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

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

Time Spent Reading by Work Field

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

Average Number of Personal Subscriptions to Scholarly Journals

Proportion of Readings of Scholarly Scientific Articles

Sources of reading- ORNL scientists

4. Scientists Use Electronic Journals When It Is Easier

arXiv.org Connections averaged 61,000 per day in February ,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

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