Back in November, I blogged about the disproportionate nature of our e-journal usage, once you break it down by title (if you remember, one single title is responsible for 5% of all of our e-journal hits, while a small European country’s worth of journals are never accessed at all).
While looking at the A-to-Z usage stats some more, I started to notice some other unusual features – not, this time, relating to individual titles, but to the usage of entire packages of journals. (“Packages” for A-to-Z purposes, are things like Academic Search Elite, HeinOnline, SwetsWise, etc.)
Here’s a loverly pie chart:
Starting in the top-right hand corner (coloured light blue), 16% of our e-journal usage can be ascribed to titles from (the EBSCOhost package) Academic Search Elite. No surprise there.
Going clockwise, the next slice (the dark-pink/magenta/purply-brown/mauve/maroon??? one. I don’t do colours! This website calls it “rouge”…) represents the usage of our SwetsWise subscriptions – 13%.
Then, the first surprise: the first ‘exploded’ slice in the bottom right of the chart (cream) represents the usage of the various free or open-access e-journal packages which are listed on the A-to-Z.
12% of all our usage – one eighth – derives from journals which we don’t pay for. Most of this is from journals listed in the EBSCO Open Access Journals package.
Continuing clockwise round the three bottom slices (pale blue, purple, sort-of-peachy), we encounter Business Source Premier (10% of total usage), ScienceDirect (8%), and ABI/INFORM Global (7%).
The next exploded slice (blue) was another surprise to me… this 7% of usage is for the data-collection on the A-to-Z of links to the OPAC for our current print journal subscriptions.
…I’ll let that sink in… one in every fifteen hits on the “Electronic” Journals A-to-Z is actually someone looking for a print journal.
I only really added the current subs data to the A-to-Z as an intellectual exercise, and it’s overdue a review (they are created manually, and of course they go out of date quickly). Perhaps I should be taking it more seriously.
Going up the left-hand edge of the chart are:
- IngentaConnect (4%)
- SPORTDiscus with Full Text (4%)
- Sage Publications (2%)
- Factiva (2%)
- Oxford University Press (2%)
- HeinOnline Law Journals Library (2%)
The Rub’ al-Khali at the top of the chart (11%) is everything else. That’s everything else including Emerald, including JSTOR, and including LexisNexis. Who knew?
Very interesting analysis! Regarding the hits for print journals on OPAC, could it be that users are looking for full text? I know that if I can’t find a full text e-journal, I always select the link for the catalogue to see if we have a print copy.
Lys Ann Reiners
8 Jun 09 at 8:41 am
I suspect so… it would be interesting to look at the print titles which are getting particularly high usage on the A-to-Z, and see if there’s an embargo (or generous backfiles) which might explain it.
Paul Stainthorp
8 Jun 09 at 9:05 am