125 Are geography journals worth their cost? Geoforum

(Vol. 37, 2006) conducted a study of whether the price of a geography journal is correlated with quality. Several quantitative variables were recorded for each in a sample of 28 geography journals: cost of a one-year subscription

(dollars); journal impact factor (JIF), the average number of times articles from the journal have been cited;

number of citations for the journals over the past five years; and relative price index (RPI). The data for the 28 journals are saved in the GEOJRNL file. Selected observations are listed in the next table.

a. Fit a straight-line model relating cost ( y ) to JIF ( x ).

Give a practical interpretation of the estimated slope of the line.

b. Within how many dollars can you expect to predict cost?

c. Find and interpret a 95% confidence interval for the slope.

d. Repeat parts a–c for a line relating cost ( y ) to number of citations ( x ).

e. Repeat parts a–c for a line relating cost ( y ) to RPI ( x ).

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Journal Cost ($) JIF Citations RPI J. Econ. Geogr 468 3.139 207 1.16 Prog. Hum. Geog 624 2.943 544 0.77 T. I. Brit. Geogr 499 2.388 249 1.11 Econ. Geogr. 90 2.325 173 0.30 A. A. A. Geogr. 698 2.115 377 0.93 Geogr.Anal. 213 0.902 106 0.88 Geogr.J. 223 0.857 81 0.94 Appl.Geogr 646 0.853 74 3.38 Based on Blomley, N. "Is this journal worth US$1118?" Geoforum, Vol. 37, No. 6, p. 118.