http://www.sajim.co.za/peer99.7nr3.asp?print=1


   
  Peer Reviewed Article Vol.7(3) September 2005

 

Analysis of the citation of Web-based 
information resources by UNISA academic 
researchers 

F. Naudé  
Centre for Information and Knowledge Management  
University of Johannesburg  
Johannesburg, South Africa 
fnaude@unisa.ac.za 

C. Rensleigh  
Centre for Information and Knowledge Management  
University of Johannesburg  
Johannesburg, South Africa  
cr@rau.ac.za 

A.S.A. du Toit 
Centre for Information and Knowledge Management  
University of Johannesburg  
Johannesburg, South Africa 
asadt@rau.ac.za 

Contents 

1. Introduction  
2. Purpose of the study 

2.1. Objectives of the study  
3. Literature review  
4. Methodology  
5. Research results  
6. Findings and discussion  
7. Conclusions  
8. Future research  
9. References  

Key words: Web-based information resources, bibliographic citation, UNISA  



1 Introduction  

The Web is a powerful, dynamic and flexible information resource interface that 
fundamentally alters the academic’s research practices and interaction with information due 
to the additional avenues available to retrieve research and scholarly information. There is a 
surge in global knowledge production and a massive expansion in scholarly research output. 
The growth in the availability of fee- and free-based Web information resources, and the ease 
of access, has led to a phenomenal increase in the use of these information resources. 
Today’s researcher has virtually unlimited access to a greater number and variety of 
information resources than ever before (Noam 1997).  

The Web, as an online information repository, has greatly facilitated information 
accessibility. As the vastness of the Web grows, so does the potential for accessing 
previously inaccessible, unpublished and Web-exclusive information in newsgroups, portals, 
blogs, bulletin boards, electronic archives and Web sites. Hundreds of electronic journals, 
newsletters and magazines are now 'born digitally' on the Web. The abundant and mobile 
digital information is automatically pushed to academics via networks, creating an overflow 
of information (Christensen 1997:6).  

As the size of the Web continues to expand, the variety of high quality scholarly information 
resources proliferates. An overwhelming amount of information is available on both the Web 
(electronic) and in the academic library (print and electronic), resulting in an information 
content overlap between the two sources. There is a major shift in academic libraries from 
ownership to access and the focus has been adjusted from the physical size of collections to 
electronic access. Academic libraries are purchasing access to electronic databases and 
replacing many print reference and periodical collections with Web-based access for users 
because the cost of access is more affordable than ownership.  

In the pre-Web era, trained professional librarians conducted most of the literature retrieval 
by using online databases and acting as an intermediary and custodian of information. The 
development of Web search engines spawned a self-service culture where empowered 
academic end-users execute their searches independently on the Web. Before the dawn of the 
digital era, the academic operated in a simple linear mode when seeking information in a 
physical printed world. The Web added an additional dimension to information seeking, 
performed in a networked virtual electronic mode with open access and a systems 
environment. The academic is now confronted with a mixed environment of print and e-
sources when searching for information and needs to make a format choice between printed 
physical sources or electronic Web sources.  

The Web contains a growing amount of peer reviewed scholarly full-text documents 
available on open access mediums. Open access channels include firstly electronic, refereed 
open access journals, secondly research or subject specific archive (e-print) servers, thirdly 
institutional repositories of individual universities (electronic theses and dissertations) and 
finally self-posting on authors’ home pages (De Beer 2005).  

Academics are forced to incorporate the new technologies in the research activities of 
seeking, disseminating and citing of information. As the content of the Web continues to 
deepen, it becomes an increasingly critical resource for academics. The Web is the largest 
electronic information resource in the world and cannot be ignored as an information 
gathering tool (Bane and Milheim 1995:1).  

There is a high Internet penetration rate among academics in the tertiary education sector in 
South Africa. Goldstuck (2004:60) estimates that there are in the region of 400000 academic 
Internet users at higher education institutions in South Africa. Approximately 85% of all 



staff and close to 100% of professional staff at tertiary education institutions have Internet 
access. The literature review indicates almost no research on Web usage patterns of academic 
staff in higher education institutions in South Africa.  

