Home | Browse | Search | Credits | About
Register | User Area | DL-Harvest | Help
DLIST

Assessing the Value of a Journal Beyond the Impact Factor: Journal of Education for Library and Information Science

Coleman, Anita Sundaram (2006) Assessing the Value of a Journal Beyond the Impact Factor: Journal of Education for Library and Information Science.

Full text available as:
PDF - Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader or other PDF viewer.

Abstract

This is a preprint of a paper published in the Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology volume 58, issue 8, pages 1148-161, June 2007. The well-documented limitations of journal impact factor rankings and perceptual ratings, the evolving scholarly communication system, the open access movement, and increasing globalization are some reasons that prompted an examination of journal value rather than just impact. Using a single specialized journal established in 1960, about education for the Information professions, this paper discusses the fall from citation grace of the Journal of Education for Library and Information Science (JELIS) in terms of impact factor and declining subscriptions. Journal evaluation studies in Library and Information Science based on subjective ratings are used to show the high rank of JELIS during the same period (1984-2004) and explain why impact factors and perceptual ratings either singly or jointly are inadequate measures for understanding the value of specialized, scholarly journals such as JELIS. This case study was also a search for bibliometric measures of journal value. Three measures, namely journal attraction power, author associativity, and journal consumption power, were selected; two of them were re-defined as journal measures of affinity (the proportion of foreign authors), associativity (the amount of collaboration), and calculated as objective indicators of journal value. Affinity and associativity for JELIS calculated for 1984, 1994, 2004 and consumption calculated for 1985 and 1994 show a holding pattern but also reveal interesting dimensions for future study. A multi-dimensional concept of value should be further investigated wherein costs, benefits, and measures for informative and scientific value are clearly distinguished for the development of a fuller model of journal value.

EPrint Type:Preprint
Subjects:Scholarly Communication
ID Code:1030
Deposited On:20 January 2006
Eprint Statistics:View statistics for this eprint
Tell A Colleague:Tell a colleague about it.

Ackerson, L. G. and Chapman, K. (2003). Identifying the Role of Multidisciplinary Journals in Scientific Research. College & Research Libraries 64(6): 468-478.

Arunachalam, S. (2000a). International collaboration in Science: The Case of India and China. In The Web of Knowledge: A Festschrift in Honor of Eugene Garfield. B. Cronin and H.B. Atkins, Editors. Medford, New Jersey, Information Today. p. 215-232.

Arunachalam, S. and Doss, J. M. (2000) Mapping international collaboration in science in Asia through coauthorship analysis. Current Science 79(5):pp.621-628.

Arvanitis, R. and Chatelin, Y. (1988). National scientific strategies in tropical soil sciences. Social Studies of Science, 18: 113-146.

Berry, D. (1976). Preservation of open space and the concept of value. The American Journal of Economics and Sociology 35 (2): 113-124.

Blake, V.L.P. (1996). The perceived prestige of professional journals, 1995: A replication of the Kohl-Davis study. Education for Information 14 (3): 157-170.

Chatelin, Y. and Arvanitis. (1992). Representing scientific activity by structural indicators: The Case of Cote d’Ivoire 1884-1968. Scientometrics 23: 235-247.

Case, M. (1999). Measuring the cost effectiveness of journals. The Wisconsin Experience. ARL Bimonthly Report 205. Available http://www.arl.org/newsltr/205/wisconsin.html.

Christ, J. M. (1972). Concepts and subject headings: Their relation in information retrieval and library science. Metuchen, N.J. Scarecrow Press.

Christensen, J. A. and Siegelman, L. (1985). Accrediting knowledge: journal stature and citation impact in social science. Social Science Quarterly 66:964-75,

Cole, S. and Cole, J.R. (1973). Social stratification in science. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Cole, S. (2000). The Roe of Journals in the Growth of Knowledge. In The Web of Knowledge: A Festschrift in Honor of Eugene Garfield. B. Cronin and H.B. Atkins, Editors. Medford, New Jersey, Information Today. p. 109-142.

Cole, J.R. (2000). A Short History of the Use of Citations as a Measure of the Impact of Scientific and Scholarly Work. In The Web of Knowledge: A Festschrift in Honor of Eugene Garfield. B. Cronin and H.B. Atkins, Editors. Medford, New Jersey, Information Today. p. 281-300

Coughlin, Berry and Plaut. (1978). Differential assessment of real property as an incentive to open space preservation and farm retention. National Tax Journal. 31(2): 165–179.

Create Change. (2000). Scholars have lost control. Available http://www.createchange.org/faculty/issues/scholars.html.

Cresswell, J. W. (1998). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five traditions. Thousand Oaks, Sage.

Davis, Donald G. (1974). The Association of American Library Schools, 1915-1968: An Analytical History. Metuchen, New Jersey: Scarecrow Press.

Davis, Donald G. (2004). The history of the AALS. Unpublished presentation at ALISE Annual Conference, 2005.

