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Measures of scholarly journal quality are not universally applicable to determining value of advertised annual subscription price

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  • Geoffrey S. Shideler

    (University of Miami)

  • Rafael J. Araújo

    (University of Miami)

Abstract

Both end users and authors commonly evaluate scientific journals based on several popular journal metrics. Such metrics, in particular the “impact factor,” carry crucial weight in terms of which journals authors choose for submitting scientific works as well as to what titles an institutional library subscribes. While previous research has focused on the value of journals in terms of “price per page,” no study has investigated the relationship between common journal metrics and the price a journal advertises for an annual subscription. In the present study, we took a linear modeling approach using Akaike information criterion to determine which journal metric (impact factor, Eigenfactor score, article influence score, total cites, or proportion reviews) was the “best” predictor of the advertised annual subscription price for scientific journals. Examining three differing scientific fields (aquatic science, sociology, and immunology) and accounting for for-profit versus not-for-profit status, we found results to be field-dependent. Total cites was the best predicting metric for the annual advertised subscription price for aquatic science and immunology, while the Eigenfactor score was the best predictor for sociology. We hypothesize the relationship with price changes with differing magnitudes of citation flows in a field. Clear from our study was that no single measure of journal quality is universally applicable to determine subscription “value.”

Suggested Citation

  • Geoffrey S. Shideler & Rafael J. Araújo, 2016. "Measures of scholarly journal quality are not universally applicable to determining value of advertised annual subscription price," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 107(3), pages 963-973, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:107:y:2016:i:3:d:10.1007_s11192-016-1943-0
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-016-1943-0
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Ding, Min & Ross, William T. & Rao, Vithala R., 2010. "Price as an Indicator of Quality: Implications for Utility and Demand Functions," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 86(1), pages 69-84.
    2. repec:cdl:ucsbrw:qt4xf9h43j is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Jevin D. West & Theodore Bergstrom & Carl T. Bergstrom, 2010. "Response to “Big Macs and Eigenfactor scores: The correlation conundrum”," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 61(12), pages 2592-2592, December.
    4. Jevin West & Theodore Bergstrom & Carl T. Bergstrom, 2010. "Big Macs and Eigenfactor scores: Don't let correlation coefficients fool you," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 61(9), pages 1800-1807, September.
    5. Jevin D. West & Theodore Bergstrom & Carl T. Bergstrom, 2014. "Cost Effectiveness Of Open Access Publications," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 52(4), pages 1315-1321, October.
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    Cited by:

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    2. Guoliang Lyu & Ganwei Shi, 2019. "On an approach to boosting a journal’s citation potential," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 120(3), pages 1387-1409, September.

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