Usage and Impact Factor Correlations in Electronic Journals

Abstract

This research explores the level of correlation between electronic journal usage and ISI Impact Factors that may justify Impact Factors to be used as a collection management tool. The study utilised ISI's Journal Use Report and Journal Citation Reports to gather data in the areas of History, Linguistics, Political Science, Environmental Science, Mathematics, Physics (Applied), Economics, Information Science & Library Science, Management and Law. A slight positive correlation was found for several disciplines with two disciplines displaying a small negative correlation. The study concluded that the levels of correlation were not significant enough to enable ISI Impact Factors to be used in isolation as an effective collection management decision-making tool. Several issues were identified as possible factors in the level of correlation found: articles downloaded and not used, the limited number of titles subscribed to by VUW, the lack of New Zealand and Australasian titles, the interdisciplinary nature or limited focus of some titles and the research and teaching focus of VUW. The study concludes that Impact Factors may be of use as an evaluation tool for academic libraries, but that they should be used in combination with a number of other factors discussed. A number of areas for further research are also identified.