Electronic Journal Usage Research Articles

COUNTER in context: a case study on journal package usage

This study assesses electronic journal usage for subscription packages and discusses the challenges for librarians to interpret COUNTER data accurately. By correlating usage and holding data from two different types of vendor, COUNTER 5 Title Master Report and Electronic Holdings Report, the authors were able to review journal usage in a larger context and gain insights into how usage was affected by other factors, such as journal access models and vendor platform design. While the findings showed a high percentage of overall usage for subscription journals, one surprising result was the usage of non-subscribed journal titles in all COUNTER metrics.

Analyzing the Relationship between Citation-Based Impact Metrics and Electronic Journal Usage: A Case Study

This study examines the relationship between Journal Impact Factors (JIF) and e-journal usage in collection management. We focus on the impact of major JIFs on local e-journal usage and propose an alternative approach to conventional methods for collection selectors. By treating journal usage patterns as panel data and employing fixed-effects regression models, we find that journal popularity has the greatest influence on local e-journal usage and the effects of impact factors on academic article usage can vary across different disciplines. The methodology and findings of our study offer valuable insights and practical implications for academic librarians overseeing collection development.

Capturing and Analyzing Publication, Citation, and Usage Data for Contextual Collection Development

ABSTRACTLibrarians from the Galter Health Sciences Library at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine undertook a citation analysis study in early 2017 to supplement traditional electronic journal usage data in the hopes of more effectively demonstrating journals’ value. The authors developed a methodology for gathering comprehensive publication and citation data for authors affiliated with the Feinberg School of Medicine, using Web of Science as the primary data source. Using this data, various metrics were employed to measure and evaluate journals in institutional and field-specific contexts, including co-citation networks, and increases or decreases of references over time per title. These metrics were compared against more traditional tools like Counting Online Usage of Networked Electronic Resources usage reports, cost-per-use analysis, and interlibrary loan statistics, to identify correlations and discrepancies. This use case demonstrates the potential value of incorporating publication and citation metrics into library collection development and evaluation practices.

INFLUENCE OF E- JOURNALS IN ACADEMIA AND SCHOLARLY COMMUNICATIONS

The article describes to highlight the important of e-journals for the access in the academic libraries. As academia progresses towards the 21st century, increases in student numbers, distance learning, changes in copyright licensing and lack of funding means that academic institutions have to look more closely at the use of electronic resources in order to meet these challenges. The “wired campus” and “virtual university” mean more users looking for electronic resources and increased pressure on libraries to provide these services. Electronic journals have become an increasingly important part of academic library collections; Electronic journal usage has created a new set of issues such as archiving, copyright, cataloguing, site licensing, remote access, hardware requirements and journal design. Today availability of e-resources in a university library is very common. This paper deals with different aspects of electronic journals and their impact on users, authors, indexing services, scholarly communication, accessibility and libraries. The academics are still in the process of adopting this medium. There is variation in the use of electronic journals from discipline to discipline. Researchers have positive attitude towards electronic journals. Budget allocation for journals has been shifting from print to electronic form, which has necessitated a change in collection development policies of libraries. The article describes all such aspects of electronic journals.

Factors Influencing Usage of an Electronic Journal Collection at a Medium-Size University: An Eleven-Year Study.

This paper reports the results of a quantitative analysis examining factors affecting electronic journal usage at the J.N. Desmarais Library of Laurentian University. This study covered an 11-year period, from 2000 to 2010. The number of full-text articles downloaded was compared to the size of the e-journal collection, the number of students, and the number of faculty members at the university, all of which exerted varying degrees of influence on the rate of use of e-journals. Pearson’s Product-Moment Correlation Coefficients were calculated to determine the strength of any existing linear relationship. Although the size of the e-journal collection did impact its level of use, there seems to be a “critical mass” which once reached will slow or stop any further increase in usage. Among the student population, the number of doctoral students demonstrated the strongest linear relationship to the use of the e-journal collection while the undergraduate population showed the least strong linear relationship. Faculty members were important users of the library’s e-journal collection but the linear relationship was not as strong as that observed for graduate students. In fact, faculty members demonstrated the least strong linear relationship of all segments of the Laurentian University community. It may be wise for the library to consult not only its faculty members but also its graduate students when seeking advice on collection building and management.

