E-Journals and Citation Patterns

Abstract

Librarians have tried for decades to measure the use of serial collections, and while the advent of electronic journals has opened up new avenues for measuring use, many vendor-supplied usage statistics are unsatisfactory. Describes how two Yale University librarians tried another approach by conducting a citation analysis to compare usage before and after the arrival of e-journals. Addresses the basic question of whether the purchase of e-journals not previously held in print affected citation patterns of Yale authors.