Electronic or Print: Are Scholarly Journals Still Important? Carol Tenopir, University of Tennessee, USA.

Electronic or Print:Are Scholarly Journals Still

Important?

Carol Tenopir, University of Tennessee, USA

Scholarly Journals

• Peer-reviewed

• Have an editorial voice

• Ongoing publication of articles

• Published by commercial publisher, scholarly society, or other entity

Why Scholarly Journals are Important

1. Scientists read a lot

2. Information in journals is essential

3. Scientists use many ways to get articles

4. Electronic journals are adopted when it is easier

5. Fields have core journals and peripheral

Data From

• 15,000 scientists

• All fields of science

• University and non-university settings

• Over 100 organizations

1. Scientists Read a Lot

Average Number of Scholarly Article Readings Per Year

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

1977 1978-1983

1984 1985-1989

1990-1993

1994-1998

2000-2001

Years of Observation

Scholarly Article Readings by Work Field

• Engineers ~ 72 articles per year

• Physicists ~ 204 articles per year

• Chemists ~ 276 articles per year

• University medical faculty ~ 322 articles per year

Time Spent Reading

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

1977 78/83 1984 85/89 90/93 94/98 00/01

Total Scientists

Time Spent Reading by Work Field

97118

153

198

0

50

100

150

200

Hou

rs s

pen

t R

ead

ing/

Yea

r

Engineers Medical faculty Physicists Chemists

Time spent reading per article

81 minutes per articleEngineers

45 minutes per articlePhysicists

43 minutes per articleChemists

22 minutes per articleUniversity Medical Faculty

2. The Information Found in Journals Is Essential

What Scientists Are Reading

• Approx. 50% of readings contain information that is new to the reader

• Over 35% of readings are of articles older than one year

• Older articles tend to be more valuable to scientists’ work

Usefulness of Article Content

• Achievers read more than others

• Many purposes of reading

• Journals are important compared with other resources

Value of Article Content

• Considerable savings result

• Improved productivity, quality, and timeliness of work

• Users are “willing to pay” for information in time

3. Scientists Use a Variety of Ways to Get Journal Articles

Average Annual Price Increase (%) in Scientific Journals

0.00%

2.00%

4.00%

6.00%

8.00%

10.00%

12.00%

1960-1975

1967-1986

1972-1988

1975-1995

1991-1995

1995-1998

1998-2000

Time Periods Examined

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

Years of Observation

Proportion of Readings of Scholarly Scientific Articles

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

Personal Library-Provided Other

1977 1993-1998

Sources of reading- ORNL scientists

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

PersonalSubscription

LibrarySubscription

Shared Dept/Unit

Collection

Separate Copy

1984

2000

4. Scientists Use Electronic Journals When It Is Easier

arXiv.org

• Connections averaged 61,000 per day in February 2002

• 35,000 new papers in 2001

• Each article gets an average of 300 downloads per year

E-print Use by ORNL Scientists (2000)

• E-prints account for 3.6% of all reading

• 1/3 of ORNL scientists are aware of arXiv.org

• 1/4 are aware of DOE PrePrint Network

E-print Use by Astronomers (2001)

• E-prints account for 21.6% of all reading

• 85% of AAS members are aware of arXiv.org or the subset astro-ph

• 4.7% aware of DOE PrePrint Network

Bibliographic Database Impact

• A strong, linked db leads to journal use

• 90% of all Medline searches are in PubMed

• Today, the number of PubMed searches ranges from 1/2 to over one million per day

• 96.5% of astronomers know and use ADS

• Half of them read 6 or more articles per month as a result of ADS use

Reasons for Reading More Separates

• Increase in readings 7.5% in 1984

identified by 13.3% in 2000

online searches

• Increase in readings 8.6% in 1984

identified by 24.0% in 2000

other persons

Electronic Journal Reading

• ORNLScientists– 17.3% Ejournal

– 3.6% eprints

– 14% other electronic

– 35% Total electronic

• AAS Members– 52.7% Ejournal

– 21.6% eprints

– 5.3% other electronic

– 80% Total electronic

Sources of Articles Read: UT Faculty

24Library Print Subscription

11Electronic Subscription

(Library or Personal)

6Free Web

15Separate Copy

41Personal Print Subscription

PercentSource (n=99)

5. The Journal Model Is Important for Core Journals

Sources of Readings

Scientists appear to be reading from more journals—at least one article per year from approximately 23 journals, up from 13 in the late 1970s and 18 in the mid-1990s.

% and amount of readings from separate copies

use of personal subscriptions

Aspects of Journal Readings

• Scientists read from an increasing number of journals each year

• Half are read less than five times

• Only one of 26 have over 25 readings

• High reading titles form a core in the discipline (varies, but generally 2-6 titles)

Sources of readings by medical faculty

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Personalsubscription

Librarysubscription

Other

Print

Electronic

Journals Title Model versus

Separate Articles Model

Multiple Co-existing Alternatives

• Print journals

• E-journals with many links

• Articles databases

• E-print servers

• Authors’ web sites