Would it not be correct to assume that 'big deals' must be having the same
'distorting' effect? If only 10 percent of users (let's not, for the
moment, get into how those users are defined) don't have access via a 'big
deal' to the journals of the biggest commercial publishers, surely those
will also be more highly cited than those to which far fewer have access
Sure. The difference is, you don't see people going around using enhanced
impact factor as an argument in favor of the big deal.
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Rick Anderson
rickand@unr.edu
but, one does frequently see usage figures cited in support of big deals.
The same distortion applies there as well -- availability promotes usage,