Researchers Put E-journals to Good Use to Achieve Better Outcomes

Higher spending on e-journals is linked to increased downloads of articles and significantly better research outcomes, according to a recent report on UK institutions. The study, carried out by the Centre for Information Behaviour and the Evaluation of Research (CIBER), was based in part on ScienceDirect log-file data provided by Elsevier to the research team. We are also looking at how we can help extend the study into other geographical areas.

Elsevier’s own internal research shows that the effect of e-journal usage on institutions’ success can be used to define Return on Investment both in funding and in the volume and quality of research. This data, in turn, supports libraries’ attempts to obtain more funding for e-resources.

A revolution

Journal publishers like Elsevier began to provide online access to full-text scholarly articles in the late 1990s, triggering a revolution in the scholarly communications process that continues today. Most journal articles are now available online – 96 percent of titles in science, technology and medicine, and 86 percent of titles in the arts, humanities and social sciences. ScienceDirect, launched in 1997, now offers more than 9 million full-text articles from over 2,000 peer-reviewed journals published by Elsevier and 2,500 from other publishers. In addition, with initiatives such as the Elsevier Grand Challenge, the Article 2.0 Contest and our Article of the Future initiative, we are finding new and innovative ways to present content using the capabilities of the Web.

Caption: This computer model quantifies the association between downloads and research outcomes. A doubling (100 per cent increase) in downloads, from 1 to 2 million, is statistically associated with dramatic increases in research productivity. The gearing becomes even stronger as the volume of downloads increases further. (Source: “E-journals: their use, value and impact”, Research Information Network).