E-Journals and Print Journals: Similarities and Differences in Reader Behavior

Research from three decades shows that scientists read widely from scholarly journals, with the readings per person per year increasing in the last decade. Many of these readings now come from electronic journals, e-prints, and other separate copies. A greater percentage of readings are now of new articles and readings from electronic journals are more likely to be of current articles. A majority of scientists in a discipline now use electronic journals at least part of the time, although there are considerable variation among disciplines .On the average, our studies show that between one-third and 80% of journal article readings now come from electronic journals or digital databases, depending on workfield and place of work. Scientists are reading from a broader range of journals than in the past, as a result of access to full text online collections. Although the scholarly journals system has changed dramatically in the past few decades, it is evident that scientists place a high value on the information found in scholarly journal articles, whether electronic or print.