OSU Libraries
Collection Development
Library Evaluation for Category I Proposal
Restructuring of the graduate degree program in Economics
Title of Proposal
Economics
Department
College
The subject librarian responsible for collection development in the pertinent curricular
area has assessed whether the existing library collections and services can support the
proposal. Based on this review, the subject librarian concludes that present collections
and services are:
[ ] inadequate to support the proposal (see budget needs below)
[x] marginally adequate to support the proposal
[ ] adequate to support the proposal
Estimated funding needed to upgrade collections or services to support the proposal
(details are attached)
Year 1:
Ongoing (annual):
Comments and Recommendations:
Oregon State University Libraries economics collections suffer in comparison to those of
the peer institutions mentioned in the Category 1 proposal (Ohio State University,
University of California and Michigan State University). See attached report.
Date Received: 6/26/06
Date Completed: 7/26/06
Margaret Mellinger
Subject Librarian
Sign&e
Laurel Kristick
Head of Collection Development
Karyle Butcher
University Librarian
Date
d
7/27/06
Date
Date
Oregon State University Libraries Evaluation of the
Collection supporting:
Restructuring of the Graduate Degree Programs in
Economics
This library assessment reviews the monographic and serials collections as
related to core Economic literature and the emphases of the Economics
department: econometrics, industrial organization, and international
economics. For other areas of study, see the library evaluation for the
Applied Economics program, which is submitted simultaneously with this
assessment.
We compared Oregon State University Libraries monographic collections to
those of Michigan State University, University of California Davis, and Ohio
State University, which were mentioned a s peer programs in the proposal.
We also looked at collecting levels of the comparators over the past fifteen
years. I n general we find the monograph collection is adequate to support
masters-level work; the lack of books in some areas of Economics can be filled
by our consortia1 lending agreements with other Pacific Northwest Libraries
in the OrbisICascade Alliance.
For serials, we measured the depth of OSU collections using the ISIThompson Journal Citation Report (JCR)list of top titles in Economics. To
measure the breadth of OSU's journal collection, we noted where Economics
faculty have published and whether OSU Libraries subscribe to these titles.
The journal collection is stronger than the monograph collection, and OSU
Libraries subscribes to all but one of the top Economics journals listed in the
JCR.
Data collections are a n area of collecting that would not have been addressed
in the original proposals for the Economics program. Datasets are essential
for the work of faculty and graduate students, and can be difficult to locate
and costly to acquire.
Monographs:
The 2000 collection assessment for Economics placed the monographs
collection at WLN Level 3c, or adequate to support masters level research.
The Economics collection suffers overall in comparison to Michigan State
University, The Ohio State University, and University of California, Davis.
However, students and faculty can order from the collections of all the
libraries in the Orbis Cascade Alliance through the Summit catalog.
University of Oregon, Portland State University, University of Washington
and Washington State University are some of the larger research libraries
represented in the Summit catalog. Books t h a t are requested through
Summit are delivered to OSU Libraries within three working days.
Appendix A shows the collecting levels in the main areas of emphasis for the
Economics department at OSU.
Government Documents:
OSU Libraries is a federal depository for government documents. Many of
the government documents t h a t are useful for Economics are freely available
online and are represented in the OSU Libraries online catalog.
Journal Impact FactorJCited Half-Life:
We checked the OSU Libraries journal holdings against the list of twenty top
Economics journals listed i n Thompson-ISI's Journal Citation Report. The
Journal Citation Report assigns a n "impact factor" providing a means to
compare or evaluate a journal's relative importance i n the field. OSU
Libraries' currently subscribes to nineteen of the twenty journals listed. We
do not hold the Journal of Economic Geography (impact factor 3.222; third i n
the list of 20). It may not be important to add this journal, as it is not one of
the areas of focus of the Economics department. The cost of the journal is
$422 per year for the online only version.
The list of journals and our holdings is i n Appendix B.
Faculty publishing:
As a measure of breadth we checked the curriculum vitae of the Economics
faculty to see where they were publishing. For those vitae that were
available online, we identified 100 journals. We found that OSU Libraries
subscribes to 90 of these publications, although not always with full runs of
the journal. Many are available online only from 1996 or 1997 forward.
Appen& Clists these titles and OSU holdings.
