Electronic journals: Their use by teachers/researchers of engineering and social sciences

Abstract

Libraries must attend the needs of their different users. Academics are usually a particular kind of users with specific needs. Universities are environments where scientific communication is essential and where electronic format of journals is becoming more and more frequently used. This way it becomes increasingly important to understand how academics from different scientific areas use the available electronic resources. The aim of this study is to better understand the existing differences among the users of electronic journals in Engineering and Social Sciences. The research undertaken was mainly focused on the study of the use of electronic journals by teachers/researchers from the Faculties of Engineering and of Arts from the University of Porto, Portugal. In this study an international survey was used in order to characterize the levels of use and access of electronic journals by these communities. The ways of seeking and using scientific information, namely in terms frequency of access, the number of articles consulted, the use of databases and the preference of publishing in electronic journals were analyzed. A set of comparisons were established and results indicate an extensive use of the electronic format, regardless the faculty. However, some differences emerge when it comes to details. Such is the case of the usage rate of reference management software which is considerably more used by Engineering academics than Social Science ones. Generally, electronic journals meeting the information needs of its users and are increasingly used as a preferred means of research. Though, some particular differences in the use of them have emerged, when comparing academics from these two faculties.