E-journal Use Research Articles

Digital Information Resources and Business Education Delivery in Tertiary Institutions in Bayelsa State

The study investigated the relationship between digital information resources and business education delivery in tertiary institutions in Bayelsa State. The study determined the relationship between the dimensions of digital information resources and business education delivery; thus, six objectives, research questions, and hypotheses guided the study. A correlational research design was used to carry out the study. The population of this study consisted of fifty-two (52) lecturers in business education from the three tertiary institutions in Bayelsa State. The census sampling technique was used in selecting the sample size of 52 business education lecturers for the study. The questionnaires for the study were developed based on the research objectives. The questionnaire was titled "Digital Information Resources and Business Education Delivery Questionnaire (DIRBEQ)." The questionnaire was subjected to face and content validity. The pilot-test approach was used to determine the reliability of the instrument. Cronbach’s alpha was also used to measure internal consistency. A reliability coefficient of 0.807 was obtained. This was considered sufficient for the study. The instrument was distributed by the researcher. Fifty-two copies of the questionnaire were filled out and collected. The research questions were answered using Pearson's product-moment correlation, while simple linear regression analysis and analysis of covariance were used to test the hypotheses at the 0.05 significance level. The study revealed that the extent of the relationship between e-book resources and business education delivery in tertiary institutions in Bayelsa State is weak, while the extent of the relationship between e-journal resources and business education delivery in tertiary institutions in Bayelsa State is very strong, among others. Furthermore, the study disclosed that there is a significant relationship between e-book resources and business education delivery in tertiary institutions in Bayelsa State and that there is a significant relationship between e-journal resources and business education delivery in tertiary institutions in Bayelsa State. The study concluded that digital information resources are an integral instructional delivery tool that can improve the quality of business education delivered to students at tertiary institutions in Bayelsa State. It was recommended that lecturers of tertiary institutions in Bayelsa State be trained in the use of e-book resources as well as the use of digital mediums in business education delivery, so that appropriate delivery of the lecture materials is ensured, and management of tertiary education in Bayelsa State should establish appropriate e-journal information management strategies that can foster lecturers' research skills, attitude, and competence for information literacy, effective e-journal use, and professional practices, among others.

Statistical relationships between journal use and research output at academic institutions in South Korea.

In this study, we analysed the statistical association between e-journal use and research output at the institution level in South Korea by performing comparative and diachronic analyses, as well as the analysis by field. The datasets were compiled from four different sources: national reports on research output indicators in science fields, two statistics databases on higher education institutions open to the public, and e-journal usage statistics generated by 47 major publishers. Due to the different data sources utilized, a considerable number of missing values appeared in our datasets and various mapping issues required corrections prior to the analysis. Two techniques for handling missing data were applied and the impact of each technique was discussed. In order to compile the institutional data by field, journals were first mapped, and then the statistics were summarized according to subject field. We observed that e-journal use exhibited stronger correlations with the number of publications and the times cited, in contrast to the number of undergraduates, graduates, faculty members and the amount of research funds, and this was the case regardless of the NA handling method or author type. The difference between the maximum correlation for the amount of external research funding with two average indicators and that of the correlation for e-journal use were not significant. Statistically, the accountability of e-journal use for the average times cited per article and the average JIF was quite similar with external research funds. It was found that the number of e-journal articles used had a strong positive correlation (Pearson’s correlation coefficients of r > 0.9, p < 0.05) with the number of articles published in SCI(E) journals and the times cited regardless of the author type, NA handling method or time period. We also observed that the top-five institutions in South Korea, with respect to the number of publications in SCI(E) journals, were generally across a balanced range of academic activities, while producing significant research output and using published material. Finally, we confirmed that the association of e-journal use with the two quantitative research indicators is strongly positive, even for the analyses by field, with the exception of the Arts and Humanities.

Maximizing Academic Library Collections: Measuring Changes in Use Patterns Owing to EBSCO Discovery Service

Despite the prevalence of academic libraries adopting web-scale discovery tools, few studies have quantified their effect on the use of library collections. This study measures the impact that EBSCO Discovery Service has had on use of library resources through circulation statistics, use of electronic resources, and interlibrary loan requests. Additionally, the data were compared against data from similar academic libraries without discovery systems. Findings include a strong growth in e-journal use but a sharp decline in circulation statistics. Implications of discovery on use of the print collection are discussed along with suggestions for improving integration of book and article data.