Interlibrary Loan Activity:
We use Interlibrary Loan (ILL) statistics to gauge the need for new serial
titles. The library pays copyright fees after we have requested articles from
any particular journal more t h a n five times. Once the copyright fees reach a
rate t h a t compares to the subscription costs of the journal, we pursue
subscription.
ILL statistics
for January 2004---2006
--- - -~~harmaco~conomics.
I~nternationaljournal of production economics.
Environment and development economics.
h.7
Health economics.
/~onstruction
management and economics.
small business economics.
'13
(13
~~conomics
of educatioil review,
[~ournal
of economic psychology.
p
I
Journal of forest economics.
Journal of sports economics.
These journals are not core Economics journals and do not represent the
major areas of emphasis in the Economics department. I n general, the
serials collections seem to be adequate to support Ph. D level work in
Economics
Electronic Access to Journals
OSU Libraries recent subscriptions to online journal packages, such a s
Springer, Wiley, and Elsevier have expanded electronic access and in most
cases cover the years 1996-to the present.
Working papers are important sources in Economics, giving researchers a
forum for new ideas without the lag time of some of the major journals.
National Bureau of Economic Research's NBER WorkingPapers (online only
would be a good addition to the OSU Libraries
access is $725 per
collection.
OSU Libraries is considering the Berkeley Electronic Press (bepress)
package; at least three Economics faculty members have published in one of
these journals, and bepress itself reports that many students and faculty are
viewing articles from the journals. The goal of bepress is to produce rapidlyreviewed, high-quality journals, and their low prices are a n appealing
alternative to high- priced journals. These attributes are innovations i n the
process of scholarly communication and help authors and libraries, alike.
Titles and institutional subscription rates for Berkeley Electronic Press
(bepress) Economics Journals:
I
1
The Economists' Voice
1
http ://www.bepress.com/ev/
Package of all B.E. Journals i n Macroeconomics titles
(Frontiers, Advances, Contributions, & Topics)
http~//www.bepress.com/beim/
1
Package of all B.E. Journals in Theoretical Economics
titles (Frontiers, Advances, Contributions, & Topics)
http ://www.bepress.com/beite/
Package of all B.E. Journals in Economic Analysis &
Policy titles (Frontiers, Advances, Contributions, &
Topics), http :l~www.bepress.com/beieap/
Studies i n Nonlinear Dynamics and Econometrics,
http ://www.bepress.co~/snde/
Global Economy Journal
http ://www .bepress.com/gei/
Peace Economics, Peace Science & Public Policy,
httn ://WWW
.bepress.com/peps/
Forum for Health Economics & Policy,
http ://www .bepress.com/fhep/
Review of Law and Economics
http ://www.bepress.com/rle/
Total
I
$300
1
$500
$300
$450
$140
$200
$300
$485
$225
$2900
Datasets
Datasets are important for faculty and student researchers. OSU Libraries is
a member of the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social
Research (ICPSR), which maintains and provides access to a vast archive of
social science data for research and instruction, and offers training in
quantitative methods to facilitate effective data use. The Libraries also have
a subscription to Compustat data through the Research Insight package.
This subscription costs over $16,000 a year, and is in the final year of a three
year license agreement. OSU Libraries have been subsidizing Compustat for
the past two years with special funding, which will cease a t the end of 2006.
Other universities have access to products such as Datastream or
LehmanLive (index funds, $2,500 per
These examples show that while
many datasets are freely available through the World Wide Web, other
datasets are quite costly.
1
The Economics department should consider the types of data that Economics
faculty and graduate students need to be successful a t Oregon State
University. We recommend that Economics devise a means (with or without
the library and/or other units on campus) to create a fund that could be used
to purchase data for faculty, especially new faculty and graduate students.
Subject-SpecificIndexes and Abstracts
OSU Libraries subscribes to EconLit, the American Economics Association's
electronic bibliography of economics literature throughout the world. EconLit
contains abstracts, indexing, and links to full-text articles in economics
journals. I t abstracts books and indexes articles in books, working papers
series, and dissertations. EconLit is the primary index for Economics
literature.
