Journal Use
Table 11.4 summarizes how faculty used features of journals. Across all journal features, patterns of use were similar except in two areas. First, the proportion of Michigan historians who used article abstracts (31%) was significantly smaller than the proportion of Michigan economists (81%), five-college economists (89%), and five-college historians (61%) who used abstracts. Second, the proportion of Michigan economists who used book reviews (49%) was significantly smaller than the proportion of five-college historians (100%), Michigan historians (98%), and five college economists (85%) who used book reviews.
Overall, faculty in the sample reported that they regularly used 8.7 journals, that they subscribed to 4.1 of these journals, and that 2.2 of these journals were also in JSTOR. Table 11.5 summarizes journal use by institution and discipline. There were no significant differences in the number of journals used across institution and discipline, although Michigan historians reported using the most journals (8.9). There were also no significant differences across institution and discipline in the number of paid journal subscriptions among the journals used, although again Michigan historians reported having the most paid subscriptions (4.6). There was a significant difference in the number of journals used regularly by the economists that were also titles in JSTOR (M = 2.9) compared with those used by the historians ([M = 1.7], t [158] = 5.71, p < .01).
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Figure 11.1.
Cumulative percentage of on-line searchers versus JSTOR users, by frequency of use
and type of institution (n = 147)
Further examination of differences in use of journals shows a much greater consensus among the economists about the importance of the economics journals in JSTOR than among the historians about the history journals in JSTOR. For example, Table 11.6 shows the economists' ranking in order of use of the five economics journals chosen for JSTOR. The American Economic Review was cited among the top ten most frequently used journals by over 75% of both the Michigan and the five-college economists; the Journal of Political Economy was cited
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TABLE 11.4. Percentage of Faculty by Use of Journal Features, Institution, and Discipline (n = 159a ) | | | University of Michigan | Five Colleges | Journal Feature | Economics (n = 47) | History (n = 58) | Economics (n = 26) | History (n = 28) | Articles | 96% | 98% | 100% | 100% | Tables of contents | 81% | 86% | 100% | 96% | Bibliographies | 60% | 71% | 89% | 82% | Book reviews | 49%b | 98%a | 85%a | 100%a | Article abstracts | 81%a | 31%b | 89%a | 61%a | Editorials | 13% | 24% | 35% | 43% | Note: Means with different subscripts differ significantly at p < .01 in the Tukey honestly significant difference test. | a One case was unusable due to incomplete data. |
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TABLE 11.5. Number of Journals Used, Number of Paid Subscriptions, and Number of JSTOR Target Journals by Institution and Discipline (n = 160) | | | University of Michigan | Five Colleges | Journals Used | Economics (n = 48) | History (n = 58) | Economics (n = 26) | History (n = 28) | Total | 8.6 | 8.9 | 8.4 | 8.7 | Number that are paid subscriptions | 3.7 | 4.6 | 4.0 | 3.6 | Number that are JSTOR target journals | 3.1a | 1.6b | 2.5 | 1.9b | Note: Means with different subscripts differ significantly at p < .01 in the Tukey honestly significant difference test. |
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TABLE 11.6. Percentage of Economics Faculty Ranking JSTOR Economics Journals as Top Five Most Frequently Used, Next Five Most Frequently Used, and Not Used (n = 74) | | | University of Michigan ( n = 48) | Five Colleges ( n = 26) | Journal | Top Five | Next Five | Not Used | Top Five | Next Five | Not Used | American Economic Review | 79% | 6% | 15% | 66% | 15% | 19% | Journal of Political Economy | 52% | 10% | 38% | 32% | 26% | 42% | Quarterly Journal of Economics | 41% | 15% | 44% | 16% | 26% | 58% | Econometrica | 26% | 30% | 44% | 8% | 15% | 77% | Review of Economics and Statistics | 18% | 28% | 54% | 12% | 34% | 54% |
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among the top ten by over 60% of both the Michigan and the five-college economists; and the Quarterly Journal of Economics and the Review of Economics and Statistics were cited among the top ten by over 50% of the Michigan economists and by over 40% of the five-college economists. By contrast, Table 11.7 shows the historians' ranking in order of use of the five history journals chosen for JSTOR. The American Historical Review was cited among the top ten most frequently used journals by over 60% of both the Michigan and the five-college historians. However, none of the other four journals were used by a majority of the historians at Michigan or at the five colleges.