All professional academic staff at UNISA have access to a personal computer, e-mail and 
unlimited access to the Web via the campus network. UNISA is the largest distance 
education university in South Africa. Given the foregoing dramatic technological changes to 
the information world of the academic, it is unclear what the consequences and effects on the 
selection methods and citation approaches to information sources are.  

This article intends to make sense of the shifts that occurred in the complex networked 
scholarly landscape by determining the relationship between Web-based references and non 
Web-based references in the reference lists of UNISA academics.  

The research for the article addressed the issue of how the Web features as a scholarly 
information resource in the research products of academics in UNISA by calculating and 
analyzing citations with a Uniform Resource Locator (URL). The focus was the citation 
habits of the UNISA academic researcher as a user group and their use of Web resources.  

For the purpose of this study, Web-based information resources cover academic library and 
non-library open Web-based information resources, available by searching or browsing the 
Web via Web browser software and using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). It 
includes fee-based (commercial e-sources accessed via the Web but with charges associated) 
as well as free-based information (Hoggan 2002:2). Academic library resources include 
Web-accessible information resources purchased, leased, licensed and financed by the 
academic library as well as consortia-acquired, s ubscription-based electronic resources. 
Electronic resources include m aterials in digital format such as the library Web site, online 
public access catalogue (OPAC), e-books, e-journals and e-reference sources, bibliographic 
and full-text databases, and other Web-based resources (ODLIS).  

2 Purpose of the study  

The aim of the study was to assess the impact of Web information resources on citation 
patterns of academics in UNISA. In addition, it was determined to what extent academics 
cite the Web and how frequently Web sources are cited (bibliographic reference lists) 
compared to traditional print sources. The importance of Web-based electronic format vs. 
traditional print-based sources in selection of information resources was established.  

2.1 Objectives of the study 

To explore how the availability of Web information resources affected the scholarly 
citation behaviour of UNISA academics  
To measure to what extent academics currently cite Web information resources  
To determine if academics prefer to cite print or electronic Web information resources 
To identify the differences in Web citation patterns between academics from different 
subject disciplines.  

3 Literature review  

Webometrics and Web-citing patterns in scholarly communication are fields that are 

  top

  top



increasingly being researched (Casserly and Bird 2003:301). Bibliometrics are concerned 
with the mathematical and statistical analysis of bibliographies (Davis and Cohen 2001:310). 
With the advent of the Web, these print-based information analysis techniques are also being 
applied to the measurement and counting of electronic Web citations.  

Citations are a fundamental part of the scholarly communication process and can be a 
valuable tool to evaluate the impact of the Web on scholarly research (Harter 1998:508). 
Citations and the composition of bibliographies reflect changes in the information-seeking 
behaviour of academics.  

The results of some citation studies reported in the literature are summarized in Table 1. 
Previous research indicates low numbers of Web citations in bibliographies, with scholars 
showing a preference to cite traditional print resources. Nevertheless, overall Web citations 
in bibliographies are increasing.  

Table 1 Citation analysis studies 1996–2005 

Tonta (1996) examined the use of networked information sources in scholarly print journals 
published in 1993 and 1994. Only 2 (2%) of the 97 articles examined contained references to 
networked information sources.  

A citation study was conducted by Harter and Kim (1996) where 4317 references in 279 
scholarly peer-reviewed articles, appearing in 74 electronic journals, were analysed. Of the 
references examined, 83 (1,9%) were online sources and only 9 (0,2%) were to electronic 
journals. Of the 74 electronic journals in the sample, only 12 cited one or more online 
sources.  

