Researchers’ e-journal use and information seeking behaviour

• Published in: Journal of information science Vol. 36; no. 4; pp. 494 - 516
• Main Authors: Nicholas, David, Williams, Peter, Rowlands, Ian, Jamali, Hamid R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.08.2010; Sage Publications; Bowker-Saur Ltd
• Subjects: C (programming language); Communities; Electronic periodicals; Electronic publishing; Exact sciences and technology; Impact analysis; Information and communication sciences; Information processing and retrieval; Information retrieval; Information retrieval. Man machine relationship; Information science. Documentation; Information seeking behavior; Information seeking behaviour; Joints; Library and information science. General aspects; Logs; On-line systems; Readers; Research process. Evaluation; Researchers; Scholarly publishing; Sciences and techniques of general use; Studies; Use and user studies. Information needs; User behavior; United Kingdom; Europe; United Kingdom > UK; information-seeking behaviour; researchers; e-journals; UK; Research worker; Survey; Electronic periodical; Scientific research; User study; Information retrieval; Searching behavior
• ISSN: 0165-5515; 1741-6485
• DOI: 10.1177/0165551510371883

This paper presents the results of the second phase of a Research Information Network study, which sought to establish the impact of e-journals on the scholarly behaviour of researchers in the UK. The first phase of the project was a deep log analysis of the usage and information seeking behaviour of researchers in connection with the ScienceDirect and Oxford Journals databases. This paper reports on the second phase, which sought to explain and provide context for the deep log data by taking the questions raised by the quantitative study to the research community via interview, questionnaire and observation. Nine major research institutions took part, six subjects were covered and the behaviour of about 1400 people was analyzed. Findings show that academic journals have become central to all disciplines and that the e-form is the prime means of access. Most importantly the study demonstrates that computer usage logs provide an accurate picture of online behaviour. High levels of gateway service use point to the re-intermediating of the broken chain between publisher and reader.