Estimating the Prominence of AHP in Subscribed Online Databases

Abstract

Subscribed online databases (ODB's) have become part of the standard infrastructure of library resources. For students and instructors of higher learning institutions in particular, availability of online access permits users to access the library resources remotely. The main objective of the study was carried out to determine which among the online databases subscribed by a public university library, i.e. International Islamic University Malaysia, contained the specific topics related to Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The five databases used in this study were Scopus, Taylor & Francis, EconLit, Emerald Management Xtra Plus and ProQuest Social Science Journals. By resorting to the original terms supplied by the AHP 2013 conference organizers, the study has obtained validated terminology from the experts and readily overcame issues such as biasness in selecting the search terms. This study accessed the databases on 14 April 2013 from 12.15 a.m. to 2.15 a.m., recorded the results or hits produced by the selected ODB's on the generic sub-theme and also those that were embedded with the acronym, AHP. Comparative hits from generic and AHP specific were computed using ratios to determine comparative availability of selected sub-themes across databases. The ratios were computed by dividing the results of each sub-theme for each ODB over the latter's total. The ratios are considered a convenient standard comparative measure for each sub-theme in each database. By knowing the ratios, one is able to approximate whether there are apparently enough articles about a sub-theme. Computed ratios indicate whether the AHP results are equal to, lower or higher than the general. Equality is reflected by 1.00; if AHP is higher than general then the ratio should be above 1.00, and if below 1.00 should be lower than the general. Results show that