Zhang (1998) examined how frequently e-sources were cited in library and information 
science journal articles for the period 1994 to 1996. Of the articles surveyed, 7,5% had e-
references. The average number of e-references per article was 3,8. The proportion of e-
references out of the total references was 1,1%. Results of this study showed that at the time 
the study was conducted, electronic publications were not accepted as a legitimate medium 

Researcher  
Publication 
format 
examined  

Total 
number 

of 
articles  

Total 
number of 
references  

Total 
number of 

Web 
references  

% of total 
references 

Harter and 
Kim (1996)  

Electronic 
journals  279 4317 83 1,9% 

Zhang (1998)  Journals  1175 29397 333 1,1% 
Herring 
(2002)  

Electronic 
journals  175 4289 685 16,0% 

Budd and 
Christensen 
(2003)  

Journals  164 9947 69 0,7% 

Casserly and 
Bird (2003)  Journals  1425 35689 3582 10,0% 

Sellito (2004)  Conference papers  123 2162 1041 48,1% 

Kushkowski 
(2005)  Theses  141 8813 312 3,5% 



by the scholarly community.  

Herring (2002) studied the use of electronic resources in 12 scholarly peer-reviewed 
electronic journals. The journals represented areas of active interdisciplinary research 
available through the Web without subscription or registration. A total of 175 articles 
published from 1999 to 2000 were examined. The 175 articles had a total of 4289 unique 
references. Over 55% of the articles (97) cited electronic resources. In addition 658 citations, 
or 16% of the total, were to electronic resources. The 97 articles that referenced electronic 
resources had a total of 2584 unique citations, 26,5% of which were to electronic resources.  

Budd and Christensen (2003) conducted a citation analysis of scholarship in the social 
sciences. The 2001 volume of six social science journals were selected. Each issue of each of 
the journals was examined and 9947 citations were recorded to enable the researchers to 
study the dispersion of citations by format. It was evident that the overwhelming majority of 
items cited were journal articles (47%) and books (42%). Less than 1% of citations were 
explicitly to Web sites. Of the journal article citations in the study, 40% were potentially 
available in full text. Results indicated that the academic world adhered to formal and 
traditional media for communication.  

Casserly and Bird (2003) examined 1425 articles published in 34 core, refereed library and 
information science journals during 1999 to 2000 to determine the frequency with which 
authors cited digital resources. Of the 35 682 citations examined, 10% (3582) were Web 
citations and 90% were non-digital resources. The average number of Web citations per 
article was 2,5 (Casserly and Bird, 2003:312).  

Sellito (2004) examined the bibliographic references of online academic articles in the 
AusWeb conference archive from 1995 to 2003 to determine the number of cited Web-
located bibliographical references. A total of 123 articles were examined that contained 2162 
references in total, of which 48,1% (1041) were Web references. The number of Web 
references per article ranged from a low of 3,5 in 1997 to a high of 12,3 in 2001. The average 
number of Web references per article was 8,5 across all articles assessed. The greatest 
number of Web references cited by an article was 41 with numerous authors not citing any 
Web references.  

Kushkowski (2005) studied Web citation behaviour by examining 141 print and electronic 
theses in the field of economics at the Iowa State University and Virginia Polytechnic 
Institute/State University from 1997 to 2003. Results showed that Web citations were only a 
small percentage of the overall number of Web citations. Most of the Web citations were to 
freely available non library-held documents, not database and other electronic information 
purchased and licensed by academic libraries. Only 312 citations (3,53%) of the total 8813 
citations were Web citations. There was an increase in the total number of Web citations for 
the two institutions from 11 in 1997 to 103 in 2002.  

In conclusion, the literature review revealed that there is no research available in South 
Africa that documents the information-seeking behaviour of academics in the cyberspace 
environment or how academics use or cite easily accessible Web information resources.  

4 Methodology  

The citation analysis technique employed in this study was bibliographic reference 
examination. Bibliographic references are defined by Sellitto (2004) as 'references that 
appear as a list at the end of the article'. This procedure is unobtrusive, the data are 

  top



conveniently localised in one area of the document, and it is easy to count the number of 
citations (Okrent 2001:8).  

The main source of data for this research was all the citations contained in bibliographies, 
endnotes and footnotes of accredited research journal articles submitted by UNISA to the 
Department of Education for subsidy purposes. The 2004 research output, compiled by the 
Bureau for Management Information at UNISA, was selected because it was the first 
comprehensive and integrated list that combined the research output produced as a merged 
institution.  

