Towards a checklist for choosing electronic journal aggregation services
| Published date | 01 January 1998 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb040678 |
| Pages | 38-42 |
| Date | 01 January 1998 |
| Author | Andrew Cox,Peter Godwin,Robin Yeates |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management |
Towards a checklist
for choosing
electronic journal
aggregation services
by Andrew Cox (Researcher), Peter
Godwin (Academic Services Manager),
Robin Yeates (Senior Researcher / LITC
Manager) LIS, South Bank University
This article is a first attempt to define criteria
for choosing electronic journal aggregation
services. Cost of the licence, relative to its
terms and content are considered to be the
key
factors.
Other factors are considered
under the headings of access, features,
performance, user
interface,
administration,
company direction. A list of aggregation
services is also provided.
Introduction
Many librarians are trying to make sense of the
wide range of commercial electronic journal
services currently on offer. Where do they fit in
with print
journals,
free electronic journals and
document delivery? The marketplace is in flux. To
help pull together the increasing number of
elec-
tronic journal systems, some aggregator or
gateway services are on offer. This article is a brief
attempt to establish criteria for evaluating elec-
tronic journal aggregation services, based on
investigations done at South Bank, and work
carried out for the CANDLE project. 1
We are using "electronic journal aggregator" here
to cover a range of different services of diverse
origins. A list of many of them is reproduced
below. Primarily they are from :
• Organisations known for producing
bibliographic and abstracting services, who
are now offer links to the full text of
journals from a number of publishers
• Subscription agents who are essentially
offering a tool to manage electronic journal
subscriptions
Features of some of the services from single
publishers, particularly Ideal2 seemed also of
interest to identifying the range of functions that
might exist in an aggregating product.
Obviously it is difficult to compare different types
of product, yet this is precisely what librarians are
having to do. And as a further complication to the
evaluation more radical alternatives exist. Studies
of usage at Cranfield 3 suggest that libraries may
be spending too much on subscriptions
to
journals
that are not heavily used, and that it is more
economical to use document delivery for most
titles.
At some point document delivery options
may need to be considered as part of the equation.
We can distinguish between the key factors which
could determine a purchasing decision and con-
tributory factors might influence selection between
the better services. We have suggested that cost
and content are the key factors. Others may feel
that issues such as access to archives when sub-
scriptions lapse or response times on the Web
could seem important enough to force a choice.
Clearly things will look a lot different in two
years'
time, and most librarians will probably try
and postpone more final decisions until then. In
reality decisions are likely to be influenced by
existing relationships, for example with a particu-
lar subscription agent.
Key Factors
The cost of the licence, relative to the terms
of the licence
The complication here is that the terms of licences
are very varied. This makes direct comparison of
cost between services difficult (even if the service
content were the same). Variations in conditions
may include:
• Different restrictions on who can use the
system: e.g. extra charges for distance
learners, restrictions by number of
concurrent users, absolute limits on usage.
• Restrictions on how resources are used:
e.g. can material be used in course packs,
38 — VINE 110
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