Carol TenopirUniversity of Tennessee

ctenopir@utk.edu

Journal Reading In Universities: Comparing the U.S. and Australia

(A Case Study)

Tenopir & King Data From:

• 25,000+ scientists, engineers, physicians, and social scientists

• 1977 to the present• University and non-university settings• Mostly North America• Recent surveys at 3 U.S. universities,

pediatricians, astronomers• UNSW staff and students in 2004, UQ

2005

150172

188216

0

50

100

150

200

250

1977 1984 1993 2000-03

Ave. Articles Read per Univ. ScientistA

vera

ge

nu

mb

er

of a

rtic

les

rea

d p

er

scie

ntis

t

Year of Studies

Average Reading per Faculty member

186215

197216

175206

219

0

50

100

150

200

250

Num

ber o

f Rea

ding

s

U ofTennessee

U ofPittsburgh

Drexel AllScientists

All-Non-Scientists

All US UNSW

UNSW Respondents

21%

12%

6%10%

22%

29%Medicine/health

Social Science

Sciences

Aviation/Engineering

Humanities

Other

Reading Varies by Subject Discipline and workplace

• Univ. medical• Pediatricians• Univ Scientists• All Scientists• Soc Sci/Psych• Engineers

• ~322 articles/year• ~180 articles/year• ~216 articles/year• ~130 articles/year• ~191 articles/year• ~111 articles/year

UNSW Reading by Subject

• Medical/Health• Engineering/Aviation• Sciences• Social Sciences• Humanities

• ~265• ~238• ~248• ~206• ~128

Print & Electronic Serial Titles in Australian and New Zealand Academic

Libraries

Source: CAUL Statistics http://www.caul.edu.au/stats/caul2002-pub.xls

Print and Electronic Titles

Electronic Titles

Print

Electronic

253,627

17%

1,245,424

83%

Individual Electronic Serial Titles

Titles Within a Single Publisher CollectionTitles Within aggregations

43,301

4% 78,385

6%

1,123,738

90%

Reading from Print or Electronic

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

US all ('00-'03) UT ('00) Pitt ('03) Drexel ('02) UNSW ('04)

Print Electronic

• 18% of these are read on the screen

• 82% are printed out on paper for reading

UNSW Readings: 67.3% Electronic

Print or Electronic

80%

20%

Electronic

Print

81%

19%

63%

37%

Astronomers

Pediatricians

University Science

67%

32%

UNSW

Form of Final Reading

Paper92.6%

Paper87.9%

Electronic12.1%

Electronic7.5%

Pediatriciansn=644

UNSW

56%

20%

15%

9%

Browsing

Online Searching

Cited in Other Pub.

Another Person

Other

Drexel21%

12%

12%

7%

48%

Tennessee

27%

10%

15%

45%

3%

Pittsburgh

MethodMethod ofof ArticleArticle DiscoveryDiscovery

20%

11%48%

11%

10%

UNSW

Pediatricians

1 year

2-5 years

> 6 years

ScientistsAstronomers

Year of Articles

81.3 %

17 %

2 %

68.8 %

20.8 %

10.4 %

64 %23 %

13 %

55.2%

23.8%

23.8%

UNSW

Principal Purpose of Reading: Pittsburgh

Research 50%Current Awareness 22%Teaching 18%Writing 10%

Principal Purpose of Reading: UNSW

Research 55%Teaching 16%Writing Proposals 14%Current Awareness 11%

UNSW Value of Reading

• Inspired new thinking 41.7%

• Improved the result 32.2%

• Narrowed the focus 25.2%

UNSW Readings Judged To Be…

4%

66%

31%Absolutely essential

Somewhat important

not at all

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 under 2 U.S. science faculty average 3.6 Medical faculty and pediatricians average 5-

6 UNSW average 2

Sources of Readings of Scholarly Articles Overtime

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

1977 1993-1998 2001-2003

Personal Subs Library Subs Separates

Sources of Readings of Scholarly Articles in Universities

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

Personal Subs Library Subs Separates

UT Pitt Drexel UNSW

U.S. and Australian academics:

• Read for many reasons, research is #1

• Use many ways to find articles

• Use whatever is most convenient

• Prefer print for personal subscriptions, electronic for library subscriptions

• Patterns vary by subject discipline

But Australians…

• Rely more on electronic journals

• Read more older articles

• Browse more

• Use alerts more