At the time the research was conducted, a merger was in progress. UNISA, a distance higher 
education institution converged after a merger between Technikon Southern Africa, Vista-
Vudec and the University of South Africa. The new UNISA is a large multi-site institution, 
geographically dispersed, with four main campuses located in Florida (Roodepoort), 
Midrand (Graduate School of Business Leadership), Muckleneuk and Sunnyside in Pretoria 
and regional offices countrywide. As indicated in Table 2, of the 1437 academics, 1209 are 
located at the Pretoria campus and 228 at the Florida campus.  

Table 2 Academic staff grouped by college 

The new academic structure of the merged institution consists of five colleges, 17 schools, 
75 departments and various institutes and bureaus. The 17 academic schools consist of:  

Law  
Criminal Justice  
Agriculture  
Environmental Science  
Indigenous Technological Knowledge  
Natural Resources  
Arts and Humanities  
Social Sciences  
Education  
Language and Literary  
Religion and Theology  
Management Sciences  
Accounting Sciences  
Applied Accountancy  
Economic Sciences  
Computing  
Natural Science and Engineering.  

College Pretoria campus
Florida 
campus

Total 
number of 
academic 

staff
Agriculture, Natural Resources and 
Environmental Sciences  16  21  37  

Economic and Management Sciences  325  73  398  
Human Sciences  557  25  582  
Law  148  43  191  
Science, Engineering and Technology  163  66  229  
Total  1209  228  1437  



The total study population consisted of 458 peer reviewed academic research articles 
authored by UNISA academic staff. The citation analysis was carried out on 9 and 10 June 
2005.  

The citation format of the journal articles varied, with some articles containing footnotes or 
endnotes and/or bibliographies. For the purpose of this article, the term bibliography is used 
throughout the remainder of this article and includes footnotes and endnotes. During the 
examination of the bibliographies, a Web citation was identified as a Web resource if a URL 
was present or the reference indicated WWW or Internet or online.  

The references listed for each article were analysed and the data were gathered by manually 
counting the total number of references that appeared in the bibliographies. Thereafter the 
bibliography of each article was checked to determine if it contained references to Web-
based information resources such as URLs of Web pages or Web sites. A citation count was 
done of the total number of Web references cited in the article.  

Data concerning each article were entered into a spreadsheet. For every article, the following 
information was recorded: title of the journal, volume and issue of the journal, total number 
of citations, total number of Web citations, author and subject discipline (college affiliation). 
Many articles had multiple authors, but only the first (main) author and affiliation was 
captured in the spreadsheet.  

A total of 57 articles were discarded from the study for the following reasons:  

The print copy of the article was not available.  
The photocopy available was incomplete or of very poor quality.  
There were no reference lists or bibliographies in the articles.  
Journal articles (mostly the law subject discipline) could not be used due to the 
reference style of articles containing in-text references, that is, the references formed 
part of the article text. These references were not numbered and very difficult to 
identify and count.  

The research design enabled the researcher to compare and contrast results by subject 
discipline. The data were analysed by broad subject discipline, based on the UNISA 
academic college structure, to identify any differences in patterns of use and preferences 
between the groups.  

5 Research results  

A total of 458 journal articles were examined, of which 159 (34,7%) contained Web 
references and 299 (65,3%) had no Web references. Collectively, the journal articles 
contained a total of 20825 references of which 734 (35%) were Web references and 20091 
(96,5%) were non Web references. There were an average of 45,5 references per article and 
an average of 1,6 Web references per article. The greatest number of Web references cited in 
a paper was 26 and the lowest one. The relevant tables derived from the data are included 
below for reference.  

Table 3 Number of Web references out of the total references grouped by college 

  top

College Total references 
Number of non-
Web references 

Number of Web 
references 



Table 3 shows the proportion of Web references and non Web references out of the total 
references per UNISA college. Web references made up a small percentage of the total 
citations. The 3,5% (percentage of Web references) reported above are similar to the recent 
study by Kushkowski (2005), which found that only 3,5% of the total references were Web 
citations.  

