Use of Electronic Resources in Scholarly Electronic Journals: A Citation Analysis

Abstract

Although information gathering and use patterns in the traditional print environment have been studied for many years, the electronic environment presents a new and relatively unexplored area for such study. This article describes a citation analysis of research articles from scholarly electronic journals published in 1999–2000. The analysis focused on the extent to which scholars are using electronic resources and the types and subject areas of online resources that are being referenced. Results indicate a growing reliance on electronic resources by scholars, a high occurrence of nontraditional types of resources, and a relatively high use of interdisciplinary references.