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If the success
of traditional paper journals can be measured by the number of subscribers,
then the success of web journals can be gauged by the "access
statistics" that are electronically prepared for each website. |
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Access statistics measure the number
of hits, i.e., visits, to any single part of the
sitea page, a picture, etc. They also measure the number of sessionsor
visits whereby a user navigates through the site and looks at several
pages. Perhaps the most accurate measure of the number of people accessing
a particular article or review, however, are the page views.
They measure the hits to a file ending in .html, which, in our case,
means an article or a review in the journal. |
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The statistics of the last twelve
months indicate that NCAW on the average had 383,000
hits per month, with a high in March 2005 of 489,831that is, close
to half a million. That same month the number of page views was 58,535
and the number of sessions 26,340. Dividing those numbers by 31, we
arrive at an average of hits, per day, of 40,819 and an average of
page views of 4,878. |
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Electronic statistics also measure the number
of "KB sent," which means the number of kilobytes downloaded
as a result of user visits. For March, for example, the number was
7,864,761. While this number, in itself, does not tell us much, it
does suggest that the articles and pictures published in NCAW have
a life beyond the site, as they are downloaded, printed out, Xeroxed,
and made part of power point presentations. |
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Access statistics prove that electronic journals,
like NCAW, enjoy a great deal of traffic and give
broad exposure to the articles and reviews that are published in it.
Of course, they provide no clue as to the nature of its readership,
though it is doubtlessly more diversified than the readership of traditional
journals, demographically as well as geographically. |
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In the "Editor's Welcome" of the spring
of this year, we quoted Pamela Burdman, author of an article on electronic
publishing in the New York Times (June 26, 2004),
who wrote, "Free and widespread distribution of new research
has the potential to redefine the way scientific and intellectual
developments are recorded, circulated and preserved for years to come."
Burdman was talking primarily about scientific journals, but we feel
her words are true for the humanities as well. Over the past years
three and a half years, NCAW has brought together
groups interested in nineteenth-century art that normally have little
contact. Academics, museum directors and curators, dealers, collectors,
and auctioneers, all have expressed interest in the journal and have
contributed to it in one way or anotherby submitting articles, reviews,
and information; by making donations; and by providing suggestions
for improvements to the site. They have helped making NCAW
a fuller and richer journal. NCAW has also managed
to attract a more international group of contributors and readers
than do most traditional journals, and although we still have a way
to go to make it truly worldwide, we are working steadily to achieve
this goal. |
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