The sources cited might have been electronically accessed via the Web, but are cited as the 
print equivalent. Academics use the Web to access and download information, but prefer to 
cite the print counterpart instead of the Web resource. In Table 4, the proportion of journal 
articles that contain Web references, out of the total number of journal articles, are presented 
by UNISA disciplinary grouping (college). A third of the journal articles contained Web 
references, compared to two-thirds that did not have any Web references.  

The data in Table 4 suggest that the College of Human Sciences was the most active in terms 
of number of research articles published. The College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and 
Environmental Sciences (CANRES) has a low researcher output in contrast to the other 
UNISA colleges. CANRES consists of Technikon SA and Vista-Vudec academics. These 
merger partners did not have a strong research focus and were relatively new institutions, 
compared to the old established UNISA Pretoria campus with a longstanding tradition of 
research .  

Table 4 Comparison of the number of journal articles with Web references grouped by 
college 

Agriculture, Natural 
Resources and Environmental 
Sciences  

53  53  0  

Economic and Management 
Sciences  1898  1773  125  

Human Sciences  8244  7999  245  
Law  9329  8992  337  
Science, Engineering and 
Technology  1301  1274  27  

Total 20825 20091 (96,5%) 734 (3,5%) 

College 

Total 
number of 

journal 
articles 

Number of journal 
articles without 
Web references 

Number of 
journal articles 

with Web 
references 

Agriculture, Natural 
Resources and 
Environmental Sciences  

2  2  0  

Economic and 
Management Sciences  60  31  29  

Human Sciences  229  165  64  
Law  121  61  60  
Science, Engineering 
and Technology  46  40  6  

Total 458 299 (65,3%)  159 (34,7%)  



Table 5 indicates the average number of Web references per journal article in the different 
UNISA colleges. The College of Law cited the most URLs per article, followed by the 
College of Economic and Management Sciences.  

Table 5 Average number of Web references per article grouped by college 

In Table 6, the percentage of Web references overall per college are reported. The frequency 
of Web citation at the UNISA colleges can be classified into heavy, moderate and light user 
groups. The College of Economic and Management Sciences is using Web citations the most 
(heavy) followed by the College of Law. The College of Human Sciences and the College of 
Science, Engineering and Technology are moderate users, while CANRES can be seen as a 
light user.  

Table 6 Percentage of Web references grouped by college 

6 Findings and discussion  

The picture that emerges is that UNISA academics have not fully embraced the Web as a 
scholarly resource. Academics are citing Web sources, but the Web citation rate is low. The 
findings indicate that academics tend to rely heavily on static, print-based sources when 
citing the literature.  

The Web is cited in conjunction with other sources and used as a supplement to print and 
other academic library resources, not a replacement. Print and digital media will coexist in 
the bibliographies of researchers and academics for the foreseeable future. Listed below are 
possible issues and barriers that contribute to the reluctance of academics to cite Web 
resources:  

The Web is perceived as an unstable impermanent medium for scholarly 

College Average number of Web references per article 
Agriculture, Natural Resources and 
Environmental Sciences  0,00  

Economic and Management Sciences  2,08  
Human Sciences  1,07  
Law  2,79  
Science, Engineering and Technology  0,59  

College Percentage Web references 
Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences  0,0%  
Economic and Management Sciences  6,7%  
Human Sciences  3,3%  
Law  6,1%  
Science, Engineering and Technology  1,6%  
Average 4,3% 

