An assessment of potential efficiency gains through online content use
Purpose ‐ Online content has largely replaced traditional print-based resources as the primary tool for literature searching throughout much of the academic and research community. This paper presents the results of a small-scale study, commissioned by the JISC in 2004,
to assess the potential efficiency gains that may be achieved through the use of online content by researchers. Design/methodology/approach ‐ Information gleaned from an extensive literature review was combined with recent usage data to calculate broad estimates of the efficiency
gains which are being made by the research community through using online searching strategies as opposed to print resources. Findings ‐ The estimated staff costs in UK universities of literature searching are some £7 million per annum. Manual literature searching can take
around five times as long as using relevant electronic resources. The consequent savings from the availability of electronic bibliographic databases are estimated in the region of £25 million per annum. Originality/value ‐ This paper brings together findings from a number
of distinct studies and extrapolates these to the current situation in the UK. It demonstrates the value of investment in electronic bibliographic databases to the funding bodies which provide these to researchers.
Keywords: Information retrieval; Internet; Literature; Resource efficiency; Search engines; United Kingdom
Document Type: Research Article
Publication date: 01 April 2006
- Access Key
- Free content
- Partial Free content
- New content
- Open access content
- Partial Open access content
- Subscribed content
- Partial Subscribed content
- Free trial content