Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Abstract
A case study of association between usage of online journals and their impact factors was conducted for the subscribed journals of the Health Sciences Library of Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal. The publisher-generated usage statistics were collected and tabulated for the period 2010-2015. The full text usage was considered as the criteria for identification of the extent of usage of online journals from different publishers. The Journal Impact Factor (JIF) of these journals were retrieved in 2015 from Journal Citation Report to check whether association existed between the most used and the least used journals with their impact factor. The study identified two lists of journals, the most used and the least used journals, from among the subscribed online journals through the usage analysis. ‘Mann Whitney U test’ was performed to check the association between the usage of online journals and their impact factors. It was observed that there is a statistically significant difference (p<0.001) in the impact factors of the most used journals and the least used journals, which indicated that an association existed between the IFs and the usage. The application of the outcome measures of the study provide a benchmark for the online journal collection for the libraries that explore the usage of its online resources. Study also propositions the means for increasing the usage of subscribed online journals.