eJUSt - Stanford University Libraries and Highwire Press

First Survey Questionnaire

Please note that links to results have been added next to each question for your convenience. Look for the >>see chart notations below.

Stanford E-Journal Usage Survey

Thank you for participating in the e-journal user study. Completing this survey takes about 10 minutes and will help enhance our understanding of scholarly research and communication practices. As a modest expression of gratitude for your help with this investigation, we will enter you in the drawing for free Palm Pilots (assuming you provide us with your email address at the end of the process).

For purposes of this survey, the following definitions apply: "Journal" is defined as a peer-reviewed serial publication for scientists or medical professionals and "e-journal" is a journal available online (e.g., through the Internet).

Instructions: Please answer each question as indicated and click on the SUBMIT button when you are finished. Your participation will remain entirely anonymous; responses will be analyzed in the aggregate only, and individual responses will not be associated with individual participants.

1. How were you invited to participate in this survey?
>>see chart Q.1

Through Stanford University Libraries
Through a scholarly society
Through colleagues
Others

2. When did you last retrieve, read, or download a full-text, peer-reviewed journal article online or through the Internet?
>>see charts Q.2, Q2-by-biology, Q2-by-institution, Q2-by-MD

Yesterday or today
Within the last week
Within the last month
Longer than a month ago
Never

3. How often (based on the past year) do you retrieve, read or download full-text, peer-reviewed journal articles online or through the Internet?
>>see chart Q.3

Daily
Weekly
Monthly
Seldom
Never

4a. I prefer online methods over print copy to retrieve full-text journal articles.
>>see chart Q.4a

Yes [Go to question 4b]
No [Go to question 4c]

4b. The following statements are possible reasons to favor online methods (including the Internet) to retrieve full-text journal articles. Please indicate how strongly you agree or disagree with each.
>>see charts Q.4b_1, Q.4b_2, Q.4b_3

	Agree Strongly	Agree Somewhat	Disagree Somewhat	Disagree Strongly
An important advantage of online full-text journals is that they are free to me.
I prefer online methods to retrieve full-text journal articles because they eliminate photocopying cost.
I prefer online methods to retrieve full-text journal articles because of the physical convenience (e.g., I don't have to leave the lab or clinic to go to the library)

4c. The following statements are possible reasons to disfavor online methods (including the Internet) to retrieve full-text journal articles. Please indicate how strongly you agree or disagree with each.
>>see charts Q.4c_1, Q.4c_2, Q.4c_3

	Agree Strongly	Agree Somewhat	Disagree Somewhat	Disagree Strongly
I disfavor online methods to retrieve full-text journal articles because PDF technology is troublesome or slow to download, read or print.
I disfavor online methods to retrieve full-text journal articles because what I can access online is very limited (e.g., needed older articles are not online, with the result that I have to go to the library anyway for most research of the literature).
I prefer print versions of journals because of their portability.

5. How many hours did you spend actively using the Internet/World Wide Web (not just connected/logged on) for both work and entertainment - excluding time spent using email - in the previous seven days?
>>see chart Q.5

Approx. number of hours spent using Internet/WWW:

The following questions are about resources available to you at work and at home.

6a. Resources: Please click on the circle to the right of each item in the table below.
>>see charts Q.6a_1, Q.6a_2, Q.6a_3, Q.6a_4, Q.6a_5, Q.6a_6

	Work only	Home only	Both Work and Home	Neither
Personal Computer
WWW/ Internet Access
Printer
Electronic mail
DSL or other high speed connection
Fax

6b. How strongly do you agree or disagree with the following statements which describe your institutional access to scientific journals? Please click on the most appropriate circle to the right of each item.
>> see charts Q.6b_1, Q.6b_2

	Agree Strongly	Agree Somewhat	Disagree Somewhat	Disagree Strongly
I access most scientific journals through institutional (e.g., library) subscriptions (either paper or online).
I do not have institutional access (either paper or online) to many of the scientific journals I need, so I rely on free online access (to the extent available).

Now we'd like to understand how you go about communicating with other scholars. Click on the circle to the right of each item that best describes the most recent time you used that communication method.

7. I have communicated with my colleagues about scientific matters through...
>> see charts Q.7_1, Q.7_2, Q.7_3, Q.7_4, Q.7_5, Q.7_6

	Yesterday	Last week	Last month	Last year	No, I haven't done it.
Conferences/workshops/seminars
E-mails
Phone calls
Lunches/ coffee break/ personal meetings
Fax
Mail (snail mail) correspondence

The next set of questions is about your research activity, subscriptions and publications.

8. How many research journals do you currently subscribe to personally (individual subscription)?
>> see charts Q.8, Q.8-by-MD, Q.8-by-Q.2

# of personal subscriptions

9. The following statements have to do with personal journal subscriptions. Click the circle to the right of each item that best represents how strongly you agree or disagree with each statement.
>> see charts Q.9_1, Q.9_2, Q.9_3

	Agree Strongly	Agree Somewhat	Disagree Somewhat	Disagree Strongly
I rely on personal subscriptions (rather than institutional access) for most of the journals I read regularly.
Personal subscriptions will grow less important to me over time.
More content will become available to me free online through institutional subscriptions over time.

