ABSTRACT

Evaluating open and distance learning journals will be helpful to the discipline and the global community at large, as research evaluation metrics are useful for measuring research productivity and its impact within the global community. The study adopted a citation analysis, using Harzel Publish or Perish software, to extract data from Google Scholar and Scopus databases. The data extracted includes the geographical coverage of the authors, the number of citations per year, the most cited articles and the number of research outputs produced within the study period. Four core open and distance learning journals were studied. The main findings showed that the journals have geographical spread, which is seen from the contributors. The journals are shown to receive a good number of citations; however, within the study period some journals received more citations than the number of publications produced. The most productive journal is also the most cited journal, although no significant relationship exists between the number of published articles and the number of citations made. The geographical spread of the journals presents them as being very useful for research and a useful factor for consideration in collection development plans within libraries.

摘要

评估开放和远程学习期刊将有助于学科和整个全球社区，因为研究评估指标对于衡量研究生产力及其在全球社区内的影响很有用。该研究采用引文分析，使用 Harzel Publish 或 Perish 软件，从 Google Scholar 和 Scopus 数据库中提取数据。提取的数据包括作者的地理覆盖范围、每年的引用次数、被引用次数最多的文章以及研究期间产生的研究成果的数量。研究了四种核心开放和远程学习期刊。主要调查结果表明，这些期刊具有地理分布，这从投稿人身上可以看出。这些期刊被证明获得了大量的引用；然而，在研究期间，一些期刊的引用次数超过了发表的出版物数量。最高产的期刊也是被引用次数最多的期刊，尽管发表文章的数量与被引次数之间不存在显着关系。期刊的地理分布表明它们对研究非常有用，并且是图书馆馆藏发展计划中考虑的有用因素。