Usage of e-journals in French business schools

Can usage be used for scholars’ evaluation in the construction of smart libraries?

Purpose

With the development of Web2.0 and publishing digitalization, traditional libraries and evaluation citation system can no longer indicate academic paper influence validly. Therefore, it is necessary to construct smart library and find the evaluation effect of Internet metrics-Usage.

Design/methodology/approach

This study puts forward four indexes of scholars’ evaluation based on Usage (total Usage (U), average Usage rate (U/N), hu-index and pu-index), which refer to citation indexes, takes the 35 high-output scholars in the field of library and information science in the WoS database as examples, analyzes performance of different scholars evaluation indexes based on Usage and compares the differences and correlations between “citation indicators” and “usage indicators.”

Findings

This study results show that pu-index is the strongest index to evaluate scholars. Second, there is a high correlation and strong mechanism based on time dependence and interactions between Usage and citation. Third, compared to “citation indicators”, the “usage indicators” has a larger numerical value and wider measurement range, which can break the time limitation of citation, and scientifically evaluate young scholars and newly published paper by scholars.

Originality/value

This paper proposes the pu-index – a relatively superior mathematical model for Usage and provides reference for the scholars’ evaluation policy of the smart library. This model can not only provide fair evaluation conditions for young scientists but also shorten the evaluation effect of the time lag of cited indicators. In addition, the “usage indicators” in this paper are new scientific evaluation indicators generated in the network environment. Applying it to the academic evaluation system will make the research papers widely accepted by the public and will also encourage scientists to follow the development of the Internet age and pursue research with equal emphasis on quantity and quality.

Factors impacting the usage of academic journal articles by PhD students in India

Purpose

This paper aims to underline the factors impacting the usage of academic journal articles by PhD students in Indian universities.

Design/methodology/approach

Following a detailed literature review, the paper bases itself on a grounded theory and provides insights drawn from structured interviews conducted via email with 134 PhD students who were based in public and private universities in India.

Findings

The paper underlines that there are five factors (institutional; task complexity; relevance and application; information quality; and technical) that are responsible for impacting the usage of academic journal articles by PhD students in their scholarly work. Such factors are linked with resource constraints faced by universities, lack of motivation on the part of teachers and students, non-availability of an electronic library, etc.

Originality/value

The present study is a major contribution to the extant literature on the usage of academic journal articles for pursuing scholarly activities.