  top



communication and publication, making future retrieval of the cited content 
problematic. The Web cannot be trusted as a scholarly medium if readers cannot gain 
retrospective access to the original sources of the cited material.  
Uncertainty concerning the correct citing conventions in terms of digital content can 
be a barrier to using Web resources.  
There is a perception that Web information is inferior and lacks quality control. 
Academics prefer citing accurate peer-reviewed information.  
There is a lack of skills and confidence in terms of criteria being used to evaluate Web 
information resources.  
The subject field that the researcher operates in could limit the use and citation of the 
Web. The Web as a medium is not suitable for all types of data and subject matter. In 
disciplines such as religion, history, language, philosophy and literature, most of the 
seminal sources are in print format and is not electronically available. Electronic 
information is less important and usually not available for historical and archival 
research.  
Academics are unaware of Web information resources. The Web is a vast, chaotic and 
unstructured environment. It is time consuming and complex to retrieve relevant and 
reliable information without assistance.  
Academics use the Web for research, but decide not to cite all documents used to 
prepare the article (reading list vs. reference list).  
The level of computer literacy and Web competencies are linked to general attitudes to 
and use of networked electronic resources. Lack of Web search and retrieval skills can 
be impediments to usage.  
Demographic characteristics such as gender, age, seniority and ethnicity of the 
researcher can influence usage and citation of the Web.  
Technological factors can be barriers to usage. Network breakdowns, congestion and 
downtime, access problems and slow transmission times can inhibit use of the Web.  

This study suggests that the academic library and traditional print sources continues to be 
relevant in the global networked information society. It seems that the usage of the academic 
library and print resources is changing, but definitely not diminishing. The academic library 
continues to be an important, stable and trusted partner in the information intensive research 
process.  

7 Conclusions  

This study demonstrated to what extent UNISA academics cite Web documents in scholarly 
academic articles by comparing Web vs. non Web citations. The researcher quantitively 
analysed Web usage patterns by determining citations.  

The number of citations to the Web can be seen as an indicator of the impact of the Web on 
the UNISA academic community. The research shed light on how Web citation behaviour 
varies between the different subject disciplines (colleges) in UNISA. Possible explanations 
for the low Web citation rate were also offered.  

The analysed data from this study suggest that the most highly cited works overall were 
formal publications such as books, journal articles and other printed matter. UNISA 
academics cite Web-based information resources less frequently than print resources. At 
present it seems that the Web has a low status as a scholarly resource when compared to 
results of other research studies reported in the literature review (Table 1).  

The research has implications for the academic library. Academics should be sensitized to 

  top



use and cite quality scholarly Web resources to maximize future availability and accessibility 
of research materials. In cases where articles appear in print and electronic format, academics 
should cite the print format as well as the Web equivalents (Kushkowski 2005:272; Casserly 
and Bird 2003:316; Malone and Videon 1997). Academics should be encouraged to use the 
Web sources in tandem with print sources, complementing each other. User education 
programmes should place emphasis on the effective retrieval of Web information, the 
evaluation thereof and the correct citation of these documents.  

8 Future research  

Citation analysis in general does not give a true overall picture of Web use. T he motivation 
and reasons for citing or not citing Web resources are not addressed (Kushkowski 2005:261). 
The academic may use the Web extensively in the research process for discovery of new 
information, serendipitous browsing for ideas, searching, locating, accessing, downloading 
and on-screen reading of articles, but exclude Web citations from the final reference list.  

A more detailed and in-depth research investigation into this topic is needed. In this study 
citations were sorted into two broad categories of Web vs. non Web citations, without 
analysing the type and format of the citation in great detail, for example print citations 
(monographs, journals, theses, etc.) or Web resources (e-journals, Web pages, conference 
pages, home pages, etc). In addition, t he study did not differentiate between library and non 
library-located Web-based information sources. In the seamless Web environment, a study 
that compares freely available, open Web references to academic library Web-based 
information references will be valuable.  

This study is part of a larger investigation into academic use and acceptance of the WWW as 
a suitable tool for scholarly research. The research project will determine to what extent the 
Web and the knowledge economy transformed the information environment, information-
seeking behaviour, needs, preferences and expectations of academic library users. The 
outcome of the citation study will be compared to the results of the qualitative questionnaire-
based survey to achieve an overall view of Web usage in UNISA.  

9 References  

Bane, A.F. and Milheim, W.D. 1995. Internet insights: how academics are using the Internet. 
Computers in Libraries 15(2):32-36.  

Budd, J.M. and Christensen, C. 2003. Social sciences literature and electronic information. 
[Online]. Available WWW: www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlevents/budd.PDF. (Accessed 21 July 
2005).  

