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Diversity in the e‐journal use and information‐seeking behaviour of UK researchers

David Nicholas (CIBER, Department of Information Studies, University College London, London, UK)
Ian Rowlands (CIBER, Department of Information Studies, University College London, London, UK)
Paul Huntington (CIBER, Department of Information Studies, University College London, London, UK)
Hamid R. Jamali (Department of Library and Information Studies, Faculty of Psychology and Education, Tarbiat Moallem University, Tehran, Iran)
Patricia Hernández Salazar (University Centre for Library Science Research, National Autonomous University of México, Mexico City, México)

Journal of Documentation

ISSN: 0022-0418

Article publication date: 27 April 2010

2286

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present some of the results of the project “Evaluating the usage and impact of e‐journals in the UK”. The particular research reported here evaluated the use of the ScienceDirect journals database with regard to Life Sciences, Economics, Chemistry, Earth & Environmental Sciences and Physics by ten major UK research institutions. The aim of the study is to investigate researchers' digital behaviour, and to ascertain whether their use and behaviours varied by subjects and disciplines, or in relation to the institutions in which they worked.

Design/methodology/approach

Raw logs for ScienceDirect were obtained for the period January to April 2007, were subject to deep log techniques and analysed using the Software Package for Social Sciences (SPSS).

Findings

Typically, 5 per cent of the ScienceDirect journals viewed accounted for a third to half of all use. A high proportion of researchers entered the ScienceDirect site via a third‐party site, and this was especially so in the case of the Life Sciences and in the highest‐ranked research institutions. There were significant institutional and subject differences in information‐seeking behaviour. In the most research‐intensive institutions, per capita journal use was highest and their users spent much less time on each visit. There were significant differences of the order of 100‐300 per cent in the age of material viewed between subjects and institutions. Just four months after ScienceDirect content was opened to Google indexing, a third of traffic to the site's Physics journals came via that route.

Originality/value

The research is one of the very few studies to investigate subject and institutional differences with regard to the information seeking and use of UK researchers, something UK academic librarians should particularly welcome.

Keywords

Citation

Nicholas, D., Rowlands, I., Huntington, P., Jamali, H.R. and Hernández Salazar, P. (2010), "Diversity in the e‐journal use and information‐seeking behaviour of UK researchers", Journal of Documentation, Vol. 66 No. 3, pp. 409-433. https://doi.org/10.1108/00220411011038476

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2010, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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