FSD3329 Scholarly Reading Practices Survey 2016
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Study title
Scholarly Reading Practices Survey 2016
Dataset ID Number
FSD3329
Persistent identifier
urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD3329Data Type
Quantitative
Authors
- Tenopir, Carol (University of Tennessee)
- Talja, Sanna (University of Tampere. Tampere Research Center for Information and Media (TRIM))
- Late, Elina (University of Tampere. Tampere Research Center for Information and Media (TRIM))
- Christian, Lisa (University of Tennessee)
Abstract
The study examined Finnish researchers' use of different printed and electronic publications in their work, such as scientific journals, articles, books, reports, and social media. The study is part of Carol Tenopir and Donald W. King's survey series launched in 1977 following the reading practices of researchers in different countries and scientific fields. Finnish data have also been collected in 2006 but this dataset has not been archived at the Finnish Social Science Data Archive. The 2016 project was partly funded by the Finnish Cultural Foundation.
The survey charted researchers' common reading practices as well as publishing of different types of scientific articles and other publications. The way that the respondents' work time was distributed between different types of tasks was charted as well as how many publications of different types they had authored within the previous two years. It was also examined how researchers searched for information, published scientific work, and cited the work of others. Questions also covered how much time the respondents spent on reading articles, how many scientific articles and other types of publications they had read within the previous 30 days, how recent the publications that they read were, reasons for reading them, what language they were in, how they found the publications and received access, where they read the publications, which scientific field the publications represented, and how useful they considered different publication formats for their work.
The significance of social media was charted with questions regarding, for instance, how important different services and tools were for their work (e.g. blogs, cloud services, institutional repositories, academic online communities, reference management software). The respondents were also asked about how important different features of electronic publications were (e.g. compatibility and readability on different devices, possibility to share publications, advanced navigation features, global language support, possibility to embed audio into publications).
Background variables included scientific field, job title, age, and type of workplace.
Keywords
access to information; information retrieval; publishing industry; reading (activity); research; research workers; social media
Topic Classification
- Social sciences (Fields of Science Classification)
- Media (CESSDA Topic Classification)
- Information society (CESSDA Topic Classification)
Series
Individual datasetsDistributor
Finnish Social Science Data Archive
Access
The dataset is (B) available for research, teaching and study.
Data Collector
- Tenopir, Carol (University of Tennessee)
- Talja, Sanna (University of Tampere. Tampere Research Center for Information and Media (TRIM))
- Late, Elina (University of Tampere. Tampere Research Center for Information and Media (TRIM))
- Christian, Lisa (University of Tennessee)
Time Period Covered
2016
Collection Dates
2016-10-10 – 2016-10-30
Nation
Finland
Geographical Coverage
Finland
Analysis/Observation Unit Type
Individual
Universe
Researchers working in Finland
Time Method
Cross-section
Sampling Procedure
Non-probability: Availability
University libraries and other research libraries were requested to forward the invitation to respond to the survey to researchers, doctoral students and other academic personnel at their organisation by e-mail and the intranet of the organisation. All libraries did not forward the invitation so the number of researchers receiving the invitation is not known. Additionally, invitations to respond were sent separately to approximately 1,000 researchers.
Collection Mode
Self-administered questionnaire: Web-based (CAWI)
Research Instrument
Structured questionnaire
Data File Language
Downloaded data package may contain different language versions of the same files.
The data files of this dataset are available in the following languages: Finnish.
FSD translates quantitative data into English on request, free of charge. More information on ordering data translation.
Data Version
1.0
Completeness of Data and Restrictions
To prevent identification of individuals, open-ended responses of the type "other, please specify" were removed from variables q3a and q4a charting workplace and job title. Specific mentions of the respondents' home organisations were also removed from open-ended responses to variable q51. Anonymisations done at FSD were marked with [square brackets].
Weighting
There are no weight variables in the data.
Citation Requirement
The data and its creators shall be cited in all publications and presentations for which the data have been used. The bibliographic citation may be in the form suggested by the archive or in the form required by the publication.
Bibliographical Citation
Tenopir, Carol (University of Tennessee) & Talja, Sanna (University of Tampere) & Late, Elina (University of Tampere) & Christian, Lisa (University of Tennessee): Scholarly Reading Practices Survey 2016 [dataset]. Version 1.0 (2019-06-25). Finnish Social Science Data Archive [distributor]. https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD3329
Deposit Requirement
Notify FSD of all publications where you have used the data by sending the citation information to user-services.fsd@tuni.fi.
Disclaimer
The original data creators and the archive bear no responsibility for any results or interpretations arising from the reuse of the data.
Related Materials
Late, E., Kumpulainen, S., Talja, S., Christian, L., & Tenopir, C. (2018). Suomalaisten tutkijoiden sosiaalisen median käyttö: sosiaalisen median merkitys työssä, tiedonhankinnassa ja tieteellisen tiedon jakamisessa. Informaatiotutkimus, 37(4). https://doi.org/10.23978/inf.77416
Tenopir, C., Talja, S., Late, E., Christian, L. (2019). Benefits and Outcomes of Library Collections on Scholarly Reading in Finland. Libri vol 69 (2). https://doi.org/10.1515/libri-2018-0139
Related Publications
Late, E., Tenopir, C., Talja, S., & Christian, L. (2019). Reading practices in scholarly work: from articles and books to blogs. Journal of Documentation, 75(3), 478-499.
Study description in machine readable DDI-C 2.5 format
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