Researching Researchers: What User Studies Tell Us

…researchers and students

Average Time Spent and Number of Articles Read Per Year Per Scientist

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

1977 1981 1984 1987 1991 1996 2000 2003

NumberRead

HoursSpent

The most up-to-date source for our research.

http://web.utk.edu/~tenopir/

Recent Studies:

Pediatricians and Australian universities

2004

Pittsburgh and Drexel faculty and students

2002-2003

Astronomers2001-2002

UTK medical, engineering, science and ORNL scientists

2000-2001

Use and Users of Electronic Library Resources: An Overview and Analysis of Recent Research Studies. Tenopir, Carol www.clir.org/pub/reports/pub120/pub120.pdf

Tier 1 studiesSTUDY PARTICIPANTS

SuperJournal

DLF/Outsell

HighWire/eJUSt

Pew/OCLC/ULC

OhioLINK

Tenopir & King

LibQual+

JSTOR

Students & faculty

Students & faculty

Scholars & clinicians

High school & College students

OhioLINK users

Scientists and social scientists

Students & faculty

JSTOR users

Tier 2 Studies

• Over 200 good studies in last decade• One time studies or small scale• Variety of methods• Together build our knowledge of user

behavior

1. Researchers use many ways to get information

2. E-journals influence some behaviors

3. Differences due to workfield, workplace, and others

Oral Communication

Written Reports

Secondary Publications Articles

Rev

iew

s

Discussions

Communication Means

Scientists Working Photos

Data Sets

Direct Observations

Sounds

Conversations

Meetings Publications

Specimens Lab/Field notebook

Scientists Working Photos

Data Sets

Direct Observations

Sounds

Conversations

Meetings

Publications

Specimens Lab/Field notebook

• Proceedings

• Preprints

• Journal Articles

• Books

PhotosData Sets

Direct Observations

Sounds

Conversations

Meetings Publications

Specimens Lab/Field notebook

Scientists Working

Average Annual Amount Reading

0

50

100

150

200

250

ScholaryJournals

TradeJournals

Books Reports Patents

Engineers

Scientists

MedicalProfessionals

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

ScholarlyJournals

TradeJournals

Books Reports Patents

Engineers

Scientists

MedicalProfessionals

Average Annual Amount of time (Hours) spent reading

(Hrs)

Average Annual Amount (Hours) of time spent for e-mails

86

239

110

0

50

100

150

200

250

Engineers Scientists MedicalProfessionals

(Hrs.)

Amount of Reading by Scientists

Number of Annual Readings

0

50

100

150

200

250

UT 1993Negligible

UT 2000 Partial

DU 2002 Nearly All

Print Electronic

187160

41

117

100

“Electronic” articles include:

Sources of Reading

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

AAS ORNL UTK

Paper

Other e-

E-prints

E-journals

2. E-journals and e-alternatives influence reading patterns in some ways

Active Journal CharacteristicsUlrichsweb, October 2003

Number of active online refereed or scholarly periodicals ~15,000

Number of active online periodicals~35,000

Total number of active periodicals~180,000

Journal Migration

0

2,000

4,000

6,000

8,000

10,000

12,000

98 99 00 01 02 03

Print ElectronicSource: Montgomery and King, “Comparing Library and User Related Costs of Print and Electronic Journal Collections” in D-Lib October 2002. Available at http://wwww.dlib.org/dlib/october02/montgomery/10montgomery.html

Use of the Collections

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

1998 1999 2000 2001 2002

Online* Print - Current Print - Bound

(000)

*No. of vendor-reported full-text views. C. Montgomery

Print & Electronic Serial Titles in Australian and New Zealand Academic

Libraries

Source: CAUL Statistics http://www.caul.edu.au/stats/caul2002-pub.xls

Print and Electronic Titles

Electronic Titles

Print

Electronic

253,627

17%

1,245,424

83%

Individual Electronic Serial Titles

Titles Within a Single Publisher CollectionTitles Within aggregations

43,301

4% 78,385

6%

1,123,738

90%

128Science

134Humanities

110Math/Eng/Tech

164Health/Life Science

218Social Science/Bus/Law

Number of JournalsDirectories

Directory of Open Access Journals

Total of 822 Journals at DOAJ, 2003, Lund University LibrariesSource:http://www.doaj.org DOAJ-Directory of Open Access Journals