10. In the past year, how many papers and patents of which you are an author were submitted?
>> see charts Q10_1 - Q11_1

# of papers

# of patents

11. In the past year, how many of these papers and patents were published or granted?
>> see charts Q10_1 - Q11_1

# of papers

# of patents

12. Currently, of how many active grants are you the Principal Investigator (PI) or Co-PI?

# of grants

The statements below regard the use of scientific journals. Click on the circle that best represents how strongly you agree or disagree with each.

13. Your Criteria for Submitting Articles to Journals
>> see charts Q13_1, Q13_2, Q13_3, Q13_4, Q13_5

	Agree Strongly	Agree Somewhat	Disagree Somewhat	Disagree Strongly
I select journals for article submission primarily because of their high reputation or prestige.
I select journals for article submission primarily because of their large and diverse readership.
I select journals for article submission primarily on the basis of their hosting an online version.
I select journals for article submission primarily on the likelihood of my article's being accepted.
I select journals for article submission primarily due to rapid peer review.

14. Perceptions about e-journals and online searching:
>> see charts Q14_1, Q14_2, Q14_3, Q14_4, Q14_5, Q14_6, Q14_7, Q14_8

	Agree Strongly	Agree Somewhat	Disagree Somewhat	Disagree Strongly
E-journal usage decreases the quality/rigor of research literature searches.
E-journal usage increases scholarly productivity (measured in number of studies, articles, grants, patents).
Use of online searching increases exposure to non-peer-reviewed papers.
E-journals make current awareness of recent research easy and fast.
E-journals currently waste users' time because of user-unfriendly interfaces.
E-journals provide other valuable services or features beside full-text articles (e.g., editorial news, hyperlinking to other papers, peer reviews, alerts (notification services), etc.)
The more I use online retrieval of research content, the less I bother to obtain content offline (i.e., from printed journals).
I will do without an article or go to the library rather than pay any amount for online access to full-text articles, no matter how small that amount is.

15. Do you think e-journals have affected your research activities or productivity?
>> see charts Q15, Q15-by-biology, Q15-by-MD

Yes [Go to question 16]
No [Go to question 17]

16. We'd like to know how e-journals affected your research. Click on the circle that best represents how strongly you agree or disagree with the following statements.
>> see charts Q16_1, Q16_2, Q16_3, Q16_4, Q16_5, Q16_6

	Agree Strongly	Agree Somewhat	Disagree Somewhat	Disagree Strongly
E-journals shorten time spent on article retrieval or visiting the library.
I published more papers because e-journals make accessing good quality papers faster and easier.
I obtained information related to specific experimental processes through e-journals.
E-journal usage increased the number of papers I read outside my primary discipline.
I exchanged (received or distributed) more journal articles with colleagues, because e-journals make distribution of articles easier and less costly.
I became more organized in archiving papers by using e-journals, creating my own mini library.

17. In this section, we'd like to know what you think about the future of peer-reviewed scientific journals. Please click on the circle that best represents how strongly you agree or disagree with each statement below.
>> see charts Q17_1, Q17_2

	Agree Strongly	Agree Somewhat	Disagree Somewhat	Disagree Strongly
I believe that journals, as a form of publishing in any format, will become obsolete in 5 to 10 years.
Journals will continue to be essential tools for scientists' communication throughout this decade.

Finally, here are a few demographic questions that will enable us to determine how representative our sample is of all readers of life science and medical science journals (Optional).

18. What is your current primary position? Please check only one item and then proceed to the fields below to fill in the name and country of the institution you work for and how long you have been working at that institution.
>> see chart Q.18

Graduate Student
Post Doctoral Researcher/ Associate
Researcher in an academic institution
Researcher in a private sector
Researcher in a government agency
Tenured Faculty in an academic institution
Untenured Faculty in an academic institution
Medical doctor
Nurse or allied health professional
Retiree
None of the above (Please specify)
       Specify:

Full Name of Institution
      >> see chart

Which country?
      >> see chart

Zip code (USA only):
e.g., 94304

How long have you been working at the above institution?
Years:
e.g., "3" for 3 years

19. What year were you born?
>> see chart

Year:
(4 digit) e.g. 1968

20. What is the highest level of education you have completed? Choose only one.

Bachelor's
Master's
Ph.D.
Medical Doctors (e.g. MD, DO, MBChB, etc.)
None of the above (please specify)
      Specify:

What year did you complete your highest level of education? (if more than one degree at that level, give most recent year)
      In the year:
      e.g. 1999

What is your primary research field? (Choose a general area first, then a specific subfield.)
      >> see chart
       Biological Sciences
       Health Sciences
       Agricultural Sciences
       Other

      Biological Sciences:

      Health Sciences:

      Agricultural Sciences:

      Other, please specify:

21. What is your gender?
>> see chart

Female
Male

Optional: We would like to contact respondents a year from now for a follow-up survey. If you are willing to provide your email address for this purpose, please enter your email address here. If you do enter your email address, we will also include you in the drawings for Palm Pilots.

E-mail:

That was our last question. Thank you very much for taking time to contribute to our understanding of scholarly research practices!

This questionnaire was created using Perseus SurveySolutions.

To see more about the findings from this survey, please see survey highlights.

Share your reactions to the initial survey findings by filling out our simple form. Your feedback is a valuable component of the Electronic Journal User Study.

Last updated: 10-12-01

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