Bibliographic and Web Citations: What Is the Difference?

Authors

L. Vaughan, Vaughan, L.; Fac. of Info. and Media Studies, University of Western Ontario, London, Ont., N6A 5B7, Canada; email: lvaughan@uwo.caFollow
D. Shaw

Document Type

Book Review

Publication Date

1-1-2003

Volume

54

Journal

Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology

First Page

1313

URL with Digital Object Identifier

https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.10338

Last Page

1322

Abstract

Web citations have been proposed as comparable to, even replacements for, bibliographic citations, notably in assessing the academic impact of work in promotion and tenure decisions. We compared bibliographic and Web citations to articles in 46 journals in library and information science. For most journals (57%), Web citations correlated significantly with both bibliographic citations listed in the Social Sciences Citation Index and the ISI's Journal Impact Factor. Many of the Web citations represented intellectual impact, coming from other papers posted on the Web (30%) or from class readings lists (12%). Web citation counts were typically higher than bibliographic citation counts for the same article. Journals with more Web citations tended to have Web sites that provided tables of contents on the Web, while less cited journals did not have such publicity. The number of Web citations to journal articles increased from 1992 to 1997.