Discussion
Random question about scholarly journals; do the number of academic libraries wanting to subscribe to a journal play a role in determining its impact factor? I don't mean getting it as part of a bundle, I mean specifically *wanting* it in their collection?
Second random question; do requests for journals from the academics at an institution play a determining role in what its library subscribes to? I mean a formal and transparent one.
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@strypey Can answer the second one - with the caveat that my knowledge is more than a decade old: yes. Been on library acquisition committees. Definitely considered input from academics at the institution when making acquisitions of books and subscriptions
@strypey Impact factor is supposed to be determined solely by the citation graph.
Academics can request journals, but I don't know how much effect that has in today's world where everything is bundled.
The reason I ask is that I'm thinking about how we determine the relative quality of different information sources and curators. And the relative value of follows (eg here on social media platforms) vs. *paid* subscriptions, as a measure of media quality.
I don't have to pay to follow a fediverse account, so I'm more likely to suck it and see. Where I have to pay to subscribe to something - especially given I'm usually broke - that's much more powerful as an implicit recommendation.
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