Online Surveys

The project will conduct three separate, but related, surveys:

1. First survey: users/readers of scholarly journals (whether or not they are users of e-journals;
   
2. Second survey : advanced users of e-journals;
   
3. Follow-up survey: respondents of the first survey.

1) First Survey:

OBJECTIVES:
The first survey will investigate how life scientists perceive online journals with regard their impact on research quality and productivity as well as attitudes towards online journal usage.

METHODS:
Target Population: Life scientists and medical professionals who read life and medical science journals, especially HighWire journals in either paper or e-journal format. (both users and non-users of e-journals).

Survey Design:

• Sampling: We contacted 70 scientific societies affiliated with HighWire Press to request the membership information such as email addresses. 20 societies who broadly represent life sciences — biological sciences, health sciences, and agricultural sciences — agreed to release their member information (limited to name, email address and membership status — e.g., active, student, retired) for the survey.
• Online questionnaire: This is best viewed (though not active for data collection) at http://ejust.stanford.edu/firstsurvey-linked.htm
• Solicitation methods: We sent 108,774 email solicitations, requesting members to respond via the questionnaire on the web. Approximately 13,903 addresses returned "undeliverable" or vacation messages, resulting in a contact group of approximately 94,871.
• Survey implementation and data collection period: May 22- June 20, 2001
• Survey response rate: 12,453 net responses were received during the period, the survey response rate is 13.14%

• Sample size: The number of sample observations is 12,465.
• Sample distribution (demographic characteristics):
  • Gender: 30% of the respondents are female.
  • Age: The average (mean) age of respondents is 47; the median age is 48.
  • Research fields: 60% of respondents reported their research field as biological sciences, 34% health sciences, 4% agricultural, and 2% other research fields related to life sciences.
  • Occupation: 38% of respondents are faculty members in academic institutions, 12% students and post-doctorate researchers, 11% researchers in academic institutions, 11% researchers in the private sector, 6% government agency, 17% medical doctors, and 3% retirees.
  • Residence: Respondents are from 99 different countries. The majority of respondents reside in the United States (72%), and the rest of respondents are from Canada and countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Australia.

Findings
        >> Full Report (posted 03-25-02)
        >> Highlights (posted 10-12-01)
        >> Graphs/Statistics (posted 10-12-01)
        >> First survey questionnaire

2) Second Survey

OBJECTIVES:
The second survey was conducted online as same as the first survey the survey investigated e-journal users' preference over the features and their frustration with current e-journal features. The questionnaire also asked about payment methods and search behaviors. The data provide very useful information on how to design user-friendly electronic page and efficient search engines.

METHODS:

Target Population:
Life scientists and medical professionals who are comfortable to use/ read online version of scientific journals. Presumably, this population is the representative of those who use online journals to retrieve articles regularly.

• Sampling: 39 society based scientific and medical journals participated in the second survey. We obtained email addresses from the list of electronic Table of Contents (eTOC) per journal. ETOC is free to everyone and it provides the service which journals send email alerts when new Tables of Content are available.
• Comparison with the first survey: The second survey questionnaire has many open ended questions while the first survey had not included any (though we received about 200 written feedback from survey respondents). The second survey has a different sample population from the first survey so both data are not compatible. However, the future and last online survey data (tentatively scheduled May 22, 2002) will have a same sample population with the first survey and will be merged to the first survey data.
• Online questionnaire: This is best viewed (though not active for data collection) at http://ejust.stanford.edu/usersurvey2-linked.htm.
• Solicitation methods: We sent email solicitations to 83,925 individuals, requesting them to respond via the questionnaire on the web. 7,621 addresses returned "undeliverable" or "technical errors", resulting in a contact group of 76,304.
• Survey implementation and data collection period: November 26- December 21, 2001
• Survey response rate: 10,217 unique responses were received during the period, the survey response rate is around 13.4%.

• Sample size: The number of sample observations is 10,217.
• Sample distribution (demographic characteristics):
  • Gender: 67% of the respondents are male and 33% are female.
  • Age: The average (mean) age of respondents is 39; the median age is 37.
  • Research fields: 41% of respondents reported their research field as biological sciences, 33% medicine, 16% biomedical research, and 10% Agricultural and other research fields related to life sciences.
  • Occupation: 26% of respondents are health professionals, 19% faculty members in academic institutions, 16% students, 16% post-doctorate researchers, 19% research scientists, and 4% retirees and others.
  • Residence: Respondents are from 126 different countries. The majority of respondents reside in the United States and Canada (43%), and the rest of respondents are countries in Europe (38%), Asia (8%), Africa (less than 1%), Latin America (5%), and Australia (5%).

Findings
        >> Highlights (posted 5-23-02)
        >> Graphs/Statistics (posted 5-23-02)
        >> Second survey questionnaire

3) Follow-up Survey

OBJECTIVES:
The follow-up survey investigates changes over the past year, and also investigates some new topics, including journal costs, users' reading, searching and archiving practices, and the use of online journal features. The survey data will be merged into the first survey data one to one, and create a longitudinal data set on scientists' e-journal usage.

METHODS:
Target Population:
The first survey respondents who released contact information for the follow-survey: both users and non-users of e-journals.

• Sampling: 10,518 first survey respondents released their email contact information for the follow-up survey.
• Comparison with the first survey: The follow-up survey data have a same sample population with the first survey and will be merged to the first survey data. The follow-up survey investigates emerging issues in e-publishing area such as HTML design questionnaire and included open ended questions while the first survey had not included any (though we received about 200 written feedback from survey respondents).
• Online questionnaire: This is best viewed (though not active for data collection) at http://ejust.stanford.edu/followsurvey-linked.htm.
• Solicitation methods: We sent email solicitations to 10,518 individuals, requesting them to respond via the questionnaire on the web. 637 addresses returned "undeliverable" or "no longer active email addresses", resulting in a contact group of 9,881.
• Survey implementation and data collection period: May 22, 2002- August 2, 2002
• Attrition rate: 4,524 valid survey responses were received during the period, the attrition rate of the follow-up survey is around 54%, i.e., the response rate is around 46%.

Findings
Survey Highlights

Graphs and Statistics by Survey Question

Collected survey data will remain confidential, will not contain any information to identify respondents, and will be destroyed after the project is completed. If need more information on this, please refer to privacy policy.

Last updated: 10-25-02