Why are Websites co-linked? the case of Canadian universities

Authors

L. Vaughan, Vaughan, L.; Faculty of Information and Media Studies, University of Western Ontario, London, Ont. N6A 5B7, Canada; email: lvaughan@uwo.caFollow
M.E.I. Kipp
Y. Gao

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2007

Volume

72

Journal

Scientometrics

First Page

81

URL with Digital Object Identifier

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-007-1707-y

Last Page

92

Abstract

This study examined why Websites were co-linked using Canadian university Websites as the test set. Pages that co-linked to these university Websites were located using Yahool. A random sample of 859 co-linking pages (the page that initiated the co-link) was retrieved and the contents of the page, as well as the context of the link, were manually examined to record the following variables: language, country, type of Website, and the reasons for co-linking. The study found that in over 94% of cases, the two co-linked universities were related academically; many of these cases (38%) showed a relationship specifically in teaching or research. This confirms results, from previous quantitative studies, that Web co-links can be a measure of the similarity or relatedness of sites being co-linked and that Web co-link analysis can thus be used to study relationships among linked Websites. Copyright © 2007 Akadémiai Kiadó Budapest All rights reserved.