What's catching our readers' eye? Analysis of downloads of Cardiovascular Research articles

Cardiovascular Research accepts submissions of original papers from the entire realm of cardiac and vascular basic science. And indeed, the submissions show a large diversity of topics. The elaborate review process involving experts in the various specific fields of research is the deciding factor that determines the selection of papers finally published. It is generally assumed that in the long run the accumulating citations of a published paper in other qualified scientific journals can be taken as a sign of its lasting scientific value. Citations do not, however, reflect the immediate awareness, i.e. the ‘news value’ of the topic of a given article. In times of electronic journal usage, this immediate interest ignited by a given publication in the scientific community can be estimated from its early electronic usage by tallying the number of times an article is downloaded online. The editors of Cardiovascular Research use the download information regularly to follow quick trends of interest in their readership. Here we report on the 10 most-downloaded original articles from January 2009 to July 2010. We counted the downloads of full-length articles for a window that included the electronic in-press period and the 2 months following appearance in print for each paper. The newest articles we evaluated are from July 2010. With the same method, we also evaluated the downloads of review papers during this period. Clearly, the download statistics of reviews does not reflect …

전자저널 관리를 위한 이용통계의 효과적 활용 방안

ABSTRACT Libraries are encountering hostile conditions around journal licensing such as limited budget, the high price of packages, and vendor-led negotiation. They need to collect and analyze usage data of electronic journals to develop electronic journal collection ap- propriate for their own circumstances. The purpose of this stud y is to suggest an practical guideline for librarians’ analysis of electronic journal usage statistics. For this, the study reviewed related previous studies and examined curren t state on usage statistics provided from COUNTER release 3 compliant vendors. Finally this study proposed five core statistics including full-text article request per journal, journal using rate, price per full-text article request, most use group, and low use group, and further discussed how to use them effectively for the electronic journal management. KEYWORDS Electronic Journal, Usage Statistics, Usage Data, Use Data, COU NTER, Journal Report 1. 서 론 1.1 연구의 필요성

If You Build It They Will Come: Experiences with Electronic Journal Usage in a Community Hospital Library

South Pointe Hospital is a community hospital that originally had few electronic resources available. This article describes how the library gradually acquired an electronic journals collection that started with just 2 titles and grew to a list of over 6000 titles including open access publications. The journals' online usage statistics were used to justify and increase the library budget, which enabled the library to purchase more titles as journal infrastructure software. Even though the collection had been created, it must be maintained and promoted; this article briefly discusses the need for education and promotion of the resources.

대학도서관에서의 전자저널 이용 통계 제공 및 활용 현황

본 연구의 목적은 국내 대학도서관에서의 전자저널 이용 통계 제공 및 활용 현황을 조사하는 데 있다. 이를 위하여 서울 및 경기 소재 63개 대학교 및 대학도서관을 대상으로 온라인 설문지조사를 시행하였고 이 중 48개 도서관으로부터 응답지를 회수하여 그 결과를 분석하였다. 분석 결과 현재 제공되고 있는 이용 통계 데이터에 대한 만족도는 낮게 나타났으며 특히 비교 가능한 데이터의 부재 문제와 구독 대학도서관 전체의 평균 이용률에 대한 정보가 제공되지 않는 데 따른 불만이 높은 것으로 나타났다. 더불어 선행연구 조사 및 현행 이용 데이터에 대한 분석을 통해 전자저널 평가에 활용할 수 있는 이용 데이터 통계치로서 5가지 유형을 고찰하였다. The purpose of the study is to understand the present state of practical use of electronic journal usage statistics at the academic libraries. For this purpose the study performed an online questionnaire survey to the 63 academic libraries located in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province. Based on the 48 responses, the study found out that the rate of satisfaction with the present usage data was low. Especially the rate of unsatisfaction with the absence of comparable data and the average usage rate of all the subscribing libraries appeared high. The study also examined 5 types of statistics for the evaluation of electronic journal.

Level 1 COUNTER Compliant Vendor Statistics are a Reliable Measure of Journal Usage

A review of:
 
 Duy, Joanna and Liwen Vaughan. “Can Electronic Journal Usage Data Replace Citation Data as a Measure of Journal Use? An Empirical Examination.” The Journal of Academic Librarianship 32.5 (Sept. 2006): 512-17.
 
 Abstract
 
 Objective – To identify valid measures of journal usage by comparing citation data with print and electronic journal use data.
 
 Design – Bibliometric study.
 
 Setting – Large academic library in Canada.
 
 Subjects – Instances of use were collected from 11 print journals of the American Chemical Society (ACS), 9 print journals of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), and electronic journals in chemistry and biochemistry from four publishers – ACS, RSC, Elsevier, and Wiley. ACS, Elsevier, and Wiley journals in chemistry-related subject areas were sampled for Journal Impact Factors and citations data from the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI).
 
 Methods – Journal usage data were collected to determine if an association existed between: (1) print and electronic journal use; (2) electronic journal use and citations to journals by authors from the university; and (3) electronic journal use and Journal Impact Factors. 
 
 Between June 2000 and September 2003, library staff recorded the re-shelving of bound volumes and loose issues of 20 journal titles published by the ACS and the RSC. 
 
