Alastair G. Smith, Citations and Links as a Measure of Effectiveness of Online LIS Journals, IFLA Journal, 31, 1 (2005), pp. 76-84. Excerpt: 'What lessons does this study have for users and publishers of LIS open access e-journals? First, e-journals in LIS are becoming a significant body of literature, as evidenced by the fact that they appear in significant numbers in ISI’s citation count, if not yet in the formal Journal Citation Reports. This means that authors can be confident that by publishing in e-journals, their work will be recognized and cited in mainstream literature. Second, analysis of links made to e-journals indicates that a majority are to article content, indicating that links are performing some of the functions of conventional citations. This indicates a maturing of e-journals as a medium. Third, e-journal publishers need to be aware of different measures of effectiveness. The Web provides a greater range of measures than are available in the print environment. As well as measures such as the Journal Impact Factor, based on conventional citations, measures based on numbers of links, such as Web Impact Factor, are available. It must be appreciated, however, that these are measuring different features than the conventional citation count. Further research needs to be conducted to evolve new measures.'
Posted by
Peter Suber at 4/22/2005 09:52:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
