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WINTER 2012 - National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and ...

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Patricia Shields, N<strong>and</strong>hini Rangarajan, <strong>and</strong> Lewis Stewart<br />

Research purpose.<br />

The two-course sequence that distinguishes the Texas State University<br />

capstone process is unique because students are required to find a research topic<br />

<strong>and</strong> develop their purpose <strong>and</strong> conceptual framework in specific ways. Students<br />

must use one <strong>of</strong> the following five research purposes—exploration, description,<br />

gauging, decision making, or explanation. Of the five, explanation is the only<br />

one that addresses the more complex “why” questions. It is also the research<br />

purpose associated with hypotheses testing, impact evaluation, <strong>and</strong> multivariate<br />

statistical analysis. If explanation is considered the most sophisticated research<br />

purpose by many, then one would expect there to be more interest among the<br />

public in downloading those ARPs with an explanatory research purpose. Hence:<br />

H2: Use <strong>of</strong> an explanatory research purpose positively affects<br />

the number <strong>of</strong> full-text downloads for ARPs.<br />

Survey research.<br />

Surveys are particularly useful in describing the characteristics <strong>of</strong> a large<br />

population. Therefore, it is the generalizable nature <strong>of</strong> survey results that could<br />

potentially increase download rates. Hence:<br />

H3: Use <strong>of</strong> surveys as a research method positively affects<br />

the number <strong>of</strong> full-text downloads for ARPs.<br />

Award winner.<br />

One would expect that higher-quality research would be downloaded at<br />

higher numbers. One measure <strong>of</strong> quality is an award. Hence:<br />

H4: Winning awards positively affects the number <strong>of</strong><br />

full-text downloads for ARPs.<br />

Search Engine Optimization<br />

Aside from content, there are characteristics <strong>of</strong> the paper that enhance the<br />

likelihood a search engine could find it. For example, the longer an ARP is<br />

on the repository, the more likely it is to be found <strong>and</strong> downloaded. Hence,<br />

the longer an ARP is available on the institutional repository, the greater the<br />

opportunity for downloads. If a popular keyword is in the title, the paper is more<br />

likely to be downloaded. Two-part titles are more likely than one-part titles to<br />

contain one <strong>of</strong> these words.<br />

Google Scholar is a popular search engine for academic work. Google<br />

Scholar archives academic work, including dissertations, theses, <strong>and</strong> Applied<br />

Research Projects. Each Google Scholar entry gives the number <strong>of</strong> citations for<br />

each reference within the Google Scholar database; <strong>and</strong> citations <strong>of</strong> theses <strong>and</strong><br />

ARPs are counted. Hence, every entry in an ARP’s bibliography is counted as<br />

a citation in Google Scholar for the associated reference. Therefore, one would<br />

expect ARPs with larger bibliographies to generate more downloads. Texas State<br />

166 Journal <strong>of</strong> <strong>Public</strong> <strong>Affairs</strong> Education

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