Article,
The feasibility of developing and implementing journal usage factors: a research project sponsored by UKSG.
Serials, 20 (2): 117 - 123 (2007)
Abstract
ISI's journal impact factors (IFs), based on citation data, have become generally accepted as a valid measure of the quality of scholarly journals, and are widely used by publishers, authors, funding agencies and librarians as measures of journal quality. There are, nevertheless, misgivings about an over-reliance on impact factor alone in this respect and there is growing interest in the development of usage-based alternatives to citation-based measures of journal performance. Against this background, the United Kingdom Serials Group (UKSG) thought it would be timely to sponsor a study to investigate the feasibility of journal usage factors. This article describes the aims of the study, the results obtained and the conclusions drawn. There appears to be significant support, even among established publishers whose journals perform well in impact factor rankings, for the development and implementation of journal usage factors. ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR Copyright of Serials is the property of
