McKibbon, KA; Haynes, RB; McKinlay, RJ; Lokker, C "Which journals do primary care physicians and specialists access from an online service?" Journal of the Medical Library Association 95(3): 246-254 July 2007

[Eugene Garfield]

E-mail Addresses: mckib at mcmaster.ca, bhaynes at mcmaster.ca, 
mckinlj at mcmaster.ca, lokkerc at mcmaster.ca 

TITLE:          Which journals do primary care physicians and specialists
                access from an online service? (Article, English)
AUTHOR:         McKibbon, KA; Haynes, RB; McKinlay, RJ; Lokker, C
SOURCE:         JOURNAL OF THE MEDICAL LIBRARY ASSOCIATION 95 (3). JUL
                2007. p.246-254 MEDICAL LIBRARY ASSOC, CHICAGO

 
Document Type: Article 
Language: English 
Cited References: 23      Times Cited: 0      
  
Abstract: 
Objective: The study sought to determine which online journals primary care 
physicians and specialists not affiliated with an academic medical center 
access and how the accesses correlate with measures of journal quality and 
importance. 
Methods: Observational study of full-text accesses made during an eighteen-
month digital library trial was performed. Access counts were correlated 
with six methods composed of nine measures for assessing journal 
importance: ISI impact factors; number of high-quality articles identified 
during hand-searches of key clinical journals; production data for ACP 
journal Club, InfoPOEMs, and Evidence-Based Medicine; and mean clinician-
provided clinical relevance and newsworthiness scores for individual 
journal titles.

Results: Full-text journals were accessed 2,322 times by 87 of 105 
physicians. Participants accessed 136 of 348 available journal titles. 
Physicians often selected journals with relatively higher numbers of 
articles abstracted in ACP journal Club. Accesses also showed significant 
correlations with 6 other measures of quality. Specialists' access patterns 
correlated with 3 measures, with weaker correlations than for primary care 
physicians.

Conclusions: Primary care physicians, more so than specialists, chose full-
text articles from clinical journals deemed important by several measures 
of value. Most journals accessed by both groups were of high quality as 
measured by this study's methods for assessing journal importance.


Addresses: McKibbon KA (reprint author), McMaster Univ, Fac Hlth Sci, Hlth 
Informat Res Unit, Dept Clin Epidemiol & Biostat, 1200 Main St W, Hamilton, 
ON L8N 3Z5 Canada
McMaster Univ, Fac Hlth Sci, Hlth Informat Res Unit, Dept Clin Epidemiol & 
Biostat, Hamilton, ON L8N 3Z5 Canada
McMaster Univ, Fac Hlth Sci, Dept Med, Hamilton, ON L8N 3Z5 Canada

E-mail Addresses: mckib at mcmaster.ca, bhaynes at mcmaster.ca, 
mckinlj at mcmaster.ca, lokkerc at mcmaster.ca 
Publisher: MEDICAL LIBRARY ASSOC, 65 EAST WACKER PLACE, STE 1900, CHICAGO, 
IL 60601-7298 USA 
Subject Category: Information Science & Library Science 
IDS Number: 187KU 

ISSN: 1536-5050 

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