Use of Web Resources in the Journal Literature 2001 and 2007: A Cross-Disciplinary Study

Abstract

This article examines Web resources in research articles from 30 scholarly journals in disciplines across the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. The purpose of the study is to report the degree to which scholars make use of Web-based resources in the journal literature and to identify Web citation characteristics within different subject areas. The study also explores whether any changes emerged between 2001 and 2007. The examination confirms the finding of previous studies that, even though Web resources are not heavily used in journal articles, the number of such resources is increasing. Publicly accessible database repositories and open source software prevail over other Web resources in research communication. The implications for academic libraries are discussed. The study suggests that new strategies need to be developed to manage Web-based information resources.