1.
Simon Inger Consulting
How Readers Discover Content
in Scholarly Publications
Simon Inger
NFAIS 2016 Annual Conference

2.
www.simoningerconsulting.com
Researcher
Student
Librarian
PublisherSite
Search Engine
Library Link
Server
Aggregator
A&I
Library
Web Pages
Peer Link
EmailAlert
Aggregated
Article
Publisher’s
Article
Journals Navigation

3.
www.simoningerconsulting.com
PublisherSite
Search Engine
Library Link
Server
A&I
Peer Link
EmailAlert
Aggregated
Article
Publisher’s
Article
What the
publisher
can count

4.
www.simoningerconsulting.com
Researcher
Student
Librarian
PublisherSite
Search Engine
Library Link
Server
Aggregator
A&I
Library
Web Pages
Aggregated
Article
Publisher’s
Article
What the library can count

5.
www.simoningerconsulting.com
Survey on Reader Navigation
§ Mission: Gain a measure of the relative
importance of all of these channels to
inform publishers and information buyers
§ Survey of Readers following on from 2005,
2008, 2012 studies
§ Over 40,000 respondents globally
§ 18 months planning, execution, analysis

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www.simoningerconsulting.com
Supporters

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www.simoningerconsulting.com
Research Outputs
§ Analytical tool that allows for full analysis
of each survey question, with over 40000
responses from 2015 with nearly 20000
responses in 2012
– Can test millions of hypotheses with the data
§ Report of main findings to be released in
March, available freely to everyone
§ Further analyses and updates throughout
2016
4 March, 2016 7

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www.simoningerconsulting.com
Respondents)by)Sector.)n=40439
Academic(55%
Corporate(8%
Charity(and(NGO(3%
Government(10%
International(Organisation(2%
Medical(12%
Not(Given(or(Other(10%
Respondents)by)Region.)n=36693
North&America&22%
Europe&31%
Asia&29%
Oceania&4%
Africa&8%
South&America&6%
Antarctica&0%

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www.simoningerconsulting.com
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000
Physics.&.Astronomy.(!).
Materials.Science.(!).
Mathematics.(!).
Earth.Science
Computer.Science
Religion.or.Theology
Law
Chemistry
Environmental.Science
Agriculture
Psychology
Education.Research
Life.Sciences
Other.Subject.Area
Humanities
Engineering.&.Technology
Social.&.Political.Science
Business./.Economics./.Accounting./.Finance
Medical.Subjects
Breakdown*of*Respondents*by*Subject*Area*and*Region
North.America Europe Asia Oceania Africa South.America Antarctica

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www.simoningerconsulting.com
Limitations
§ It’s a survey
§ Survey was only in English
§ Survey used invitations from our
supporters – not necessarily completely
representative sample
§ Due to data privacy/data protection rules,
all those invited to the survey via email will
be quite highly engaged with the supporter
(“opted in”)

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www.simoningerconsulting.com
Headlines
§ A&Is show decline in search importance, but still
#1 in aggregate in STEM across all sectors
§ Academic researchers rate library discovery as
high as A&Is (in high-incomecountries)
§ Academic researchers rate Google Scholar #1
§ Over half of article downloads are free versions
– PubMed Central a major factor
§ ToC alerts in decline
§ Increased role for social media in discovery

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www.simoningerconsulting.com
A&Is show decline, but still #1
1
2
3

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www.simoningerconsulting.com
Academic researchers rate library
discovery as high as A&Is
1 2

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www.simoningerconsulting.com
Academic researchers rate
academic search engines #1

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www.simoningerconsulting.com
Wait!
§ Every publisher tells you that they get way
more referrals from Google than Google
Scholar!
– Analytics typically measure last referrer, and
have not tracked where navigation started
4 March, 2016 15
Google
Google Scholar
Library Link Servers
Publisher’s
Article
52%
48%
48%
12%
40%, or 0.04% for
1000 link servers
40%

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www.simoningerconsulting.com
Over half of downloads are free!

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www.simoningerconsulting.com
PubMed Central effect
4 March, 2016 17

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www.simoningerconsulting.com
ToC Alerts in decline
4 March, 2016 18

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www.simoningerconsulting.com
Rise in importance of social media

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www.simoningerconsulting.com
Further observations
§ Many free discovery resources, like
PubMed and Google Scholar, are used
less in poorer countries
§ Use of mobile devices is increasing, but
smartphone use remains marginal in most
territories: greatest use is in low-income
countries
§ Publisher web sites becoming a more
popular place to do a search
4 March, 2016 20

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www.simoningerconsulting.com
More planned for our report…..
§ Importance of library discovery by subject,
sector and region
§ Discovery of online books (varies greatly
by sector)
§ The importance of the integration of data,
and who uses it most – large regional
variations (as well as sectoral)
4 March, 2016 21

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www.simoningerconsulting.com
Next steps
§ Report preview released to supporters (by
mid-March)
§ Data and analytical tool available to
supporters (by mid-March)
§ Report on general release (CC-BY NC)
(late March)
§ Analytical tool available for sale (late
March)
§ Further analyses and reports to follow
4 March, 2016 22

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www.simoningerconsulting.com
Conclusions
§ Understanding the origins of reader
navigation helps publishers, libraries,
indexing organisations and technology
companies to optimise their products and
services for different sectors across the
world.
§ There are some important lessons on
information literacy, we feel, and wonder
whether publishers or others could help fill
the gap in expert discovery.
4 March, 2016 23

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Simon Inger Consulting
Questions?
simon@simoningerconsulting.com