Aneta Ostrowska, Open Access Journals Quality – How to Measure It?

Abstract: Purpose of this paper is to present different ways of Open Access journals’ evaluation. Application of electronic channels of distribution for periodicals has provided access to data (e.g. usage), that was not visible before. There has grown a new opportunity to develop quantitative measurement methods. Since long time the most often used evaluation form has been peer-review process (qualitative). From 1950’s when the idea of Journal Impact Factor by Garfield was introduced there has been some other factors based on the citation data developed, like immediacy index or h-index. Citations analysis as an evaluation method has been also adapted to Open Access journals. In 1996 Ingwersen has developed Web Impact Factor, which can be also applied to evaluation of online periodicals. His idea is based on the thesis, that link data can be used analogous to citation data. In 2006 Brody has shown that there is a correlation between number of citations and number of downloads of the articles. This research provided a foundation to introduce Usage Impact Factor by Bollen and Sompel in the next year (2007). For last few decades there was a significant development in the area of quantitative evaluation of periodicals and there are still new opportunities to grow.