How chemists are really finding and using information in our digital environment
✍ Scribed by Cecelia Brown; Catherine Blake; E. Ashley Rogers Brown; Carol Tenopir
- Publisher
- Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
- Year
- 2007
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 27 KB
- Volume
- 43
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0044-7870
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Abstract
The quantity of information available to scientists continues to increase alarmingly with the top 418 journals having published more than 110,000 articles in 2002. Chemists are particularly prone to this information overload because they have more personal journal subscriptions (Noble & Coughlin 1997), read more articles (Tenopir et al. 2003), and access more journals than other scientists (Davis & Solla 2003). This quantity of information makes it difficult to stay current as well as explore new connections between articles. To ensure the provision and improvement of access to this essential element of scientific productivity and innovation it is critical that information scientists understand how the print and digital information explosion is influencing the information behavior of scientists.
To elucidate the information sources chemists are using, two studies employing citation analysis of American Chemical Society (ACS) journals will be discussed. The third study employs interviews to describe the role of the literature in chemists' discovery processes. The goal is to provide a realistic snapshot of the current information behavior of chemists in order to assist in the creation, design, and delivery of information products and services for the support of the research, teaching, and creative activities of chemists and scientists in general.