Vaughan L., Thelwall M. "Scholarly use of the Web: What are the key inducers of links to journal Web sites? JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 54 (1): 29-38 JAN 1 2003

[Eugene Garfield]

Liwen Vaughan : lvaughan at uwo.ca
Mike Thelwall : m.thelwall at wlv.ac.uk


Title     Scholarly use of the Web: What are the key inducers of
          links to journal Web sites?
Author    Vaughan L, Thelwall M
Journal   JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION
          SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 54 (1): 29-38 JAN 1 2003

 Document type: Article   Language: English
 Cited References: 45     Times Cited: 0


Abstract:
Web links have been studied by information scientists for at least six years
but it is only in the past two that clear evidence has emerged to show that
counts of links to scholarly Web spaces (universities and departments) can
correlate significantly with research measures, giving some credence to
their use for the investigation of scholarly communication. This paper
reports on a study to investigate the factors that influence the creation of
links to journal Web sites. An empirical approach is used: collecting data
and testing for significant patterns. The specific questions addressed are
whether site age and site content are inducers of links to a journal's
Web site as measured by the ratio of link counts to Journal Impact Factors,
two variables previously discovered to be related. A new methodology for
data collection is also introduced that uses the Internet Archive to obtain
an earliest known creation date for Web sites. The results show that both
site age and site content are significant factors for the disciplines
studied: library and information science, and law. Comparisons between the
two fields also show disciplinary differences in Web site characteristics.
Scholars and publishers should be particularly aware that richer content on
a journal's Web site tends to generate links and thus the traffic to the
site.

KeyWords Plus:
IMPACT FACTORS, CITATION ANALYSIS, SEARCH ENGINE, INFORMATION,
COMMUNICATION, WEBOMETRICS, INTERNET, SCIENCE

Addresses:
Vaughan L, Univ Western Ontario, Fac Informat & Media Studies, London, ON
N6A 5B7, Canada
Univ Western Ontario, Fac Informat & Media Studies, London, ON N6A 5B7,
Canada
Wolverhampton Univ, Sch Comp & Informat Technol, Wolverhampton WV1 1EQ,
England

Publisher:
JOHN WILEY & SONS INC, HOBOKEN

IDS Number:
626ZQ

ISSN:
1532-2882

Cited Author            Cited Work                Volume      Page    Year

 *ALT VIST             ALT VIST ADV SEARCH                             2002
 *NORTHL               NORTHL LIGH GEN HELP                            2002
 ADAM D                NATURE                       415       726      2002
 ALMIND TC             J DOC                         53       404      1997
 BARILAN J             SCIENTOMETRICS                50         7      2001
 BJORNEBORN L          SCIENTOMETRICS                50        65      2001
 BRIN S                COMPUT NETWORKS ISDN          30       107      1998
 CHAVEZDEMOULIN VC     WEB ARCHIVES TIME MA                            2000
 CHU H                 IN PRESS J ED LIB IN
 COLE JR               ASIS MONOGRAPH SERIE                   281      2000
 CRONIN B              J INFORM SCI                  27         1      2001
 DAVENPORT E           ASIS MONOGRAPH SERIE                   517      2000
 GARFIELD E            CURRENT CONTENT 0620                            1994
 GOODRUM AA            INFORM PROCESS MANAG          37       661      2001
 HARTER SP             J AM SOC INFORM SCI           51      1159      2000
 HOWELL D              STAT METHODS PSYCHOL                            2002
 INGWERSEN P           J DOC                         54       236      1998
 KIM HJ                J AM SOC INFORM SCI           51       887      2000
 KLING R               J AM SOC INFORM SCI           51      1306      2000
 KLING R               J AM SOC INFORM SCI           50       890      1999
 KOMAN R               WAYBACK MACHINE WORK                            2002
 LARSON RR             BIBLIOMETRICS WORLD                             1999
 LAWRENCE S            NATURE                       411       521      2001
 LAWRENCE S            NATURE                       400       107      1999
 LEYDESDORFF L         CYBERNETICS                              4      2000
 MOED HF               NATURE                       145       731      2002
 ROUSSEAU R            CYBERMETRICS                   2                1998
 ROUSSEAU R            CYBERMETRICS                             1      1997
 SANDVIK H             BRIT MED J                   319        29      1999
 SMITH A               SCIENTOMETRICS                54       363      2002
 SMITH AG              J DOC                         55       577      1999
 SNYDER H              J DOC                         55       375      1999
 SOUALMIA LF           ST HEAL T                     90       178      2002
 SPINK A               J AM SOC INF SCI TEC          53        65      2002
 THELWALL M            IN PRESS J AM SOC IN
 THELWALL M            INTERNET RES                  12       124      2002
 THELWALL M            J AM SOC INF SCI TEC          52      1157      2001
 THELWALL M            J DOC                         58        60      2002
 THELWALL M            J DOC                         57       177      2001
 THELWALL M            J DOC                         56       185      2000
 THELWALL M            RESPONSIVENESS SEARC                            2001
 THOMAS O              J INFORM SCI                  26       421      2000
 VAUGHAN L             ASIST MONOGRAPH SERI                            2001
 VAUGHAN L             IN PRESS ASLIB P
 VAUGHAN L             IN PRESS P ANN C AM                             2002

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_______________________________________________________________________
Eugene Garfield, PhD.  email: garfield at codex.cis.upenn.edu
home page: www.eugenegarfield.org
Tel: 215-243-2205 Fax 215-387-1266
President, The Scientist LLC. www.the-scientist.com
Chairman Emeritus, ISI www.isinet.com
Past President, American Society for Information Science and Technology
(ASIS&T)  www.asis.org
_______________________________________________________________________