Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Relationships between consumption, publication and impact in French universities in a value perspective: a bibliometric analysis

  • Published:
Scientometrics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The study aims to investigate the relationships between consumption of e-journals distributed by Elsevier ScienceDirect platform, publication (articles) and impact (citations) in a sample of 13 French universities, from 2003 to 2009. It adopts a value perspective as it questions whether or not publication activity and impact are some kind of return led by consumption. A bibliometric approach was used to explore the relations between these three variables. The analysis developed indicators inspired by the mathematical h-Index technique. Results show that the relation between consumption, publication and citations depends on the discipline’s profile, the intensity of research and the size of each institution. Moreover, although relations have been observed between the three variables, it is not possible to determine which variable comes first to explain the phenomena. The study concludes by showing strong correlations, which nevertheless do not lead to clear causal relations. The article provide practical implication for academic library managers who want to show the added value of their electronic e-journals collections can replicate the study approach. Also for policy makers who want to take into account e-journals usage as an informative tool to predict the importance of publication activity.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Consortium Unifié des Etablissements Universitaires et de Recherche pour l’Accès aux Publications Numériques (University and Research Institutions’ Unified Consortium for Access to Digital Publications): http://www.couperin.org.

  2. http://scoms.hypotheses.org/293.

  3. https://www.scopus.com.

  4. http://thomsonreuters.com/thomson-reuters-web-of-science/.

  5. Example of the Lyon 1 equation: ((AF-ID(“Universite Claude Bernard Lyon 1” 60023578) OR AF-ID(“Universite de Lyon 1 Faculte de Medecine Alexis Carrel” 60029483))) OR ((AFFIL(«lyon AND 1») OR AFFIL(«lyon1») OR AFFIL(«lyon AND i») OR AFFIL(«lyoni») OR AFFIL(ucbl)) OR ((AFFIL(ucb) OR AFFIL(«claude AND bernard»)) AND AFFIL(lyon))) AND (LIMIT-TO(PUBYEAR, 2007)).

  6. http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexte.do?cidTexte=JORFTEXT000000824315.

  7. http://ulrichsweb.serialssolutions.com.

  8. Qualified by the French acronym UMR (Mixed Research Unit), are places where research from the university and research from organisations like CNRS are associated.

  9. http://mesure.couperin.org.

  10. http://jusp.mimas.ac.uk.

  11. http://epef.anr.free.fr/journee-etude/pdf/epef-rouveyrol.pdf.

References

  • Bador, P., & Lafouge, T. (2005). Rédaction des adresses sur les publications. Un manque de rigueur défavorable aux universités françaises dans les classements internationaux. La Presse Médicale, 34(9), 633–636.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bador, P., & Lafouge, T. (2010). Comparative analysis between impact factor and h-index for pharmacology and psychiatry journals. Scientometrics, 84(1), 65–67.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boukacem-Zeghmouri, C. (2010). Pratiques de consultation des revues électroniques par les enseignants chercheurs: les STM en France. Documentaliste—Sciences de l’Information, 47(2), 4–13.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boukacem-Zeghmouri, C. (2012). Online article searching on publisher platforms by STM French scholars: Findings and analysis. The Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science, 36(3/4), 88–105.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boukacem-Zeghmouri, C., Bador, P., Lafouge, T., Prost, H., Schöpfel, J., & Foncel, J. (2014). Retour sur investissement (ROI) de la consultation des revues électroniques en bibliothèques universitaires françaises: Approches bibliométrique et économétrique. Report of the Elico Research Group.

  • Boukacem-Zeghmouri, C., & Kamga, R. (2008). La consultation de périodiques numériques en bibliothèque universitaire: État des lieux. Bulletin des Bibliothèques de France, 53(3), 48–60.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boukacem-Zeghmouri, C., & Schöpfel, J. (2008). On the usage of e-journals in French universities. Serials, 21(2), 121–126.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boukacem-Zeghmouri, C., & Schöpfel, J. (2013). Beyond the Google generation: Towards community-specific usage patterns of scientific information? In D. Baker & W. Evans (Eds.), Trends, discovery and people in the digital age (pp. 137–151). India: Chandos Publishing.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Braun, T., Glänzel, W., & Schubert, A. (2006). A Hirsch-type index for journals. Scientometrics, 69(1), 169–173.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bucknell, T. (2012). Garbage in, Gospel out: Twelve reasons why librarians should not accept Cost-per-Download figures at face value. The Serials Librarian, 63(2), 192–212.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chadegani, A., Salehi, H., Yunus, M., Farhadi, H., Fooladi, M., Farhadi, M., et al. (2013). A comparison between two main academic literature collections: Web of Science and Scopus Databases. Asian Social Science, 9(5), 18–26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davis, P. M., & Price, J. S. (2006). e-Journal interface can influence usage statistics: Implications for libraries, publishers, and project COUNTER. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 57(9), 1243–1248.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Drouard, F., Petitjean, S., & Schöpfel, J. (2009). Les portails d’information du CNRS. Communication and Langage, 161, 75–92.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hirsch, J. (2005). An index to quantify an individual’s scientific research output. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 102(46), 16569–16572.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jung, Y., Kim, J., & Kim, H. (2013). STM E-Journal use analysis by utilizing KESLI usage statistics consolidation platform. Collnet Journal of Scientometrics and Information Management, 7(2), 205–215.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jung, Y., Kim, J., So, M., & Kim, H. (2015). Statistical relationships between journal use and research output at academic institutions in South Korea. Scientometrics, 103(3), 751–777.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kaufman, P. (2008). The library as strategic investment: Results of the Illinois Return on Investment Study. Liber Quarterly, 18(3–4), 424–436.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ke, H. R., Kwakkelaar, R., & Tai, C. (2002). Exploring behaviour of e-journals users in science and technology: Transaction log analysis of Elsevier’s ScienceDirect OnSite in Taiwan. Library and Information Science Research, 24(2), 265–291.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lauridsen, H. (2010). Library usage statistics and ROI (return on investment). In C. Boukacem-Zeghmouri (Ed.), L’information scientifique et technique dans l’univers numérique: Mesures et Usages (pp. 43–53). Paris: ADBS.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leroy, M. (2011). Universités: Enquête sur le grand chambardement. Editions Autrement Frontières.

