Citations and Links as a Measure of Effectiveness of Online LIS Journals

Abstract

Examines the use of citation counts and web links to evaluate online LIS journals. The Journal Impact Factor, a traditional metric for comparing journals, is based on the citation counts of a journal over a specified period of time, compared with the citable articles published in the journal. The Web Impact Factor (WIF) has been proposed as an equivalent metric for websites. The WIF is broadly defined as the ratio of links made to a site, compared to the number of information units (e.g. pages) at the site. The study compares the WIFs of a sample of online LIS journal websites with their conventional citation counts. Links to online journals are often considered to be equivalent to citations, but there are significant differences. Provides indications of how effective the online medium is for communicating LIS research and offers guidance for LIS authors and journal editors to help them make effective use of online journals.