 Electronic journal usage data were collected for journals published by ACS, RSC, Elsevier, and Wiley within the ISI-defined chemistry and biochemistry subject area. Data were drawn from the publishers’ Level 1 COUNTER compliant usage statistics. These data equate 1 instance of use with a user viewing an HTML or PDF full text article. The period of data collection varied, but at least 2.5 years of data were collected for each publisher. 
 
 Journal Impact Factors were collected for all ISI chemistry-related journals published by ACS, Elsevier, and Wiley for the year 2001. Library Journal Utilization Reports (purchased from ISI) were used to determine the number of times researchers at the university cited journals in the same set of chemistry-related journals over the period 1998 to 2002. The authors call this “local citation data.” (512)
 
 The results from electronic journal use were also analysed for correlation with the total number of citations, as reported in the Journal Citation Reports, for each journal in the sample.
 
 Main results – The study found a significant correlation between the results for print journal and electronic journal usage. A similar finding was reported for correlation between electronic journal usage data and local citation data. No significant association was found between Journal Impact Factors and electronic journal usage data. However, when an analysis was conducted for the total number of citations to the journals (drawn from the Journal Impact Factor calculations in Journal Citation Reports) and electronic journal use, significant correlations were found for all publishers’ journals.
 
 Conclusion – Within the fields of chemistry and biochemistry, electronic journal usage data provided by publishers are an equally valid method of determining journal usage as print journal re-shelving data. The results of the study indicate this association is valid even when print journal subscriptions have ceased. Local citation data (the citations made by researchers at the institution being studied) also provide a valid measure of journal use when compared with electronic journal usage results. Journal Impact Factors should be used with caution when libraries are making journal collection decisions.

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.
 
 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.
 
 Setting – The 26 largest libraries in the state of Illinois, USA; all but the Chicago Public Library are academic institutions.
 
 Subjects –
 1. Journal article photocopy requests originating in the 26 libraries divided into three data sets: 1995/96, 1999/00 and 2002/03. 
 2. Electronic journal usage statistics from 25 libraries subscribing to packages within the EBSCOhost database for the fiscal years 2001-2005.
 
 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.
 
 Main results – In the period from 1999 to 2003 a reduction in ILL requests of nearly 26% was observed within the participating 26 libraries. 
 
 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.
 
 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.
 
 Nearly identical peaks and troughs in ILL requests over the three study periods demonstrate predictably consistent high and low use subject areas.
 
 Use of the e-journals collection was shown to increase at well over 10% per year.
 
 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.
 
 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.

Can electronic journal usage data replace citation data as a measure of journal use? An empirical examination

Citation and print journal use data have been used to measure quality and usefulness of library journal titles. This study examined relationships among different measurements and found that electronic usage correlates with print usage and that local citation data are a valid reflection of total journal usage but Impact Factors are not as valid.

EJournal interface can influence usage statistics: Implications for libraries, publishers, and Project COUNTER

AbstractThe design of a publisher's electronic interface can have a measurable effect on electronic journal usage statistics. A study of journal usage from six COUNTER‐compliant publishers at 32 research institutions in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Sweden indicates that the ratio of PDF to HTML views is not consistent across publisher interfaces, even after controlling for differences in publisher content. The number of full‐text downloads may be artificially inflated when publishers require users to view HTML versions before accessing PDF versions or when linking mechanisms, such as CrossRef, direct users to the full text rather than the abstract of each article. These results suggest that usage reports from COUNTER‐compliant publishers are not directly comparable in their current form. One solution may be to modify publisher numbers with “adjustment factors” deemed to be representative of the benefit or disadvantage due to its interface. Standardization of some interface and linking protocols may obviate these differences and allow for more accurate cross‐publisher comparisons.

전자저널 이용통계서비스의 품질평가에 대한 연구

인터넷을 통한 웹 콘텐츠가 증가하면서 도서관 장서구성에서 전자자원의 비중이 점차 확대되고 있다. 장서의 선정, 유지, 구독중단을 위한 평가기준은 여러 가지가 있으나, 전자저널의 경우에는 이 용량에 근거한 평가가 중요한 비중을 차지하고 있다. 이에 본고에서는 전자저널 이용통계의 역할과 문제점 등에 대해 살펴본 후 ICOLC, COUNTER의 지침을 중심으로 전자저널 이용통계 요소를 추출하여 전자저널 출판사별 통계서비스에 대해 평가해 보았다. 그 결과 COUNTER 실행코드 채택이후 전자저널 이용통계서비스가 많이 개선되었으나, 장서평가에 활용되기에는 여전히 미흡한 부분이 존재하고 있었다. 전자저널 이용통계가 도서관 장서평가에 활용되기 위해서는 도서관, 관련 단체, 출판사 등의 협력을 통해 좀더 구체적이고 표준화된 이용통계 요소가 개발되어야 하고, 전자저널 출판사, 대행사들은 이를 적극적으로 수용해야 할 것이다. As the more web contents are available through the internet, relative importance of electronic resources in the library collection has gradually increased. While several measurement criteria are used for the effective collection development, the usage statistics is generally accepted as the key factor to assess the retention and cancellation of electronic resources. In this paper it was examined the roles and problems inherent in the electronic journals usage statistics, and then the quality of electronic journal usage reporting services provided by several publishers were evaluated, following the ICOLC and COUNTER guidelines. To apply the usage statistics of electronic journal on the library collection development, it is necessary that libraries, related association and publishers accomplish more consistent and practical usage statistics components. And it is recommended that publisher and aggregator accommodate the guideline for electronic journal usage report.