Diodato, V. (1994). Dictionary of Bibliometrics. New York, Haworth Press.

DLIST. (2006). Digital library of information science and technology. http://dlist.sir.arizona.edu/.

Doreian, P. (1989). On the ranking of psychology journals. Information Processing & Management 25 (2): 205-214.

Esteibar, Altuna B., and Lancaster, W.F. (1992). Ranking of journals in library and information science by research and teaching relatedness. The Serials Librarian, 23: 1-10.

Garfield, E. (1972). Citation analysis as a tool in journal evaluation. Science 178: 471-479.

Garfield, E. (1974a). Journal Citation Studies. XVII. Journal Citation Rates – There’s a Difference. In Current Contents 52, p. 5-7. Available, http://www.garfield.library.upenn.edu/essays/v2p192y1974-76.pdf

Garfield, E. (1974b). Russian journal references and citations in the Science Citation Index databank. Available http://www.garfield.library.upenn.edu/papers/244.html

Garfield, E. (1990). How ISI selects journals for coverage: Quantitative and qualititative considerations. Current Contents, 22, 5-13.

Garfield, E. (1994). The Impact Factor. Available, http://scientific.thomson.com/knowtrend/essays/journalcitationreports/impactfactor/

Garfield, E. and Sher, I.H. (1963). New factors in the evaluation of scientific literature through citation indexing. American Documentation 14 (3): 195- Retrieved through ABI/Inform [subscription database]

Glanzel, T. and Moed, H. (2002). Journal impact measures in bibliometric research. Scientometrics 53 (2): 171-193.

Hitlin, S. and Piliavin, J. A. (2004). Values: Reviving a dormant concept. Annual Review of Sociology. Retrieved through Annual Reviews, a subscription database.

Horrocks, N. [n.d]. Journal of Education for Librarianship. In Encyclopedia for Library and Information Science, Vol. 13. pp. 320-323. New York: Marcel Dekker.

ISWORLD (2005). MIS Journal Rankings. http://www.isworld.org/csaunders/rankings.htm

JELIS. (2005). Submission Guidelines. Available online. http://www.alise.org/publications/jelis_submission_guidelines.html

Joyce, R. (2005). Personal email communication between Ryan Joyce, ISI Editor and author dated May 17, 2005.

Kim, M. T. (1991). Ranking of journals in library and information science: A comparison of perceptual and citation-based measures. College and Research Libraries 52: 24-37.

Kim, M.T. (1992). A comparison of three measures of journal status: influence weight, importance index, and measure of standing. Library and Information Science Research 14: 75-96.

Kohl, D. and Davis, C. (1985). Ratings of journals by ARL Library Directors and Deans of Library and Information Science Schools. College & Research Libraries 46 (1): 40-47.

Krishnan, C.N.V. and Bricker, R. Top finance journals; do they add value? Journal of Economics and Finance 28 (3) Fall: 361-378.

Lehnus, D. J. (1991). JEL, 1960-1970: An Analytical study. Journal of Education for Librarianship 12 (Fall): 71-88.

Lipe, W. D. (1984). Value and meaning in cultural resources. In: H.Cleere (ed) Approaches to the Archaeological Heritage, pp. 1-11. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Mathiesen, et al. 2004. Evaluation of Social Work Journal Quality: Citation versus Reputation Approaches. Journal of Social Work Education 40 (1) Winter 2004, pp.143-160.

McGrath, W.E. (1987). Ratings and rankings: multiple comparisons of mean ratings. College & Research Libraries 48: 169-172

McVeigh, M. (2004a). Open Access Journals in the ISI Citation Databases: Analysis of Impact Factors and Citation Patterns. Available: http://www.isinet.com/media/presentrep/acropdf/impact-oa-journals.pdf.

McVeigh, M. (2004b). Journal self-citation in the JCR – Science Edition 2002: Available http://www.thomsonisi.com/media/presentrep/essayspdf/selfcitationsinjcr.pdf

Moed, H.F. and Th.N. van Leeuwen (1995). Improving the accuracy of the Institute for Scientific Information’s Journal Impact Factors. Journal of the American Society for Information Science 46, 461-467.

Moed, H.F. and Th.N. van Leeuwen (1996). Impact Factors Can Mislead. Nature 381, 186.

Moed, H.F. (2002). The impact factors debate: the ISI's uses and limits. Nature 415, 731-732.

Moed, H. F. (2005). Citation analysis of scientific journals and journal impact measures. Current Science 89 (12): 1990-1996.

Nisonger, T. E. (1999). JASIS and Library and Information Science Journal Rankings: A Review and Analysis of the Last Half-Century. Journal of the American Society for Information Science 50(11): 1004-1019.

Nisonger, T. E. and Davis, C. (2005). The Perception of library and information science journals by LIS education deans and ARL library directors: A Replication of the Kohl-Davis study. College & Research Libraries, 66 (4): 341-377.