Other OSU Libraries subscription databases that can be useful for Economics
literature are :
Business Source Premier (articles)
Lexis Nexis Academic (news and other articles, and SEC reports)
Lexis Nexis Statistical (access to the American Statistical Index and
Statistical Reference Index )
Historical Statistics of the United States
Subject Librarian Support:
OSU Libraries will be searching for a new subject librarian to cover
Economics, Business and Economic Development. The new librarian should
begin duties by January, 2007.
Summary:
OSU Libraries collections are adequate to support the Economics program a s
proposed. However, we would like to stress t h a t our collections are not as
strong as those in the institutions that OSU Economics aspires to equal in
quality. We recommend t h a t the Economics department work with the
library to ensure that the collections we do have are of the highest impact,
and t h a t students and new faculty have access to the journals, books,
working papers, and data they need to do the work of a top-ten land grant
institution.
Respectfully submitted by:
Margaret Mellinger
Assistant Professor and Librarian,
Oregon State University Libraries
7/24/06
Appendix B: Top Twenty Economics Journals in JCR, impact factor and OSU Libraries holdings.
ECONOMICS
Rank Abbreviated Journal Title
[
j
r
-.-,
Impact
Factor
I
1
Q J ECON
0033-5533
4.775
2
J ECON LIT
0022-0515
4.054
11468-2702
3.222
-
1
ISSN
IJ ECON GEOGR
Not held
2.708 (
V.l (1982) to present
4
IJ HEALTH ECON
5
/ J ECON PERSPECT
0 8 9 5 - 3 5 ) 2.634
6
ECONOMETRICA
7
J ECON GROWTH
8
.-J FINANC ECON
~
0012-9682
1381-4338
I
1
/
10167-6296 1
3
OSU holdings
1 V.l (1987) to present
2.626
V.l (1933) to present
2.577
V.2 (1997) to present
0304-405X: 2.385 V.15 (1995) to present
P
--
9
J POLlT ECON
10
BROOKlNGS PAP ECO AC 0007-23031 2.1181
11
J RISK UNCERTAINTY
1 12
V. 1 (1892) to pr
0022-3808 : 2.245
1970Tpresent
1
0895-5646 ] 2.1 00 V.14 (1997) to present
REV ECON STUD
13
HEALTH ECON
14
J ACCOUNT ECON
'AM ECON REV
1 0002-8282 (
1
V. 1 (191 1) to present
57
v. 1 (1923) to present
0022-1996
1.667
V.l (1971) to present
0304-3932
1.661 V. 8 (1980) to pre
ECON GEOGR
J INT ECON
1.806
e '
J MONETARY ECON
1
J LAW ECON
20
IJ
ECONOMETRICS
1.609
10022-2186
10304-4076
/
1.579
V.l (1958) to ~resent
1 V. 7 (1978) to resent)
Appendix C: Journals in which Economics Faculty publish and OSU Libraries holdings
Journals in which Economics Faculty have published
Advances in Applied Microeconomics: Advertising and Differentiated Products
X
Economic Review
Journal of Agricultural Economics
Annals of Operations Research
Public and Cooperative Economics
x
x
A~~lie
Economics
d
Atlantic Economic Journal
2005
1997
Australian Journal of Statistics
Bulletin of Economic Research
Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics
x
x
Canadian Journal of Economics
X
-
Contemporary Economic Policy
Contributions to Macroeconomics
Eastern Economic Journal
-
x
-
Ecological Economics
-
-
x
x
x
Economic Development and Cultural Chanqe
Economic Inquiry
x
Economic Journal
x
Economic Theory
x
Economica
x
Economics Letters
x
Economics of Education Review
X
x
x
Enerqy Journal
Environment and Development Economics
X
-
Environmental and Resource Economics
European Economic Review
X
European Journal of Operations Research
x
Forest Science
x
-
I Health Care Management Science
x
I
x
I
Health Economics
/ormation
I
I
Economics and Policy
1
International Economic Review
International Journal of Advertising
International Journal of Industrial Organization,
International Journal of Manpower
International Journal of Operations and Production Management
2000
International Journal of Production Economics
x
International Tax and Public Finance
x
Journal of Industrial Economics
x
-
X
and Finance
x
X
Economics
x
Journal of Development Economics
Journal of Econometrics
of Economic Behavior and Organization
of Economic Development
of Economic Dynamics and Control
1991
x
-
x
x
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