections (Global Plants, 19th Century British Pamphlets, Struggles for Freedom: Southern Africa, World Heritage Sites: Africa) from over 75 disciplines. Besides bibliographic data, it provides full access to the documents, thereby effectively supporting education and research.¹⁴

The search for circus arts content was performed using the advanced search platform; again, the authors used the keywords circus OR circuses to start the research. The database has 5 search fields available: abstract, title, author, caption, and all fields. Which means that in JSTOR searches cannot be performed on the subject field; therefore, providing keywords was not sufficient in this case. It was necessary to assign an appropriate academic field or discipline to each search expression.

The first query was run by choosing all fields; this yielded approximately 76,000 results. But the word circus can appear in several disciplines unrelated to circus arts, therefore, the results needed to be narrowed down. The number of matches decreased to 1,781 records by adding the discipline Performing Arts. These numbers refer to content available as full text through the chosen subscription. In order to increase the number of records relevant to circus arts, another query was run with a new search field.

In the JSTOR database, there are 5 filter options available:

• • Academic content,

• • Primary Source Content,

• • Date,

• • Subject,

• • Access Type.

Among the source types of the refined list of results, periodicals are the most prevalent.

The authors reviewed the thesaurus expressions mentioned in the introduction in the JSTOR system as well. There are no subject fields available in the content service, thus the search strategy remained the same as discussed above. The authors aimed to search for exact expressions and, therefore, put them between quotes; there was no specific field code available. In many cases, the search proved to be inaccurate, and irrelevant records were displayed among the results. The expression amusement parks stands out with 3,692 results, but circus performers (850 records) and fire eating (1,127) were also prevalent from the thesaurus expressions.

ProQuest Performing Arts Periodicals Database

The Performing Arts Periodicals Database indexes 400 journals, more than 160 of which are available in full text, including titles such as American Theatre, Dance Chronicle, Dance Teacher, Theatre Journal, Theatre Survey, or the Opera News. It has content from disciplines such as dance, theatre, movies, radio, television, etc.¹⁵

There are 15 different search boxes available for users in the ProQuest database. In order to identify the widest possible range of documents related to circus arts, the search terms were circus OR circuses, entered in the field “all subjects and indexing”. This search yielded 9,424 results. With this method, all results were displayed which contained the expression circus in either the subject or the index field. The field code “su.x” could be used to search for the expression circus OR circuses specifically. Thus, the search yielded 5,591 results.

In the ProQuest database, there are 10 filter options available:

1. 1. Full text, peer reviewed;

2. 2. Source type;

3. 3. Publication type;

4. 4. Publication date;

5. 5. Publication title;

6. 6. Document type;

7. 7. Subject;

8. 8. Company/organization;

9. 9. Location;

10. 10. Person;

11. 11. Language.

Regarding the source types of the refined set of results, the most common sources were Trade Journals and Magazines. 924 works were published between 2017 and 2021. The full text of 4,314 of the records are available through the service. The distribution of the most common sources is shown in Table 2.

Table 2. Source of records in the ProQuest Performing Arts Periodicals Database

The authors attempted to search for the thesaurus expressions in the ProQuest Performing Arts Periodicals Database as well, but the system's list of expressions only contained circuses in addition to circus. In order to get a wider range of results, the searches were not performed with exact expressions. Using this method, the expression circus performers yielded the highest number of results, 1,658 records in total, while the expressions circus festivals and amusement parks stood out with 629 and 460 records, respectively. The expression circus arts used as subject heading yielded 7,181 results. This high number could be the consequence of ProQuest's developers indexing this word as a separate expression in the system.

Experiences with full-text databases

Limitations:

1. 1. Different databases use different indexing systems, therefore, different search methods needed to be used to adapt to different options.

2. 2. Databases define document types differently. The diversity of document types can be seen in Table 10 in the summary.

3. 3. In databases covering several academic fields, it is inevitable to choose an academic field or discipline, especially if there is no appropriate subject field available. Therefore, it is exceptionally challenging to examine a field which has links to several different disciplines.

4. 4. It also caused difficulties while researching circus arts that different information systems use different structures to help their users running searches.

Advantages

1. 1. Content service systems are the most important document provision tools of LIS. In databases, users can access significant amounts of results related to circus arts.

2. 2. Specialized databases enable user-friendly, simple, and relevant searches and browsing.

3. 3. While reviewing the thesaurus expressions, the authors encountered a wide range of results in full-text databases, which is summarized in Figure 8 at the end of this study. More specific topics (e.g., sword swallowing, contemporary circus) are underrepresented; searches performed with compound expressions (e.g., circus in art, circus in literature) usually yielded a small number of results.

Results – bibliographical databases

Dimensions

Dimensions is an information source which is available without a subscription, providing data and metrics linked to publications. The database contains over 116 million publications, some of them with full text. Its collection covers all academic fields; the discipline of the query can be chosen based on the Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC) system, with 154 research fields. In addition, publications related to Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) are also searchable with the built-in filter.¹⁶

The interface has three columns: on the left-hand panel, filters related to the search terms can be used to refine the search; the results of the search itself are shown in the middle; and the right-hand panel contains different impact assessments. See Figure 5.

Fig. 5. Home page of the Dimensions database

On its free platform, searches can be run in three data types: (1) in the full data uploaded to the database; (2) in the titles and abstracts, and (3) in the DOI. For the purposes of this paper, in order to yield the most relevant results, the search was run in the titles and abstracts. As discipline, the option „1904 Performing Arts and Creative Writing” was chosen from the classification system of the database; the search term was circus in “Free text in title and abstract” field. This query yielded 217 results. The distribution of the results among source types is shown in Table 3.

