Cross-linking and JIPLP: more about the experiment

A month ago, this weblog reported on the launch of a cross-linking trial for which a number of Oxford University Press journals, including JIPLP, were selected. Cross-linking is a system for drawing to the attention of an online reader the existence of other articles, notes and relevant features on the same topic or at least a similar one.

The JIPLP team has now learned that the trial is going well. Initial findings from the trial are as follows:

• On average, users who clicked on a recommendation link view 13.82 pages. Users on a journal website which is not exposed to a recommendation service view 7.76 pages. 

• On average, users who clicked on a recommendation link spend 7.42 minutes engaged in their session when compared to a user on a journal website not exposed to a recommendation service, who will be engaged for just 3.91 minutes. 

• On average, engagement on recommended articles is 24.09 seconds. Engagement on all other types of usage is 29.67 seconds. 

• On average, the exit rate for readers who click on a recommended page is 10%, compared to 25% for readers who visit on non-recommended pages.

This is really encouraging, says OUP, which will continue to monitor the usage of the links as the trial goes on.  When there is further data, it is planned to report on online reading habits of JIPLP readers as contrasted with the other journals in the experiment.