  • Lewandowski, D. (2010). Google scholar as a tool for discovering journal articles in library and information science. Online Information Review, 34(2), 250–262.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Luther, J. (2008). University investment in the library: What’s the return? A case study at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. http://libraryconnect.elsevier.com/sites/default/files/lcwp0101.pdf. Accessed 20 February 2015.

  • Nicholas, D., Huntington, P., & Watkinson, A. (2003). Digital journals, big deals and online searching behaviour: A pilot study. Aslib Proceedings, 55(1/2), 84–109.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nicholas, D., Rowlands, I., Jubb, M., & Jamali, H. (2010). The impact of the economic downturn on libraries: With special reference to university libraries. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 36(5), 376–382.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nicholas, D., Rowlands, I., & Williams, P. (2011). e-Journals, researchers and the new librarians. Learned Publishing, 24(1), 15–27.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rin. (2009). e-Journals: Their use, value and impact. http://www.rin.ac.uk/our-work/communicating-and-disseminating-research/e-journals-their-use-value-and-impact. Accessed 17 July 2014.

  • Rin. (2010). If you build it, will they come? How researchers perceive and use web 2.0. http://www.rin.ac.uk/our-work/communicating-and-disseminating-research/use-and-relevance-web-20-researchers. Accessed 20 February 2015.

  • Rin. (2011a). Access to scholarly content: Gaps and barriers. http://www.rin.ac.uk/node/1172. Accessed 17 July 2014.

  • Rin. (2011b). Collaborative yet independent: Information practices in the physical sciences. http://www.iop.org/publications/iop/2012/file_53558.pdf. Accessed 20 February 2015.

  • Rin. (2011c). Reinventing research? Information practices in the humanities. http://www.rin.ac.uk/our-work/using-and-accessing-information-resources/information-use-case-studies-humanities. Accessed 20 February 2015.

  • Rodríguez-Bravo, B., & Alvite-Díez, M. L. (2013). Impact of the consumption of electronic contents on research productivity in the universities of Castile and Leon. Library Collections, Acquisitions, and Technical Services, 37(3–4), 85–106.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Salaün, J. M. (2013). The immeasurable economics of libraries. In I. Rizzo & A. Mignosa (Eds.), Handbook on the economics of cultural heritage (pp. 290–306). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Sidorko, P. E. (2010). Demonstrating ROI in the Library: The Holy Grail continues. Library Management, 31(8–9), 645–653.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tenopir, C. (2011). Beyond usage: Measuring library outcomes and value. Library Management, 33(1–2), 5–13.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tenopir, C., Love, A., Park, J., Wu, L., Baer, A., & Mays R. (2010). University investment in the Library, Phase II: An international Study of the Library’s Value to the Grant Process. http://libraryconnect.elsevier.com/sites/default/files/2010-06-whitepaper-roi2_0.pdf. Accessed 17 July 2014.

  • Tenopir, C., Volentine, R., & King, D. W. (2013). Social media and scholarly reading. Online Information Review, 37(2), 193–216.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Volentine, R., & Tenopir, C. (2013). Value of academic reading and value of the library in academics’ own words. Aslib Proceedings, 65(4), 425–440.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Carol Tenopir, Dave Nicholas and Ian Rowlands for their constructive remarks during the ROI ELICO seminary (http://roi-couperin.sciencesconf.org/). The French National consortium Couperin provided financial support for a national seminary held in Lyon (Idem.), February 21st 2014, during which the ROI Elico study results were communicated for the first time. Elsevier provided financial support and full access Scopus throughout the ROI ELICO Study.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Université de Lyon, 69008, Lyon, France

    Chérifa Boukacem-Zeghmouri, Pascal Bador & Thierry Lafouge

  2. Université Lyon 1, équipe ELICO, 43 Bd. du 11 novembre 1918, 69622, Villeurbanne, France

    Chérifa Boukacem-Zeghmouri, Pascal Bador & Thierry Lafouge

  3. INIST – CNRS, 2, allée du Parc de Brabois, CS 10310, 54519, Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy, France

    Hélène Prost

Authors
  1. Chérifa Boukacem-Zeghmouri
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Pascal Bador
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Thierry Lafouge
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Hélène Prost
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Pascal Bador.

Additional information

Originality: The study is the first French contribution to e-journal value studies. Its originality consists in developing a value viewpoint that relies on a bibliometric approach.

This study is taken from the first French research project named ROI ELICO conducted by Chérifa Boukacem-Zeghmouri. The main study’s objective was to ascertain any evidence of a relationship between digital scholarly journals and research outcomes using a ROI perspective.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Boukacem-Zeghmouri, C., Bador, P., Lafouge, T. et al. Relationships between consumption, publication and impact in French universities in a value perspective: a bibliometric analysis. Scientometrics 106, 263–280 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-015-1779-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-015-1779-z

Keywords

Search

Navigation