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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 />

Table 7.<br />

Average Downloads by Research Method<br />

Research Method* % <strong>of</strong> 290<br />

ARPs<br />

172 Journal <strong>of</strong> <strong>Public</strong> <strong>Affairs</strong> Education<br />

% <strong>of</strong> 136,072<br />

Downloads† Mean Median SD<br />

Interview 25.9% 28.6% 519.1 411.0 399.7<br />

Focus group 3.8% 4.3% 531.5 380.0 485.2<br />

Document analysis 26.6% 25.6% 452.6 402.0 303.6<br />

Case study 18.3% 18.5% 475.4 429.0 332.5<br />

Survey 44.8% 43.2% 451.7 367.5 360.6<br />

Content analysis 16.9% 16.8% 465.4 390.0 314.4<br />

Existing aggregated data 20.7% 21.6% 489.1 408.5 370.7<br />

Operations research 1.7% 2.7% ** ** **<br />

Totals 469.2 395.0 367.8<br />

* Use <strong>of</strong> more than one is possible.<br />

† Downloads as <strong>of</strong> August 18, 2009<br />

** Too few downloads for meaningful averages<br />

Multivariate Statistics<br />

Results <strong>of</strong> the regression analysis are presented in Table 8. The regression<br />

results revealed an R 2 <strong>of</strong> .15. Fifteen percent <strong>of</strong> the variance in ARP downloads<br />

was due to the combined influence <strong>of</strong> the independent variables used in this<br />

study. The results <strong>of</strong> this regression analysis provided support only for hypotheses<br />

1, 5, 8, <strong>and</strong> 9, which relate to the influence <strong>of</strong> state government related topic,<br />

serial number, Google Scholar citation, <strong>and</strong> Wikipedia entry on ARP downloads.<br />

These four independent variables influenced ARP downloads in the hypothesized<br />

direction. We hypothesized that state government related topic, Google Scholar<br />

citation, <strong>and</strong> Wikipedia entry would have a positive impact on ARP downloads<br />

<strong>and</strong> that serial number would have a negative impact on ARP downloads.<br />

The independent variable with the highest impact on ARP downloads was<br />

Wikipedia reference.<br />

Analysis <strong>of</strong> descriptive statistics revealed that ARPs referenced in Wikipedia<br />

accounted for only 7% <strong>of</strong> the full set <strong>of</strong> 290 ARPs <strong>and</strong> yet their download<br />

averages—at 788.2—far exceeded the download averages experienced by those<br />

not referenced in Wikipedia. This result is substantiated by regression results,<br />

which show that a Wikipedia entry <strong>of</strong> an ARP (� = .25, p < .01) contributes 355<br />

downloads to the total downloads for that particular ARP. Serial number had a

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