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The Relationship of Journal and Internet Use to JSTOR Use

Examination of the frequency of JSTOR use among faculty aware of JSTOR (n = 78) showed that 58% of the respondents had varying levels of use, while 42% reported no use. Using the frequency of JSTOR use as the dependent variable, the faculty who reported no use were censored on the dependent variable. The standard zero, lower-bound tobit model was designed for this circumstance (Tobin 1958). Most important, by adjusting for censoring, the tobit model allows inclusion of negative cases in the analysis of variation in frequency of use among positive cases, which greatly enhances degrees of freedom. Therefore, hierarchical tobit regression analyses were used to examine the influence of demographic characteristics, journal use, search preferences, Internet use, and attitude toward computing on the frequency of JSTOR use. Independent variables used in these analyses were selected on the basis of significance in univariate tobit regressions


188
 

TABLE 11.7. Percentage of History Faculty Ranking JSTOR History Journal as Top Five Most Frequently Used, Next Five Most Frequently Used, and Not Used (n = 86)

 

University of Michigan ( n = 58)

Five Colleges ( n = 28)

Journal

Top Five

Next Five

Not Used

Top Five

Next Five

Not Used

American Historical Review

44%

19%

37%

58%

24%

18%

Journal of American History

31%

  6%

63%

39%

  4%

57%

Journal of Modern History

15%

10%

75%

18%

11%

71%

William and Mary Quarterly

13%

  6%

81%

15%

  3%

82%

Speculam

  9%

  3%

88%

11%

10%

79%

 

TABLE 11.8. Mean Frequency of Computer Application Use over Direct Connection (High-Speed Network) by Institution and Discipline (n = 158a )

 

University of Michigan

Five Colleges

Computer Application

Economics (n = 47)

History (n = 57)

Economics (n = 26)

History (n = 28)

E-mail

4.9a

3.3b

5.0a

4.7a

On-line catalogs

3.3

2.8

3.6

3.7

On-line databases

2.3

1.6a

2.9b

2.1

World Wide Web

3.9a

1.8b

4.2a

2.9c

File Transfer Protocol (FTP)

3.4a

1.4b

2.7a

1.7b

Note: Frequency of use was reported on a 5-point scale (1 = never; 2 = 2-3 times per year; 3 = monthly; 4 = weekly; 5 = daily).

Note: Means with different subscripts differ significantly at p < .01 in the Tukey honestly significant difference test.

a Two cases were unusable due to incomplete data.

on the frequency of use variable. Table 11.9 summarizes the independent variables used in the multiple tobit regression analyses.

Table 11.10 summarizes the results of the hierarchical tobit regression of demographic, journal use, search preference, Internet use, and computing attitude variables on frequency of JSTOR use. The line second from the bottom in Table 11.10 summarizes the log likelihood score for each model. Analysis of the change in log likelihood score between adjacent models gives a measure of the significance of independent variables added to the model. For example, in Model 1, the addition of the demographic variables failed to produce a significant change in the log likelihood score compared to the null model. By contrast, in Model 2, the addition of journal use variables produced a significant change in the log likelihood score compared to Model 1-suggesting that the addition of the journal


189
 

TABLE 11.9. Descriptive Statistics for Faculty Aware of JSTOR (n = 78)

Variable

Mean

Std

At Michigan

49%

  -

In economics

54%

  -

Male

82%

  -

Years since degree

17.2

11.5

Copies articles

  3.09

  0.91

Puts articles on reserve

  2.73

  1.15

Reads abstracts

68%

  -

Total # subs., JSTOR

  2.5

  1.5

Total # subs., all

  8.8

  1.96

# paid subs.

  4.04

  2.43

Uses on-line indexes

60%

  -

Searches on-line catalog

85%

  -

Browses on-line catalog

65%

  -

Frequency of on-line catalog use

  3.47

  1.25

Frequency of on-line database use

  2.33

  1.31

Frequency of WWW use

  3.47

  1.62

Frequency of FTP use

  2.39

  1.42

Attitude toward computing

  3.52

  0.70

Frequency of JSTOR use

  2.05

  2.09

use variables improved the fit in Model 2 over Model 1. Similarly, the addition of search variables in Model 3 and of Internet use variables in Model 4 both produced significant improvements in fit, but the addition of the computer attitude variable in Model 5 did not. Therefore, Model 4 was selected as the best model. From Model 4, the coefficients for gender, article copying, abstract reading, and searching on-line catalogs are all positive and significant. These results suggest that, controlling for other factors, men were 0.77 points higher on frequency of JSTOR use than were women, that there was a 0.29-point increase in the frequency of JSTOR use for every point increase in the frequency of article copying, that faculty who read article abstracts were 0.82 points higher on frequency of JSTOR use than were faculty who didn't read abstracts, and that there was a 1.13point increase in the frequency of JSTOR use for every point increase in the frequency of on-line catalog searching. From Model 4, the coefficients for affiliation with an economics department and the number of paid journal subscriptions are both negative and significant. These results suggest that, controlling for other factors, economists were 0.88 points lower on frequency of JSTOR use than were historians and that there was a 0.18-point decrease in frequency of JSTOR use for every unit increase in the number of paid journal subscriptions.


190
 

TABLE 11.10. Tobit Regression on Frequency of JSTOR Use among Faculty Aware of JSTOR (n = 78)

Variable

Model 1

Model 2

Model 3

Model 4

Model 5

Constant

  0.56

-2.45*

-3.89***

-3.86***

-4.63***

At Michigan

-0.11

   .28

   .47

   .47

   .47

In economics

0.20

  -.73

  -.48

  -.88*

  -.94**

Male

   .77

   .82*

   .91**

   .77*

   .77*

Years since degree

-0.04**

-0.02

-0.00

0.00

0.00

Copies articles

 

   .29

   .28

   .29*

   .29*

Puts articles on reserve

 

   .28*

   .33**

   .24

   .22

Reads abstracts

 

1.38***

1.22***

   .82**

   .86**

Total # subs., JSTOR

 

   .27*

   .26*

   .21

   .23

Total # subs., all

 

0.03

-0.02

-0.02

-0.03

# paid subs.

 

  -.17**

  -.16**

  -.18**

  -.19**

Uses on-line indexes

   

   .37

   .22

   .25

Searches on-line catalog

   

1.34**

1.13*

1.17*

Browses on-line catalog

   

-0.02

  -.15

  -.25

Frequency of on-line catalog use

     

0.02

0.01

Frequency of on-line database use

     

0.02

-0.00

Frequency of WWW use

     

   .22

   .19

Frequency of FTP use

     

   .20

   .15

Attitude toward computing

       

   .31

-Log likelihood

111.94

98.08

93.56

89.31

88.70

Chi-square

    6.72

27.72***

  9.04**

  8.5*

  1.2

Note: -Log likelihood for the null model = 115.30.

* = p < .10; ** = p < .05; *** = p < 01.


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