Relationship between links to journal Web sites and impact factors

The study found a significant correlation between the number of external links and the journal impact factor for LIS journals. Journals with higher journal impact factor scores tend to attract more links to their Web sites. The study also investigated issues pertaining to data collection methods for webometrics research. It showed that the choice of search engine for data collection could affect the conclusion of a study. Data collected at different time periods were found to be fairly stable. The use of multiple rounds of data collection was shown to be beneficial, especially when the result from a single round of data is borderline significant or inconclusive. © MCB UP Limited