It is widely accepted that digitization of scholarly resources has impacted scholarship, and in this study we are going to test this proposition by measuring the impact of digitization and online availability on journal citation patterns. Although other studies have attempted to examine this relationship in the past, we have developed a methodology that allows us to control for potentially confounding selection biases in the data. In addition, there are now, really for the first time, enough journal backfiles that have been digitized and available online for a significant enough amount of time that citation rates to them might be expected to have been affected. Our study focuses in depth on three disciplines, economics, history, and biological sciences. We expect findings to be made available in mid-2008. This study is a collaboration with professors Mark McCabe (of Georgia Tech) and Chris Snyder (of Dartmouth), funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation via a grant to Georgia Tech.

Presentations:

Roger C. Schonfeld, "How Does Digitization Affect Scholarship?," JSTOR Participating Publishers' Meeting, New York, New York, May 13, 2008.

Roger C. Schonfeld, "The Effect of Digitization on Scholarship," NASIG Annual Meeting, Louisville, Kentucky, June 1/2, 2007.