Articles

Journal Usage Factor – a promising new metric

Authors:

Abstract

The availability of the majority of significant scholarly journals online, combined with increasingly credible COUNTER-compliant online usage statistics, has prompted a study into a possible new, usage-based measure of journal performance: the Journal Usage Factor (JUF). Stage 1 of the JUF project was a survey (covering authors, publishers and librarians) into the feasibility of developing and implementing JUF. Reporting in 2008, it demonstrated not only that the JUF concept is a meaningful one, but also that there is considerable support from the publisher, librarian and research communities for this new metric. Building on the encouraging feedback obtained from these stakeholder groups, Stage 2 of the project has implemented a programme of data modelling and analysis using real publisher usage data from a range of vendors.The outcome of this project is a proposed formula for calculating JUF, together with recommendations for supporting protocols and processes.

  • Year: 2011
  • Volume: 24 Issue: 1
  • Page/Article: 64-68
  • DOI: 10.1629/2464
  • Published on 7 Mar 2011
  • Peer Reviewed