Full-text articles: faculty perceptions, student use, and citation abuse

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to seek to explore faculty perceptions versus actual student usage of print and online, full‐text articles.

Design/methodology/approach Surveys were given to faculty and their students at four Penn State campuses. Both the six‐question instructor survey and the 11‐question student survey related to article retrieval for one particular class assignment.

Findings Data gathered from the surveys surprisingly indicated that faculty are overestimating student use of online articles and underestimating their use of print. This study also showed that a majority of students will reject an article that is not available online in full‐text.

Research limitations/implications In this study there was a discrepancy between students stating that they knew to cite online sources differently from print sources, and faculty stating that they could tell the percentage of online articles used from their students' bibliographies. In future studies, more of an emphasis would be placed on measuring faculty knowledge of citing online resources.

Practical implications This paper could be used to support the continued purchase of print resources. It could also be used to support the need for faculty to keep current on citing new technological formats and instructing their students on the same.

Originality/value This study was conceived in an attempt to statistically verify not only faculty perceptions of full‐text use, but also librarians' perceptions of faculty and student article practices. While a literature search produced several studies on faculty perceptions of internet usage, few were found that touched specifically on full‐text articles.

Imler, B. B., & Hall, R. (2009). Full-Text Articles: Faculty Perceptions, Student Use, and Citation Abuse. Reference Services Review 37(1), 65-72.

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Work Title Full-text articles: faculty perceptions, student use, and citation abuse
Access
Open Access
Creators
  1. Bonnie Imler
  2. Russell Hall
Keyword
  1. Electronic journals
  2. User studies
  3. Students
  4. Reading
  5. Library users
  6. Print media
License CC BY-SA 4.0 (Attribution-ShareAlike)
Work Type Article
Publisher
  1. Reference Services Review
Publication Date February 13, 2009
Publisher Identifier (DOI)
  1. https://doi.org/10.1108/00907320910935002
Deposited July 21, 2022

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Version 1
published

  • Created
  • Updated
  • Added Creator Bonnie Imler
  • Added Creator Russell Hall
  • Added Full-text_articles_faculty_pe.pdf
  • Updated License Show Changes
    License
    • https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
  • Published
  • Updated Work Title, Keyword, Publisher, and 3 more Show Changes
    Work Title
    • Full-Text Articles: Faculty Perceptions, Student Use, and Citation Abuse
    • Full-text articles: faculty perceptions, student use, and citation abuse
    Keyword
    • Full-text articles, citation, libraries, library instruction
    • Electronic journals, User studies, Students, Reading, Library users, Print media
    Publisher
    • Emerald
    • Reference Services Review
    Publisher Identifier (DOI)
    • https://doi.org/10.1108/00907320910935002
    Description
    • Purpose
    • The purpose of this paper is to seek to explore faculty perceptions versus actual student usage of print and online, full‐text articles.
    • Design/methodology/approach
    • Surveys were given to faculty and their students at four Penn State campuses. Both the six‐question instructor survey and the 11‐question student survey related to article retrieval for one particular class assignment.
    • Findings
    • Data gathered from the surveys surprisingly indicated that faculty are overestimating student use of online articles and underestimating their use of print. This study also showed that a majority of students will reject an article that is not available online in full‐text.
    • Research limitations/implications
    • In this study there was a discrepancy between students stating that they knew to cite online sources differently from print sources, and faculty stating that they could tell the percentage of online articles used from their students' bibliographies. In future studies, more of an emphasis would be placed on measuring faculty knowledge of citing online resources.
    • Practical implications
    • This paper could be used to support the continued purchase of print resources. It could also be used to support the need for faculty to keep current on citing new technological formats and instructing their students on the same.
    • Originality/value
    • This study was conceived in an attempt to statistically verify not only faculty perceptions of full‐text use, but also librarians' perceptions of faculty and student article practices. While a literature search produced several studies on faculty perceptions of internet usage, few were found that touched specifically on full‐text articles.
    • Imler, B. B., & Hall, R. (2009). Full-Text Articles: Faculty Perceptions, Student Use, and Citation Abuse. Reference Services Review 37(1), 65-72.
    Publication Date
    • 2009
    • 2009-02-13
  • Updated