Garbage In, Gospel Out: Twelve Reasons Why Librarians Should Not Accept Cost-per-Download Figures at Face Value

Bucknell, Terry

doi:10.1080/0361526x.2012.680687

Cited by 28 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Journals missing one or more variables in the statistical model were excluded from the study (e.g., Journal Report 1 [JR1] was unavailable). Journals that changed publishers or platforms mid-year were also excluded from the analysis, as these changes can cause significant variation in usage (Bucknell, 2012). A total of 356 journal titles were considered for inclusion in this study; JR1 reporting was unavailable for 21 journal titles, Journal Impact Factor (JIF) was unavailable for 41 journal titles, and 3 journal titles changed publishers or platforms over the course of the year.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Connecting Users to Articles: An Analysis of the Impact of Article Level Linking on Journal Use Statistics

Swab¹

2019

EBLIP

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Abstract Objective – Electronic resource management challenges and “big deal” cancellations at one Canadian university library contributed to a situation where a number of electronic journal subscriptions at the university’s health sciences library lacked article level linking. The aim of this study was to compare the usage of journals with article level linking enabled to journals where only journal level linking was available or enabled. Methods – A list of electronic journal title subscriptions was generated from vendor and subscription agent invoices. Journal titles were eligible for inclusion if the subscription was available throughout 2018 on the publisher’s platform, if the subscription costs were fully funded by the health sciences library, and if management of the subscription required title-by-title intervention by library staff. Of the 356 journal titles considered, 302 were included in the study. Negative binomial regression was performed to determine the effect of journal vs. article level linking on total COUNTER Journal Report 1 (JR1) successful full-text article requests for 2018, controlling for journal publisher, subject area, journal ranking, and alternate aggregator access. Results – The negative binomial regression model demonstrated that article level linking had a significant, positive effect on total 2018 JR1 (coef: 0.645; p < 0.001). Article level linking increased the expected total JR1 by 90.7% when compared to journals where article level linking was not available or enabled. Differences in predicted usage between journals with article level linking and those without article level linking remained significant at various journal ranking levels. This suggests that usage of both smaller, more specialized journals (e.g., Journal of Vascular Research) and larger, general journals (e.g., New England Journal of Medicine) increases when article level linking is enabled. Conclusions – This study provides statistical evidence that enabling article level linking has a positive impact on journal usage at one academic health sciences library. Although further study is needed, academic libraries should consider enabling article level linking wherever possible in order to facilitate user access, maximize the value of journal subscriptions, and improve convenience for users.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…COUNTER Release 4 usage reports for January 1 through December 31, 2018 were obtained for all included journal titles. Usage reports were examined for usage spikes and other indications of potential misuse (Bucknell, 2012). No indications of misuse were observed.…”

Section: Dependent Variable: Total Jr1 For 2018mentioning

confidence: 99%

Connecting Users to Articles: An Analysis of the Impact of Article Level Linking on Journal Use Statistics

Swab¹

2019

EBLIP

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“…Download statistics are heavily relied upon by the profession but continue to be problematic in many ways. 3 The question of their relation to actual value remains unanswered, and comparison with interlibrary loan data illuminates that relationship. Unfortunately, it is only possible when titles have been cancelled or otherwise lost.…”

Section: Southern Illinois University Carbondalementioning

confidence: 99%

Leaving the “Big Deal” … Five Years Later

Nabe

Fowler

2015

The Serials Librarian

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“…However it is important that they are used responsibly and that those librarians who work most closely with them are aware of their limitations…" Site design can cause increased usage statistics when both HTML and PDF uses are counted for a single transaction. Among the reasons for usage statistics being inconsistent across or within packages are: platform design not being comparable, years of journal content differing for titles, subject disciplines having unequal usage trends, short articles being preferred over long articles, usage spikes stemming from class assignments, publisher changes and title changes breaking up a journal's usage figures, combined subscriptions lowering the apparent cost for all journals in a group, hybrid journals with higher usage figures due to occasional open access articles, aggregator platforms siphoning off usage from direct subscriptions, cost variance over the years needing to be calculated, and statistical fluctuation related to abnormally high use of themed issues (Bucknell, 2012). Nabe issued a similar caveat that "…download statistics are not an accurate indicator of demand."…”

Section: Review Of the Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

The Big Deal, Interlibrary Loan, and Building the User-Centered Journal Collection: A Case Study

2014

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Finding the right balance between ownership of journals and access to the content of nonowned journal articles is a challenge to all research libraries coping with static budgets and increasing subscription costs. The Iowa State University (ISU) Library has implemented an evaluation model utilizing both cost-per-use data and interlibrary loan (ILL) cost figures to determine the overall cost benefit of two Big Deals, ultimately leading to the breakup of both. Interlibrary loan cost thresholds were utilized to subscribe to journals on an individual basis. Funds saved from the breakups were applied to the addition of new subscriptions identified as in high demand by interlibrary loan requests from the Iowa State University community. The use of interlibrary loan cost and use data was an important component in breaking up both Big Deals and adjusting the journal collection to be more in tune with user demand and contributing to a continued drop in demand for ILL service. Finding the right balance between ownership of journals and access to the content of non-owned journal articles is a challenge to all research libraries coping with static budgets and increasing subscription costs. The Iowa State University Library has implemented an evaluation model utilizing both cost per use data and interlibrary loan cost figures to determine the overall cost benefit of two Big Deals, ultimately leading to the breakup of both. Interlibrary loan cost thresholds were utilized to subscribe to journals on an individual basis. Funds saved from the breakups were applied to the addition of new subscriptions identified as in high demand by interlibrary loan requests from the Iowa State University community. The use of interlibrary loan cost and use data was an important component in breaking up both Big Deals and adjusting the journal collection to be more in tune with user demand and contributing to a continued drop in demand for ILL service.

show abstract

Garbage In, Gospel Out: Twelve Reasons Why Librarians Should Not Accept Cost-per-Download Figures at Face Value

Cited by 28 publications

References 7 publications

Connecting Users to Articles: An Analysis of the Impact of Article Level Linking on Journal Use Statistics

Connecting Users to Articles: An Analysis of the Impact of Article Level Linking on Journal Use Statistics

Leaving the “Big Deal” … Five Years Later

The Big Deal, Interlibrary Loan, and Building the User-Centered Journal Collection: A Case Study

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