Christina engaging the biomedical researchers

Engaging Biomedical Researchers for RIC

Christina Murphy

STM Research Liaison Officer

Outline

Objective

Methodology

Who did we speak to?

Survey findings

Next steps on engaging biomedical researchers

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Objective

Gather evidence on researcher information behaviour across the biosciences community

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Methodology

A Survey Monkey questionnaire Disseminated to our target groups through a range of

marketing and media channels Encouraged to participate by relating to their research ‘pain

points’ + entry into a prize draw Follow-on interviews with 13 respondents

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Who Responded?

416 people responded in 6 weeks Survey targeted those involved in biomedical sciences research:

Wide range of professions, most were research scientists (67%)

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Survey Findings

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Storing, Sharing and Managing Documents

Findings:

Most respondents stored their research finding on their desktop computer or laptop (82%)

Most shared information using email (73%)

Researchers unwilling to share raw data and research materials

Most respondents used Endnote to manage their references (44%)

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Storing, Sharing and Managing Documents…Continued

Findings:

Most respondents did not use collaboration tools to share information (81%)

Collaboration tools may be used only for individual projects and not part of day-to-day research activities

The top priority for an online shared repository was to enable saving references and bookmarks automatically to a standard citation style

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Discussion forums

Findings:

Most respondents did not use an online forum to discuss ideas with others in the scientific community (78%)

Of those who did use a discussion forum, 13% used LinkedIn; other sites used were very specific to their research field

Used for social not research purposes

Top priority was to make it keyword searchable

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Finding collaborators

Findings:

Most respondents never used social networking sites to help them find collaborators (70%)

Would like to use more, but no time

Face-to-face networking at research-specific events still the main way to find collaborators/partners/clients

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Resource Discovery

Findings:

Most respondents used PubMed as the main online source for literature search (80%)

Top priority was to have an online resource discovery tool that enables a federated search across all information sources

Google is always used because of its superior search functionality

Need access to resources specific to individual projects on an ad hoc basis

Most subscribed to RSS but preferred to manage information by email

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Obtaining Funding

Findings:

Top priority was to enable a search for appropriate funding bodies

But actually want to know more about funding schemes

Need a secure and easy way to manage grant applications from multiple institutions

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Tools to Assist Experimentation

Findings:

Most respondents produced numerical research data (83%)

Most highly cited tools for analysing numerical data were Excel, Matlab and SPSS

Top priority was to provide access to relevant data and statistical analysis tools in one place

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Dissemination of Research Outputs

Findings:

Top priority was to help find an appropriate journal for publishing based on the researcher’s abstract

SMEs don’t necessarily need to publish research

But all need a structured system for collaborative generation of documents without emailing every version to every person

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Next Steps for BL Researcher Engagement

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Next Steps

More follow-up interviews with survey respondents

Engagement with biomedical researchers from various industry sectors

Growing Knowledge Exhibition – BL actively promoting RIC

RIC website

Beta test RIC V2.0 with biomedical researchers

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THANKS FOR LISTENING!Contact Christina Murphy,

Research Liaison Officer, STM, The British Library

E: christina.murphy@bl.uk

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