Scholarly impact measurements of LIS open access journals: based on citations and links
Shunbo Yuan, Weina Hua · The Electronic Library · 2011
Purpose The main purpose of this paper is to measure the scholarly impact of LIS (Library and Information Science) open access journals (OA journals), most of which are not indexed by the Web of Science (WoS). In addition, the paper seeks to discuss measurement methods beyond citation analysis. Design/methodology/approach The study selected 97 LIS OA journals as a sample and measured their scholarly impact on the basis of citations and links. The citation counts in WoS, coverage in LISA, Web links, WIFs and Page Rank of the journals are retrieved and calculated, and correlations between citation counts, links, pages, WIFs, and Page Rank are also analyzed. Findings The results indicate that LIS OA journals have become a significant component of the scholarly communication system. TheJournal of the Medical Library Associationenjoys the highest citation counts in WoS. This journal, together withD‐Lib Magazine,Information Research,Ariadne, Cybermetrics, andFirst Mondayare the six most important LIS OA journals. With regard to coverage in LISA,Bulletin des Bibliothèques de France(2151) performs best. As a whole, the Page Rank is relatively high, mostly at 6, 7, or 8. The study finds that correlation between citation‐based measurements and link‐based measurements tends to be significant. Originality/value This paper uses the web as a global resource to measure the impact of LIS OA journals by analyzing citation, coverage, web links and Page Rank. The focus of this study is the value of the web as a source of impact indices, rather different from the traditional research methods. It contributes to the scholarly impact measurements of OA journals.