EVALUATING THE RATE OF INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL USE IN THE LIBRARIES OF FOUR EDUCATIONAL AND RESEARCH CENTRES

Background: Reviewing the rate of journal use is a known and conventional way of studying the cost effectiveness of the most expensive sources of the libraries in the educational centres. This process is routinely carried out in the libraries of the developed countries. Purpose: To assess the usage rate of the periodical by faculties and others, and their related costs (in $US) in the libraries of four educational and research centres in Tehran. Methods: In a descriptive cross – sectional study, the rate of international scientific journal use by the faculty members and others was studied. Depending upon the rate of journal use in one month, three groups were classified: Group 1: with use of 1 journal /month; Group 2: with 1-3 journal usage/month; and Group 3: with 3 and more journal usage/month. The mean monthly journal use and the related costs of the three groups were measured. Results: Among the entire journals in the studied libraries, 87 (27.6%) belonged to group 1, 121 journals (38.4%) placed in group 2 and finally 107 journals (34%) were in group 3. Cost per use for each journal in Masih Daneshvari, Labbafinezhad, Rasool-E-Akram and Imam Hospitals were 10.52, 14.42, 14.84 and 13.35 $US respectively. Conclusion: According to our findings, about 2/3 of the journals were used less than three times per month. The same situation exists with little difference in the rest of the medical and non-medical educational centres of the country. To improve the present situation, we can not only exclude those journals which are used less frequently but also encourage the professors to use the journals themselves and to persuade the students to take advantage from the relevant journals during their education. It is also recommended that the journals in group 1 and 2 (less frequently used journals) to be purchased and stored by a National Library Centre only and journals of group 3 by individual educational centres. Regarding the increasing facilities of electronic journal usage, it is recommended to use not only these types of journals, but also to preserve the more frequently used journals, in order to improve the present situation.

Analysis of electronic journal usage in Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute Library

Analysis of electronic journal usage in Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute Library

Patterns in Electronic Journal Usage: Challenging the Composition of Geographic Consortia

Annual electronic journal usage data for the NorthEast Research Library (NERL) consortium was analyzed for 2000 and 2001 for the Academic Press IDEAL aggregate package. Patterns indicated a high degree of skew in use of the journal collection: a small number of journals formed the majority of total use. Each institution illustrated a unique usage pattern, with some institutions using (proportionally) more or less of the collection. No institution used every title, and some titles were used very infrequently by the consortium as a whole. Title ranking showed high congruence between 2000 and 2001. Titles not subscribed in print received about ten times less use than locally subscribed titles. Cluster analysis revealed three distinct groups of institutions based on use of the journal package: large research institutions, medical institutions, and smaller liberal arts colleges and polytechnic institutes. Student enrollment is a good predictor of total usage, with medical institutions being an exception. It is recommended that institutions consider their consortial membership and organize themselves into groups of homogenous institutions with similar missions.

Are Researchers Ready For The Electronic-Only Journal Collection?: Results of a Survey at the University of Maryland

This article discusses a web-based survey conducted by the University of Maryland Libraries in the spring of 2001. The survey was distributed among university faculty and graduate students to determine their views on and use of electronic journals. Staff at the Libraries hoped to discover information that would suggest how best to manage collections to serve the university community efficiently. The survey adds two new dimensions to previous studies of electronic journal usage. First, it examines the respondents' current use of print journals in library collections and second, distinguishes between respondents' format preferences for those journals that are most central to their research and teaching activities as well as less important titles.

Electronic journal usage and policy at UMIST

Le nombre de titres electroniques acquis par l'UMIST (University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology) n'a pas cesse d'augmenter depuis le debut des annees 1990, en meme temps que le nombre d'abonnements sous forme papier a considerablement decru. Les donnees d'utilisation fournies par l'un des editeurs de l'UMIST suggerent que la litterature coeur est encore sous forme imprimee, mais que les titres les plus utilises sont ceux sous forme electronique seulement ; le materiel electronique multiplie par quatre la valeur academique. Toutefois la transition au tout electronique, bien qu'inevitable, cree un dilemne economique et souleve la question de la disponibilite permanente des archives.