Opcit Bibliography. (2005). Effect of open access and downloads ('hits'): a bibliography of studies. Available: http://opcit.eprints.org/oacitation-biblio.html

Patterson, C. D. (1985). An Assessment of the status of the journal. Journal of Education for Library and Information Science 25 (1): 301-312.

Pinski, G. and Narin, F. Citation influence for journal aggregates of scientific publications. Information Processing & Management 12 (5): 297-312.

Rainier, K. and Miller, M. 2005. Examining differences across journal rankings. Communications of the ACM 48 (2), 91-93.

Richardson, J.V. (2000). LIS journal response to globalization: an analytical study of leading and international journals. Proceedings of the 66th IFLA Council and General Conference, Jerusalem, Israel, 13-18 August, 2000.

Rotten, J, Levitt, M. and Foos, P. (1998). Citation impact, rejection rates, and journal value. American Psychologist, 48:911-912.

Rousseau, R. (1988). Citation Distribution of Pure Mathematics Journals. In Informetrics 87/88. Edited by L. Egghe and R. Rousseau. Amsterdam, Elsevier. p. 249-261.

Rousseau, R. (2002). Journal evaluation: Technical and practical issues. Library Trends, 50 (3): 418-439.

Saha, S; Saint, S; Christakis, D A. (2003). Impact factor: a valid measure of journal quality? Journal of the Medical Library Association 91 (1): 42-6

Salancik, G. R. (1986). An index of subgroup influence in dependency networks. Administrative ScienceQuarterly, 31, 194-211.

Schrader, A.M. (1985a). A bibliometric study of the JEL, 1960-1984. Journal of Education for Library and Information Science 25: 279-300.

Schrader, A. M. (1985b). A bibliometric study of the JEL, 1960-1984. Full Report. ED 262785. ERIC.

Seglen, P. (1997). Why the impact factor should not used for evaluating research. BMJ: 314-417.

Smart and Elton. (1981). Structural characterisitics and citation rates of educational journals. American Education Research Journal 18 (4): 399-413.

Smith, Linda C. (1981). Citation analysis. Library Trends 30: 83-106.

Stark, D. (2000). For a sociology of worth. Center for Organizational Innovation Working Paper, Columbia University, New York.

Stegmann J. (1999). Building a list of journals with constructed impact factors. Journal of Documentation 55(3): 310-324.

Tenopir, C, and King, D.W. (1998). Designing Electronic Journals with 30 years of lessons from print. The Journal of Electronic Publishing 4 (2). Available http://www.press.umich.edu/jep/04-02/king.html.

Theoharakis, V. and Hirst, A. (2002). Perceptual differences of marketing journals: A Worldwide perspective. Marketing Letters 13 (4): 380-402.

Testa, J. (1998). The ISI database: The Journal Selection Process. Available online. http://cs.nju.edu.cn/~gchen/isi/help/HowToSelectJournals.html

Tjoumas, R. and Blake, V.L.P. (1992). Faculty perceptions of the professional journal literature: quo vadis? Journal of Education for Library and Information Science 33 (3): 173-194.

Todorov, R. and Glanzel, W. (1988). Journal citation measures: A concise review. Journal of Information Science 14: 47-56.

utility and value. (2005). Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved December 21, 2005, from Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service. http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?tocId=9106204

van Leeuwen, Th. N. and Moed, H.F. (2005). Characteristics of journal impact factors: the effects of uncitedness and and citation distribution on the understanding of journal impact factors. Scientometrics 63 (2) April: 357-371.

van Raan, A.F.J. M.S. Visser, Th.N. van Leeuwen, and E. van Wijk (2003). Bibliometric analysis of Psychotherapy Research: Performance assessment and position in the journal landscape. Psychotherapy Research 13(4), 511-528.

Windsor, D.A. and Windsor, D. M. (1973). Citation of the literature by information scientists in their own publications. Journal of the American Society for Information Science 24 Sept/Oct.: 377-381.

Winger, H. W. AALS Publishing in the 50s: Predecessors of JEL. Journal of Education for Library and Information Science. 25 (4): 245-261.

Wyly, B. (1998). Competition in publishing; What publishing profits reveal. ARL Bimonthly, 200 (October). Available online, http://www.arl.org/newsltr/200/wyly.html.

Yanovksy, V.I. (1981). Citation analysis significance of scientific journals. Scientometrics 3: 223-233.

Yue, W. and Wilson, C. S. (2005). An integrated approach for the analysis of factors affecting journal citation impact in clinical neurology. Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (41), 1: 527 – 536.

Zwemer, R. L. (1970). Identification of journal characteristics useful in improving input and output of a retrieval system. Federation Proceedings 29, 1595-1604.

EPrints dLIST, an open access archive for the Information Sciences, is supported by the School of Information Resources and Library Science and Learning Technologies Center, University of Arizona. Established in 2002, dLIST has a global Advisory Board and is a part of the Information Technology & Society Research Lab. Open Archives
Contact: Admin | Donate