STM E-Journal Use Analysis by Utilizing KESLI Usage Statistics Consolidation Platform

The provision of usage data for e-journals in standard format introduces an innovation in collection management practices within libraries, establishment of distribution policies for library consortia and frame-work of scholarly impact measurement. However, utilization of the usage statistics for consortia is disrupted because each publisher generates and transfers the large-scale usage reports in its own way. Thus we have implemented an automatic collection and visualization system of e-journal usage statistics in this paper. In addition, consortia package subscription data has been integrated into the suggested system. As the result, we have obtained 7,539,083 journal usage reports of 359 institutions from thirty-one publishers. By analyzing the usage statistics and cost, we have found out four major issues on use of STM e-journals distributed through KESLI consortia.

Academics' attitudes towards use of electronic journals: A case study of Punjab and Chandigarh

The article examines academics attitude towards e-journal use. A well structured questionnaire was designed to elicit the opinions of the users. Responses were gathered from 542 faculty members of five universities. The results of the study showed that the characteristics that affect the choice of e-format over print in order of preference are ‘faster access’, ‘available from desktop’, ‘convenience’, ‘remote access’, ‘timeliness’, ‘available at all times’, ‘hyperlinks’, ‘multi-user access’, ‘currency of information’, ‘inclusion of audio–video material’, ‘interactivity’ and ‘animation of graphics’. The characteristics that affect the choice of print format over electronic in order of priority are ‘physical comfort’, ‘portability’, ‘ability to underline’, ‘familiarity with format’ and ‘ability to browse’. A majority of the teachers use e-journals for ‘research’, ‘teaching’, ‘writing reports’, ‘current awareness’, ‘background research’ and ‘internal/external presentations’. The problems faced in accessing e-journals are ‘access difficulties’, ‘discomfort of reading from computer screen’, ‘lack of IT knowledge/skill’, ‘information overload’ etc. A majority of the teachers want future e-journals to have features such as ‘full text index of every article’, ‘searching capability across a wide range of journal articles’, ‘searching capability within an article, display relationship between a wide range of works’ and ‘links to multimedia files’, etc. On the basis of the findings, some suggestions are made for maximizing the use of e-journals.

Academics' attitudes towards use of electronic journals: A case study of Punjab and Chandigarh

The article examines academics attitude towards e-journal use. A well structured questionnaire was designed to elicit the opinions of the users. Responses were gathered from 542 faculty members of five universities. The results of the study showed that the characteristics that affect the choice of e-format over print in order of preference are ‘faster access’, ‘available from desktop’, ‘convenience’, ‘remote access’, ‘timeliness’, ‘available at all times’, ‘hyperlinks’, ‘multi-user access’, ‘currency of information’, ‘inclusion of audio–video material’, ‘interactivity’ and ‘animation of graphics’. The characteristics that affect the choice of print format over electronic in order of priority are ‘physical comfort’, ‘portability’, ‘ability to underline’, ‘familiarity with format’ and ‘ability to browse’. A majority of the teachers use e-journals for ‘research’, ‘teaching’, ‘writing reports’, ‘current awareness’, ‘background research’ and ‘internal/external presentations’. The problems faced in accessing e-journals are ‘access difficulties’, ‘discomfort of reading from computer screen’, ‘lack of IT knowledge/skill’, ‘information overload’ etc. A majority of the teachers want future e-journals to have features such as ‘full text index of every article’, ‘searching capability across a wide range of journal articles’, ‘searching capability within an article, display relationship between a wide range of works’ and ‘links to multimedia files’, etc. On the basis of the findings, some suggestions are made for maximizing the use of e-journals.

E-Journal Usage and Impact in Scholarly Research: A Review of the Literature

This article reviews the literature dealing with scholarly information behavior around the use of e-journals. Its aims are to examine the use and impact the availability of e-journals has had on the community of scholars, mainly from the UK, but looking also at literature from other countries. Results demonstrated the huge rise in availability and take-up of e-journals, although there are mixed findings regarding the fate of the print format. Access to e-literature is dominated by keyword searching, with subject-specific (e.g., chemical abstracts); or general academic (Web of Knowledge) gateways and search engines (typically Google) all used above publishers platforms, alerts, and other ways to find literature. The value of e-journals has been shown to be high, both in terms of in gaining new insights and helping with teaching, and in measure of “Contingent valuation”: the time or cost incurred by not having provision. Barriers to e-journal use included non-purchase of titles by the library and years or volumes not available electronically. Although many disciplinary differences exist, due to their differing natures and means of scholarly communication, nevertheless, the review concludes that it is now unthinkable for researchers to work without the convenience and comprehensiveness that e-journals provide them.

