Scholarly communication in the age of Google. Exploring academics’ use patterns of e-journals at the University of the Punjab
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/EL-09-2015-0171 |
| Pages | 167-184 |
| Published date | 06 February 2017 |
| Date | 06 February 2017 |
| Author | Alia Arshad,Kanwal Ameen |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information & communications technology,Internet |
Scholarly communication
in the age of Google
Exploring academics’ use patterns of
e-journals at the University of the Punjab
Alia Arshad and Kanwal Ameen
Department of Information Management, University of the Punjab,
Lahore, Pakistan
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this study is to investigate the use patterns of scholarly e-journals by academics
for teaching, research and keeping themselves up-to-date. The study also looks at differences in the use
patterns across 12 disciplines.
Design/methodology/approach –A survey was conducted to explore academics’ use patterns of
scholarly e-journals in 12 disciplines. The University of the Punjab was used for the sample population.
Self-administered questionnaires were distributed to all regular and contractual academics of Lahore
campuses of the University. After follow up, 457 questionnaires were received with a response rate of 54 per
cent. Descriptive statistics and non-parametric statistics were used to analyse data.
Findings –The results showed that the academics made more frequent use of e-journals, online reference
sources and discussion with colleagues for scholarly activities. E-journals were used predominantly for
research-related activities rather than for teaching and instruction. Academics obtained e-journal articles
primarily from open access sources, i.e. general search engines and Google Scholar as compared to subscribed
and other sources of e-journal articles. Disciplinary differences were also found in academics’ use patterns of
e-journals. However, academics showed just satisfactory skills regarding use of advanced searching
techniques and evaluation of the quality of e-journals.
Practical implications –Findings will be helpful for information professionals to review their policies
and practices in relation to e-journal services for academic community. The needs for e-literacy skills to use
e-journals will also be identied and ndings will be signicant for information professionals in arranging
information literacy instruction programmes for targeted disciplines.
Originality/value –Most of e-journals use studies focused on specic disciplines – Sciences, Life Sciences,
Engineering and Technology and Social Sciences. This research study is valuable that investigated use
patterns of e-journals across 12 different disciplines at the University of the Punjab.
Keywords E-journals, Open access journals, Scholarly communications, Academics,
Higher education commission’s national digital library programme, University of the Punjab,
Use patterns
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Traditional print journals occupied physical library space until the late twentieth century
and remain permanent sources of information even today. However, the scenario has
changed in the twenty-rst century from procurement of print journals to mainly e-format
only. Libraries are acquiring e-journals to save space and to provide users 24/7 online access.
Scholarly communications have undergone signicant transformation as a result of an
emerging digital environment. Heath (2009, p. 312) stated that:
Over the past decade, there has been a fundamental shift in the information-seeking behaviours of
scholars. Today, online journals and other digital resources increasingly constitute the research tool
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0264-0473.htm
Use patterns of
e-journals
167
Received 9 September 2015
Revised 25 January 2016
Accepted 30 March 2016
TheElectronic Library
Vol.35 No. 1, 2017
pp.167-184
©Emerald Publishing Limited
0264-0473
DOI 10.1108/EL-09-2015-0171
of choice for faculty, especially in the sciences. Print back les of signicant journal titles, relegated
to remote storage centres, languish as scholars are increasingly comfortable with electronic
counterpart versions that can be delivered directly to the scholar’s own electronic desktop.
E-journals constitute a vital component of scholarly communications, and relevant literature
reveals a growing trend of usage of e-journals and databases by students, researchers and
academia for their scholarly activities. Researchers found that the preferred format for users
to access journals was electronic. The acceptance of e-journals has gradually increased
especially among students, researchers and faculty (Bar-Ilan et al., 2003;Borrego et al., 2007;
Nicholas and Huntington, 2006;Tenopir, 2003). E-journals have become vital for academics’
research and other activities: “academic journals have become central to all disciplines and
[…] the e-form is the prime means of access” (Nicholas et al., 2010). The information-seeking
and reading patterns of academic researchers have been tracked to examine the ways faculty
members locate, obtain, read and use scholarly e-journal articles (King et al., 2003;Nicholas
et al., 2010;Tenopir and King, 2008). Reasons for both use and non-use of e-journals and
databases were explored by Talja and Maula (2003) in four scholarly disciplines.
Preferences regarding the availability and accessibility of e-journals were explored by
Dutch researchers (Voorbij and Ongering, 2006): their interviewees stated that, “accessibility
twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week from their desktop was the key to the success
of electronic journals”. An investigation of the social scientists’ use of scholarly e-journals in
Taiwan (Wang, 2010) found that they relied more on e-journals than print and that their main
source of access to e-journals was through library collection databases.
Many studies conducted in local scenarios (Arif and Ameen, 2011;Mirza and Mahmood,
2012;Raq and Ameen, 2012; Tahir et al., 2010; Tahira et al., 2011; Tahira and Ameen, 2009)
revealed an increasing trend of using electronic information sources among students and
academics. Findings showed among users for their scholarly needs that open access
scholarly journals were preferred as compared to subscribed databases and journals. Ahmed
and Amjad (2014) studied researchers’ satisfaction regarding electronic information sources
in two public sector universities of Pakistan. The ndings showed that research scholars
were frequently using web resources, Higher Education Commission (HEC) databases,
e-journals and e-books. Researchers from both the universities were equally satised with
the electronic information sources.
Academics largely contribute to research and development by consuming scholarly
communications. Previous research studies investigated use patterns of academics and
researchers of e-journals as well as their preferences for improved accessibility. However,
very few studies addressed the reasons of non-use of electronic journals in different
disciplines. The studies of e-journals use were mostly for the disciplines of sciences, social
sciences, medical, engineering, social sciences and arts and humanities. However, some other
academic disciplines – management sciences, law, commerce and Oriental languages – were
not focused on by researchers. In the Pakistani scenario, there appears to be a need to
investigate use patterns by academics of scholarly e-journals across a wide range of
disciplines.
Academics in the University of the Punjab have internet access in their ofces, departmental
libraries and the central university library. The university library also provides access to
e-journals available through HEC and the National Digital Library Programme (NDLP) to meet
the scholarly needs of academics and researchers. NDLP was launched in 2003 to provide high
quality, peer-reviewed journals, databases, articles and e-books across a wide range of disciplines
to the researchers of public and private sector universities in Pakistan. Usage statistics of NDLP
from 2003 to now depict a gradual increase of e-journal use in public, private, research and
non-prot organizations. HEC provides e-journals in the disciplines of sciences, engineering,
EL
35,1
168
To continue reading
Request your trial