Studies Show Scientists Prefer Electronic:

• Convenience• Ability to search across/within articles• Timeliness/currency• Links• Downloading/printing/saving/sending• Easy access to a wide variety of sources

Source of Articles Read By Electronic Journals Experience

Early

PersonalLibrarySeparates

Evolving

Advanced37%

48%

15%

15.2%

49%

35.8%46%

41%

13%

Source of Articles Read at Drexel

Faculty

46%42%

12%

Personal Subscriptions Library-Provided Separate Copies

14%

76%

11%

Doctoral Students

Library-Provided Articles at Drexel

Faculty

70%

14%16%

Print Electronic Document Delivery

16%

77%

12%

Doctoral Students

Sources of Readings

Scientists appear to be reading frommore journals—at least one article peryear from approximately 23 journals, upfrom 13 in the late 1970s and 18 in themid-1990s.

% and amount of readings fromseparate copies

use of personal subscriptions

How Scientists Learned About Articles

Early Evolving Advanced

Browsing

Online Search

Citations

Colleagues

58% 46% 21%

16% 22% 21%

6% 13% 16%

9% 14% 39%

1990-1995 2000-2001 2001-

62.3%

20.8%

16.9%

MeansMeans ofof LearningLearning AboutAbout ArticlesArticles ReadRead

Medical Faculty

Browse

Search

Other 39%

21%37%

Astronomers

22%

29%49%

Universities

Means of Discovery at Drexel

Faculty

Browsing Online Searching

Citation in Publication

Graduate Students

33%

35%

12%

20%56%20%

15%

9%

Another Person

C. Montgomery

Age of Reading from Digital Media

Advanced

64%

23%

8%5%

1 years2-5 years

6-15 years

>15 years

Early

65%

23%

7% 5%

Evolving

68.8%

20.8%

6.9%

3.5%

0102030405060708090

100

Definitivejournals

Definitive e-prints

Keep Upjournals

Keep Up e-prints

Perceived value of Resource

Productive Astronomers

3. Differences in reading patterns due to workfield, workplace, etc.

Scholarly Article Reading

38121~191Soc Sci/Psych

26104~239Life Scientists

Time Per Article (Min)

Time Spent (Hours)

Articles Read (Per Year)

Work Field

8197~72Engineers

45153~204Physicists

43198~276Chemists22118~322Univ. Med.

Print or ElectronicPrint or Electronic byby Broad Field: University Broad Field: University of Pittsburghof Pittsburgh

58.9%

All

41.1%

ElectronicPrint

PrintElectronic

45.0% 55.0%

Scientists

Print

Electronic26.8%

73.2%

Non-Scientists

Print or Electronic

Electronic

Print

Astronomers

Medical Faculty

Universities

80 %

20 %

75 %

25 %

63 %37 %

62.3%

20.8%

16.9%

MeansMeans ofof LearningLearning AboutAbout ArticlesArticles ReadRead

Medical Faculty

Browse

Search

Other 39%

21%37%

Astronomers

22%

29%49%

Universities

A few words about research methods…

What Conclusions Can You Draw?

§ Usage logs §What groups do

§ Interviews/surveys/ § Opinion, what individuals and journals groups say they do in general

and why§ Critical (last) incident §What individuals say they do

specifically and why§ Observational/ §What individuals do in a

Experimental controlled or natural settingand why

§ Citation Analysis §What authors cite

Learning About Users and Usage

Opinions, preferences (individual)

Usage logs Critical incident (readings), Experimental

Citations

“Convenience drives usage of e-journals…and it is a relative term among scholars.”

Stanford e-Just

“What is convenient for one scholar is not necessarily convenient for others. With their own idiosyncratic approaches to both print journals and online information, and with their own configuration of professional strengths, histories, and needs, scholars patch together systems that work for them in their context.”

Stanford e-Just