To Boldly Go Beyond Downloads: How Are Journal Articles Shared and Used?

Abstract

With more scholarly journals being distributed electronically rather than in print form, we know that researchers download many articles. What is less well known is how journal articles are used after they are initially downloaded. To what extent are they saved, uploaded, tweeted, or otherwise shared? How does this reuse increase their total use and value to research and how does it influence library usage figures? University of Tennessee Chancellor's Professor Carol Tenopir, Professor Suzie Allard, and Adjunct Professor David Nicholas are leading a team of international researchers on a the project, "Beyond Downloads," funded by a grant from Elsevier. The project will look at how and why scholarly electronic articles are downloaded, saved, and shared by researchers. Sharing in today's digital environment may include links posted on social media, like Twitter, and in blogs or via e-mail. Having a realistic estimate of this secondary use will help provide a more accurate picture of the total use of scholarly articles.The speakers will present the objectives of the study, share the approach and avenues of exploration, and report on some preliminary findings. Furthermore, the speakers will discuss how the potential learnings could yield benefits to the library community.

No scholar is an island: The impact of sharing in the work life of scholars

“…In addition, two questions relied on Likert scales, ranking respondents’ degree of agreement with statements relating to sharing and copyright issues. The survey instrument may be found at TRACE, the University of Tennessee's institutional repository (Tenopir, Allard, & Christian, ).…”

“…Although citation counts show more engagement with the material, sharing behaviour reflects the larger role of the article within a community (personal or public) (Gruzd, Staves, & Wilk, ; Wouters & Costas, ). Sharing extends the reach of influence; moreover, sharing is on the rise as indicated in a 2014 survey conducted by Elsevier, which saw a 6% increase in the use of sharing platforms between 2013 and 2014 (Tenopir et al ., ).…”

“…Of course, download counts assume that when a researcher downloads an article, he/she alone read it (Tenopir et al ., , ). Although citation counts show more engagement with the material, sharing behaviour reflects the larger role of the article within a community (personal or public) (Gruzd, Staves, & Wilk, ; Wouters & Costas, ).…”

The Secret Life of Articles: From Download Metrics to Downstream Impact

“…Our project research questions included: For regular Charleston attendees, you may remember that we introduced this project last year and reported some of the preliminary results (Tenopir et al, 2014). This year we report the final results.…”

“…Social media and e-mail have become the go-to methods for sharing (Cheng, Ho, & Lau, 2009;Harley, Acord, Ear-Novell, Lawrence, & King, 2010, Tenopir et al, 2014. The Beyond Downloads project examines the life of a scholarly article beyond the point of download.…”