Electronic Journals Appear to Reduce Interlibrary Lending in Academic Libraries

Objective – To determine the impact of electronic journals on interlibrary loan (ILL) activity. The hypothesis predicted that ILL requests would fall by approximately 10% during a four-year period, that e-journal use would increase by 10% per year and that there would be a correlation between the two.&#x0D; &#x0D; Design – Longitudinal data analysis of interlibrary loans over an eight year period from 1995 to 2003. The second part of the study is a retrospective data analysis of e-journal use from 2001-2005.&#x0D; &#x0D; Setting – The 26 largest libraries in the state of Illinois, USA; all but the Chicago Public Library are academic institutions.&#x0D; &#x0D; Subjects –&#x0D; 1. Journal article photocopy requests originating in the 26 libraries divided into three data sets: 1995/96, 1999/00 and 2002/03. &#x0D; 2. Electronic journal usage statistics from 25 libraries subscribing to packages within the EBSCOhost database for the fiscal years 2001-2005.&#x0D; &#x0D; Methods –A retrospective analysis was conducted using interlibrary loan data for journal article photocopy requests either originating from or being satisfied by the 26 libraries in the study. It examined the data in three ways: the 26 libraries together, requests sent to libraries in the state of Illinois excluding the 26, and requests using libraries outside the state. The second part of the study examines usage data of electronic journals available in 25 of the 26 libraries.&#x0D; &#x0D; Main results – In the period from 1999 to 2003 a reduction in ILL requests of nearly 26% was observed within the participating 26 libraries. &#x0D; &#x0D; Analysis by broad subject discipline demonstrates that social sciences and sciences show the largest drop in requests – a 25% decrease from 1995-2003. The number of requests from an individual journal title drops significantly in science by 34% within the state and by 37% for out-of-state requests.&#x0D; &#x0D; While the humanities actually showed an increase in the number of requests, the large increase in out-of-state requests (20.6% overall between 1995 and 2003) slowed significantly with an increase of only 2.6% from 1999-2003 indicating that sources other than ILL are providing articles to this field.&#x0D; &#x0D; Nearly identical peaks and troughs in ILL requests over the three study periods demonstrate predictably consistent high and low use subject areas.&#x0D; &#x0D; Use of the e-journals collection was shown to increase at well over 10% per year.&#x0D; &#x0D; Of the most highly requested ILL titles, 46% were available as e-journals, indicating a significant lack of awareness or inability to access electronic resources among some library users.&#x0D; &#x0D; Conclusion – The hypothesis that state-wide ILL requests would decline by 10% was far surpassed. Libraries most frequently borrowed titles that were low-use and outside the scope of their collections. Titles requested more than 20 times in each study period were those least frequently borrowed, as well as least requested from outside the state, which demonstrates a cost-effective use of library resources. This indicates that libraries are judiciously providing access to high-use titles locally. All three data sets included in-state titles requested more than 20 times, as well as 18 titles requested from out of state, suggesting that they should be considered for purchase within Illinois. While access to e-journals appears to have reduced the number of ILLs, there is clearly a need for some libraries to improve the way in which they help their users access the collection.

Patterns of e-journal use within the Anatolian University Library Consortium

With the establishment of the Anatolian University Library Consortium (ANKOS), the number of accessible databases and the usage of electronic journals has increased rapidly. Due to the diversity of the universities, diferences in usage for various subject collections are observed. In this study, a comparison between the research activity in Turkey and electronic journal usage through ANKOS has been carried out. The data on the total and subject-based full-text article usage indicates a strong correlation between the number of published articles and their usage. Additionally, a rank analysis was conducted to establish similarities and differences between each institution's usage and the aggregated consortium usage.

Nursing Faculty and Scholarly Publishing: Survey of Perceptions

The dramatic changes taking place in scholarly publishing affect authors, readers, publishers, and librarians. A survey was undertaken in Fall, 1999, to develop a profile of the current perceptions and use of journals'”both print and electronic'”by nursing faculty and administrators. Faculty and administrators in 516 schools of nursing in the U.S. were invited to participate; 619 responses were received providing information on: personal characteristics, nature of position, types of available computer access, perceived level of expertise with computers and computer applications, journal use and publication record, characteristics of quality journals, credibility of e-journals, and deterrents of e-journal use. Results indicate that access to and facility with the technology relate to journal use and publication record. The greatest deterrents to use of electronic journals are technological limitations, no library subscription, and lack of awareness. In tenure/promotion decisions, 51.8% of respondents felt print journals were seen as more credible than electronic journals.