User Preferences in China: Indicators or Reflections of Global Industry Trends?

Hui Ling Goh

Hui Ling Goh, Market Intelligence Manager, Elsevier, Singapore

Chinese researchers — comprising a large and growing number — are expected to make a significant impact on science and technology literature globally. Thus their preferences are of keen interest to the research publishing industry. When considering this body of researchers, questions naturally arise. For example, do Chinese researchers follow the same trends publishers see in other markets, or will China set a course for the global community to follow?

In 2005, Elsevier surveyed end users and librarians at leading research universities and government research institutes across China. The results provide insight into this community and its participants’ attitudes and behavior regarding electronic research resources.

For instance, the study revealed that, similar to trends found in the West, nearly 80% of Chinese researchers start their searches with Google or another Internet search engine. However, while over half the respondents said they currently rely on foreign journals, many would like to see these in Chinese.

Commented Inn Beng Lee, Head of Customer Marketing for Elsevier in Singapore: “We can already see Chinese-language demands changing Elsevier’s communication to the market. This year we launched a Chinese version of the Elsevier website and we are doing more translations of support materials for users and librarians. The extent to which Chinese language becomes a driving force in S&T research, however, remains to be seen and we will watch and respond with much interest.”

What Researchers Revealed

The majority of the 323 surveyed researchers work in engineering, followed by chemistry, life sciences, computer sciences and medicine.

Key findings of the end-user survey include:

• Faculty and researchers in China exert a strong influence on the library acquisitions process.
• The Internet and library notices are key sources used to obtain information on e-journals.
• All respondents identified a further need for access to e-journal backfiles.
• If translated into Chinese, more foreign journals would be read and accessed by Chinese researchers.

Seventy-nine percent of respondents reported using Internet search engines such as Yahoo, Google or Scirus almost daily as entry points to academic research information on the Web. Other commonly used tools are email (66%) and links or pathfinders on library websites (59%). Journals are the type of e-resource most frequently used by surveyed end users (41%), followed by abstracting and indexing databases (34%) and e-books (19%). Sixty percent use electronic  resources almost daily and 30% at least once or twice a week.

Among surveyed end users, 68% of e-journal users access e-journals almost daily and 26% access them at least once or twice a week. Fifty-eight percent of surveyed end users read foreign e-journals more often than Chinese e-journals because they believe foreign e-journals are more important to their work. Only 36% of respondents read both Chinese and foreign e-journals. Sixty-eight percent of researchers said they were able to persuade their libraries to purchase particular foreign journals.

Sixty-five percent of researchers agreed the main sources by which they obtain information on e-journals are the Internet and library notices. Browsing e-journals and searching via A&I databases were also cited as popular ways of accessing information. Ninety-three percent of respondents always use a search function of e-journals to look for documents. Search alerts were identified as the least popular way of obtaining information.

Responding end users also said having access to backfiles is important. Only 3% of the respondents agreed it would be sufficient to have the last five years  of backfiles of e-journals. Forty percent want all issues of e-journals. Overall, respondents agreed an acceptable quantity of backfiles would be 10-20 years.