Casserly, M.F. and Bird, J.E. 2003. Web citation availability: analysis and implications for 
scholarship. College and Research Libraries 64(4):300-317. 

Christensen, E.D. 1997. An experimental inquiry into the effectiveness and choice of the 
library and Internet for acquiring company information. (Ph.D. dissertation) New Jersey: 
Graduate School Newark of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.  

Davis, P.M. and Cohen, S.A. 2001. The effect of the Web on undergraduate citation 
behaviour: 1996–1999. Journal of the American society for information science and 

  top

  top

 



technology 52(4):309-314.  

De Beer, J.A. 2005. Open access scholarly communication in South Africa: a role for 
national informaton policy in the national system of innovation. (M.Phil. dissertation) 
Stellenbosch: University of Stellenbosch.  

Goldstuck, A. 2004. The Goldstuck report:Internet access in South Africa, 2004. 
Blairgowrie: World Wide Worx.  

Harter, S.P. 1998. Scholarly communication and electronic journals: an impact study. 
Journal of the American Society for Information Science 49(6):507-516.  

Harter, S.P. and Kim, H.J. 1996. Electronic journals and scholarly communication: a 
citation and reference study. [Online]. Available WWW: 
http://ezinfo.ucs.indiana.edu/~harter/harter-asis96midyear.html . (Accessed 21 July 2005).  

Herring, S.D. 2002. Use of electronic resources in scholarly electronic journals: a citation 
analysis. College and Research Libraries 63(4):334-340.  

Hoggan, D.B. 2002. Challenges, strategies, and tools for research scientists: using Web-
based information resources. Electronic Journal of Academic and Special Librarianship 3
(3). [Online]. Available WWW: 
http://southernlibrarianship.icaap.org/content/v03n03/Hoggan_d01.htm (Accessed 21 July 
2005).  

Kushkowski, J.D. 2005. Web citation by graduate students: a comparison of print and 
electronic theses. Portal: Libraries and the Academy 5(2):259-276.  

Malone, D. and Videon, C. 1997. Assessing undergraduate use of electronic resources: a 
quantitative analysis of works cited. Research Strategies 15(3):151-158.  

Noam, E.M. 1997. Electronics and the future of the research library. [Online] Available 
WWW: http://archive.ala.org/acrl/invited/noam.html. (Accessed 21 July 2005). 

ODLIS seeOnline Dictionary of Library and Information Science. 

Online Dictionary of Library and Information Science. [Online]. Available WWW: 
http://lu.com/odlis/ (Accessed 6 September 2005).  

Okrent, N. 2001. Use of full-text electronic resources by philosophy students at UNC-Chapel 
Hill: a citation analysis. (M.A. dissertation) North Carolina: University of North Carolina at 
Chapel Hill.  

Sellito, C. 2004. Web cit(ation)es in scholarly articles. [Online]. Available WWW: 
http://ausWeb.scu.edu.au/aw04/papers/refereed/sellito/paper.html . (Accessed 27 June 2005). 

Tonta, Y. 1995. Scholarly communication and the use of networked information sources. 
IFLA Journal 22(3):240-245 [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla61/61-
tony.htm . (Accessed 21 July 2005).  

Zhang, Y. 1998. The impact of Internet-based electronic resources on formal scholarly 
communication in the area of library and information science: a citation analysis. Journal of 
Information Science 24(4):241-254.  



Disclaimer 

Articles published in SAJIM are the opinions of the authors and do not 
necessarily reflect the opinion of the Editor, Board, Publisher, Webmaster 
or the Rand Afrikaans University. The user hereby waives any claim 
he/she/they may have or acquire against the publisher, its suppliers, 
licensees and sub licensees and indemnifies all said persons from any 
claims, lawsuits, proceedings, costs, special, incidental, consequential or 
indirect damages, including damages for loss of profits, loss of business or 
downtime arising out of or relating to the user’s use of the Website. 

  top

ISSN 1560-683X

Published by InterWord Communications for Department of Information and Knowledge Management, 
University of Johannesburg