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Citations and links as measures of effectiveness of online LIS journals. Alastair G. Smith School of Information Management, Victoria University of Wellington Alastair.Smith@vuw.ac.nz. Overview. Exploratory study Surveyed 10 open access LIS E-journals
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Citations and links as measures of effectiveness of online LIS journals Alastair G. Smith School of Information Management, Victoria University of Wellington Alastair.Smith@vuw.ac.nz
Overview • Exploratory study • Surveyed 10 open access LIS E-journals • Compared Web link “sitations” with conventional “citations” • Examined samples of sitations • Implications for LIS E-Journals
The E-Journals • Ariadne • Cybermetrics • D-Lib Magazine • First Monday • Information Research • Journal of Digital Information • Journal of Electronic Publishing • Journal of Information, Law and Technology • LIBRES: Library and Information Science Research Electronic Journal • PACS-R: Public Access Computer Systems Review
Citation Counts • Originally carried out in Web of Knowledge, revised using Dialog version of ISI databases: • Science Citation Index 1990- • Social Sciences Citation Index 1972- • Arts and Humanities Citation Index 1980- • Problems with: • Scanning for differing versions of titles (J Dig Inf; J Digital Informatio…) • Identifying target journal (LIBRES vs Libres)
Sitations on AltaVista • Search for external links to an e-journal site with the URL xxx: link:xxx and not host:xxx • Issues: • Excludes internal navigation links, but also links between articles in same journal • AltaVista does not find all pages on Web • After March 2004, AltaVista database changed, so search not reproducible
Web Impact Factors • Based on Journal Impact Factors • Ratio of: Sitations to E-Journal To Number of Web Pages at Journal • Both could be calculated from AltaVista
Sitations and Citations • Small correlation between Sitations and Citations • More correlation between WIF and Citations • Sitations and Citations are related, but different
Nature of Sitations to LIS E-Journals • Sampled sitations made to the LIS E-journals link:xxx • Classified sitations
Sitation classification • Link to a formal article in the e-journal • From formal publication • From other type of web page • Link to a whole issue of an e-journal • Link to the e-journal as a whole • Link to non-article material • Internal navigation link
Observations on Sitations • 60% to content, rather than journal as a whole • Journals have different “Sitation Profiles” • D-Lib highly linked from formal publications • Others mostly linked from non-formal websites • Cybermetrics and LIBRES had fewer links to content • Cybermetrics more linked from non-English sites • First Monday more linked from discussion lists
Conclusions about LIS E-Journals • LIS E-Journals are now a significant body of literature • Sitations are largely to content • Sitations are different from citations • Sitations may be more accurate than citations • E-Journals have potential for new measures of effectiveness
Lessons for publishers • Titles and URLs should be distinct and consistent to make sitation/citation evaluation more effective • Links to journals increase visibility • Lists of related journals • “live” sitations in articles • Have content worth linking to