Table 3. Distribution of results among publication types in the Dimensions database

The source journals of circus arts-related content in Dimensions are shown in Table 4 in their order of relevance.

Table 4. Publishing journals of articles related to circus arts in Dimensions

Scopus

Scopus contains 82 million records, of which the oldest one is from 1788. Among its 25,000 active titles, more than 23,400 are peer-reviewed journals including 5,500 with full open access. Furthermore, its contents include patents and the bibliographic data of 210,000 books. This interdisciplinary database, in addition to storing cited references, offers to its users almost 17 million author profiles and information on more than 80 thousand institutions.¹⁷

Based on the classification system of Scopus, the advanced search was run with the following parameters:

SUBJAREA(ARTS) AND (KEY(Circus or Circuses) OR Authkey(circus or circuses))

The “ARTS” code in the command line refers to arts within social sciences and social sciences themselves within the Scopus classification system. The fields “KEY” and “AUTHKEY” were used to provide keywords. The list of matches is not perfect, even after being refined in the above manner: e.g., in most cases, circus analyzes the economic competition between, and the attendance of circuses.

The search yielded 124 results, the earliest among the records being from 2005, and the most recent from 2022. Figure 6 shows the distribution among disciplines.

Fig. 6. The distribution of circus arts records among disciplines in Scopus

The source journals of circus arts-related content in Scopus are shown in Table 5, in their order of relevance.

Table 5. Publishing journals of articles related to circus arts in Scopus

The distribution of the results among source types is shown in Table 6.

Table 6. Distribution of results among publication types in Scopus

Web of Science

The Web of Science Core Collection indexes the studies of almost 34,000 scientifically renowned journals. This unique collection registers nearly 1.9 billion references starting from the 1900s to this day, from more than 250 disciplines. There are nearly 171 million records in the citation database.¹⁸

To retrieve relevant results related to circus arts available on the platform of the Web of Science Core Collection, the authors set the following disciplines as search criteria: Dance; Theater; Art; History; Film, radio, television; Architecture.¹⁹ The following advanced search command line search string was used:

SU=(Art OR Dance OR Arts & Humanities Other Topics OR Film, Radio & Television OR History OR Literature OR Music OR Theater) AND (AK=Circus OR AK=Circuses OR KP = Circus OR KP = Circuses)

The acronyms stand for: SU – Subject; AK – Author keywords; KP – an algorithm developed by the Clarivate, providing further expressions for the records’ traceability.

The search yielded 116 results, the earliest among the records being from 1991, and the most recent from 2021. Figure 7 shows the distribution of publications among disciplines, obtained from the following Web of Science collections:

1. 1. Arts & Humanities Citation Index (AHCI)

2. 2. Emerging Source Citation Index (ESCI)

3. 3. Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI).

Fig. 7. Distribution of circus arts publications registered in the Web of Science (116) among disciplines between 1991 and 2021

The list of the most productive sources of articles related to circus arts available in the Web of Science, that is, the most relevant journals in this field are shown in Table 7.

Table 7. Journals from the Web of Science publishing circus arts articles

The distribution of the results among source types is shown in Table 8.

Table 8. Distribution of results among publication types in Web of Science

Conclusion

As the first step of the research, the authors examined the traditional tools of information service in order to identify the terminology related to circus arts. Then, they conducted analyses in full-text databases. In these systems, fewer academic contents were found; but several periodicals and other publications were discovered which could be used effectively in research practice by those interested in circus arts, and, thus, by librarians providing information. Then, citation databases were examined; these also had contents related to circus arts, but in a significantly smaller number. This underrepresentation does not come as a surprise; these databases have extremely strict eligibility criteria, which needs to be considered when assessing these numbers.

In the databases EBSCO, JSTOR, and ProQuest, relevant topics related to circus arts were reviewed using the thesaurus expressions found in the dictionary of the Library of Congress. As a result, it was established that the expression circus performers is the one which has a significant presence in all examined full-text databases, but amusement parks and circus festivals also stood out. The expression circus arts is included in the dictionary of ProQuest, which can explain the exceptionally high number of results: the search yielded 7,181 records. “Circus in art” was represented to a much lower degree. The distribution of the examined thesaurus expressions are shown in Figure 8.

Fig. 8. Appearance of thesaurus expressions in information systems

The diversity of circus arts is shown by not only the expressions found in the dictionary, but also the diversity of the academic fields in the indexing databases: in addition to performing arts, it is often linked to the disciplines of theatre, dance, and history, while even business-related records can be found among the results.

Regarding sources, a distinction needs to be made between full-text and indexing databases. In the former, sources which promote arts and have informative content are in the majority (e.g., White Tops, The Stage, Theatre Record), while citation databases contain journals which met the strict criteria of academic publications. Journals indexed in the Scopus and the Web of Science (e.g., Early Popular Visual Culture, New Theatre Quarterly, Studies in Theatre and Performance) are especially noteworthy, given their academic prestige. The most frequently occurring information sources in the databases examined in the study are shown in Table 9. In the table, the yellow background shows data where the journal was indexed in the database, but there were no records related to circus arts.

Table 9. Summary of the most common sources of results

Although the document typology is different in each database examined in the study, it is still visible that magazines are the most common in full-text databases, while articles dominate in citation databases. Table 10 shows the diversity of document types, which can help decide which content providing system to prefer in library information service.

Table 10. Summary of document types found in the databases