TITLE:
Students’ Journal Paper Citing and Choice of Publisher: The Mediating Roles of Impact Factor and H-Index as Bibliometric Measures
AUTHORS:
Abdul Razak Ahmed, Xiaoyang Zhang, Shi Yu
KEYWORDS:
Journal Citation Preference, Impact Factor, H-Index, Research Publications
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Access Library Journal,
Vol.6 No.9,
September
3,
2019
ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between journal citation preference (JCP) of scholars and their choice for publisher (CP) for their research papers. The study also considers the mediating roles played by journal impact factor (IF) and H-index (HI) on this relationship. Multiples linear regression analysis and the PROCESS Macro statistical tool were used to assess the main effects and mediating effects between the studied variables. From findings, CP had a 49.1%, 66.7% and 53.0% chance of its variations being explained by a unit increase in JCP, IF and HI respectively. In practical sense, the decision of a research student for a journal paper publisher is explained by the type of journal papers cited in the study up to about 50.0%, ceteris paribus. Impact factor (IF) played a significant mediating role on the relationship between JCP and CP with an r2 of 0.588 against a 0.434 direct effect. Fir HI, an r2 of 0.086 against a direct effect coefficient of 0.434 did not show significant mediation. It implies therefore that CP is influenced mostly by IF of journals.