A webometric analysis of Australian Universities using staff and size dependent web impact factors (WIF)

Boell, Sebastian K. and Wilson, Concepción S. and Cole, Fletcher T. H. A webometric analysis of Australian Universities using staff and size dependent web impact factors (WIF)., 2008 . In Fourth International Conference on Webometrics, Informetrics and Scientometrics & Ninth COLLNET Meeting, Berlin (Germany), 28 July -1 August 2008. [Conference paper]

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English abstract

This study describes how search engines (SE) can be employed for automated, efficient data gathering for Webometric studies using predictable URLs. It then compares the usage of staffrelated Web Impact Factors (WIFs) to sizerelated impact factors for a ranking of Australian universities, showing that rankings based on staffrelated WIFs correlate much better with an established ranking from the Melbourne Institute than commonly used sizedependent WIFs. In fact sizedependent WIFs do not correlate with the Melbourne ranking at all. It also compares WIF data for Australian Universities provided by Smith (1999) for a longitudinal comparison of the WIF of Australian Universities over the last decade. It shows that sizedependent WIF values declined for most Australian universities over the last ten years, while staffdependent WIFs rose.

Item type: Conference paper
Keywords: Webometrics, Web Impact Factor, Australia, University Ranking, Informetrics, Inlinks, .edu, .edu.au, .ac.uk, University staff
Subjects: B. Information use and sociology of information > BB. Bibliometric methods
H. Information sources, supports, channels. > HQ. Web pages.
L. Information technology and library technology > LC. Internet, including WWW.
Depositing user: Sebastian K Boell
Date deposited: 02 Oct 2008
Last modified: 02 Oct 2014 12:12
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10760/12287

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