The impact of better access to scientific journals on the quality of research work: The case of a small university
Journal of Librarianship and Information Science
Published online on September 06, 2016
Abstract
Linking a publication with scientific research results and the use of information resources is a key component of the collection, development and assessment of an academic library. Librarians often use quantitative data, but it is not easy to come by. Directly connecting library and information services to the impact they have can be quite difficult. Focusing on the 2010–2014 period, we have linked the quality and quantity of published papers to usage statistics for the newly acquired consortia access to scholarly journals in three international publisher databases: ScienceDirect, SpringerLink and WileyOnline. We found that the share of scholarly journals from the ScienceDirect, SpringerLink and WileyOnline consortia cited by University of Primorska researchers’ in their scholarly papers has gradually increased every year, ranging from 13.5% in 2010 up to 24.8% in 2014. The share of scholarly papers published by University of Primorska researchers’ in scholarly journals with the highest impact (measured in Web of Science and Scopus) has also increased substantially, from 18.03% in 2011 to 31.55% in 2014. Study shows that better access to quality information resources for scientific researchers lead to an increase in its use and results in higher quality research shown by the gradual increase of publications of research results in higher impact scholarly journals.