Data From Tenopir & King

• 18,000+ scientists and social scientists

• 1977 to present

• University and non-university workplaces

• Mostly North America

• Recent studies of Astronomers, Medical faculty, faculty and students at several universities

Three Types of Data

Demographic

Estimates of behavior

Details of “last” reading

Articles:

“can include those found in journal issues, Web sites, or separate copies such as preprints, reprints, and other electronic or paper copies.”

Readings:

“going beyond the table of contents, title, and abstract to the body of the article.”

150172

188216

0

50

100

150

200

250

1977 1984 1993 2000-03

Average Articles Read per Scientist

Ave

rag

e n

um

ber

of

art

icle

s re

ad

per

scie

nti

st

Year of Studies

www.dlib.org/dlib/october03/king/10king.html

Scholarly Article Reading

Work Field Articles Read (Per

Year)

Time Spent

(Hours)

Time Per Article (Min)

Univ. Med. ~322 118 22

Chemists ~276 198 43

Life Scientists

~239 104 26

Physicists ~204 153 45

Soc Sci/Psych

~191 121 38

Engineers ~72 97 81

Average Annual Amount of 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)

Purpose and Ranking of Importance: University

MedicalPrimary Research

29.9%

Current Awareness

22.1%

Teaching 16.9%Writing 11.7%Other Purpose 9.0%Background 6.5%Consulting/Advising

3.9%

#3

#1

#7

#6

#5

#2

#4

Average Number of Personal Subscriptions to Scholarly

Journals

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

1977 1978-1983

1984 1985-1989

1990-1993

1994-1998

2000-2001

2002-2003

Years of Observation

Personal Subscriptions

All studies average 2.2 All UT science faculty average

3.8 Medical faculty average 6.3

Sources of Readings

Separate

Personal

Library

Astronomers

Medical Faculty

Universities

42.9 %

21.4 %35.7 %

22.1 %

15.6 %

62.3%

49 %

36 %

15 %

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

Educational Degree Print Electronic

M.D., only 33 1

Ph.D., only 18 17

Both M.D. and Ph.D. 1 0

Neither degree 4 0

Total 56 18

FormatFormat ofof ReadingReading

Astronomy Articles Read per Month vs. Productivity

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

Non-Prod Average Productive

Awareness and Use of ADS by Productive PhD

Astronomers

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Aware ADS Use ADS % Using

Young(<36)

Middle(36-50)

Old (>50)

Awareness and Use of ADS by not-Productive PhD

Astronomers

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Aware ADS Use ADS % Using

Young(<36)

Middle(36-50)

Old (>50)

Average Time Spent Reading Per Article by

Astronomers• U.S. astronomers (n=306) average 36 minutes• Non-U.S. astronomers (n=83) average 43 minutes

Source of Reading by Astronomers

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

U.S.

Non-U.S.

Tenopir and King, Communication Patterns of Engineers, NY: IEEE/Wiley, 2004

Use and Users of Electronic Use and Users of Electronic Library Resources: An Library Resources: An Overview and Analysis of Overview and Analysis of Recent Research Studies Recent Research Studies www.clir.org/pub/reports/puwww.clir.org/pub/reports/pub120/pub120.pdfb120/pub120.pdf

Patterns of Journal Use by Faculty at Three Diverse Universities. October 2003http://www.dlib.org/dlib/october03/king/10king.html

Future Studies

• Pediatricians

• University faculty and students in Australia

• University faculty and students in Finland

• Scientists in Chile and Brazil

• Tenopir & King surveys also being replicated in Cuba and Argentina