eCommons

 

Do discounted journal access programs help researchers in sub-Saharan Africa? A bibliometric analysis

dc.contributor.authorDavis, Philip M.
dc.date.accessioned2011-09-23T00:40:43Z
dc.date.available2011-09-23T00:40:43Z
dc.date.issued2011-10
dc.description.abstractPrior research has suggested that providing free and discounted access to the scientific literature to researchers in low-income countries increases article production and citation. Using traditional bibliometric indicators for institutions in sub-Saharan Africa, we analyze whether institutional access to TEEAL (a digital collection of journal articles in agriculture and allied subjects) increases: 1) article production; 2) reference length; and 3) number of citations to journals included in the TEEAL collection. Our analysis is based on nearly 20,000 articles—containing half a million references—published between 1988 and 2009 at 70 institutions in 11 African countries. We report that access to TEEAL does not appear to result in higher article production, although it does lead to longer reference lists (an additional 2.6 references per paper) and a greater frequency of citations to TEEAL journals (an additional 0.4 references per paper), compared to non-subscribing institutions. We discuss how traditional bibliometric indicators may not provide a full picture of the effectiveness of free and discounted literature programs.en_US
dc.identifier.citationLearned Publishing, Volume 24, Number 4, October 2011 , pp. 287-298en_US
dc.identifier.otherhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1087/20110406
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1813/23627
dc.language.isoen_USen_US
dc.publisherALPSPen_US
dc.relation.hasversionPublished version available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1087/20110406en_US
dc.subjectsub-Saharan Africaen_US
dc.subjectlibrariesen_US
dc.subjectinformation transferen_US
dc.subjectcitation analysisen_US
dc.titleDo discounted journal access programs help researchers in sub-Saharan Africa? A bibliometric analysisen_US
dc.typearticleen_US

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Name:
discounted-journal-access-study.pdf
Size:
271.82 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
final author manuscript