STM publisher Elsevier, Netherlands, has released highlights from a new online survey titled 'Future of Search and Discovery'. The survey reveals that researchers around the globe are not only ready for the next phase in search and discovery, but also prepared to actively contribute to making it a reality.
In developing SciVerse, Elsevier's recently launched search and discovery platform, the company conducted a significant amount of research within the scientific community. Building on earlier qualitative work, the survey is seen to offer a quick pulse of the attitudes and opinions of more than 1,200 researchers across the globe. Respondents primarily hailed from academia (79 percent) with the balance from government (15 percent) and industry (7 percent).
The survey investigates the current understanding of the prospective impact of open data and the opening up of platforms through the release of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). The results is seen to suggest awareness of the potential these trends hold for enhancing search. Almost all respondents agree that 'open data is important to the future of search and discovery', with 71 percent indicating it is 'very important' and another quarter (26 percent) finding it 'somewhat important'.
Researchers also have a high level of awareness of APIs, seeing them as important components that can foster innovation. Eight in 10 concur the 'availability of APIs will foster experimentation and the development of innovative search and discovery applications'.
Researchers not only agree that APIs will result in search-related application experimentation, they are also ready to play an active role. More than two-thirds (68%) say they would be personally interested in developing a search and discovery application using scientific content for their own institution. Within this group of respondents, 61 percent identify 'the opportunity to help speed up research among the scientific community as a whole' as best describing the driving force behind their interest. Comparatively, less than one third (31 percent) say their motivation would be to speed up their own research.
Despite their attraction to application building, less than one third of these researchers (31 percent) feel their institution would be supportive in terms of time and resources. In fact, 41 percent indicate their institutions would expect them to develop applications on their own time, using their own resources. These results suggest development could potentially be curtailed by uncertainty with respect to support.
The survey also revealed technical fluency as another possible barrier. Among those who did not initially indicate application development interest, 66 percent say they would indeed be interested if they could collaborate with others who would handle the technical aspects.
Perhaps reflective of the diverse needs and interests of researchers, there were no clear leaders when respondents were asked which type of applications would be most useful to the scientific community. In fact, all of the application options in the survey had similar response rates.
In an effort to understand where researchers think things are headed, the survey asked respondents what they thought would be the greatest impact of search technology over the next several years. Nearly half (47 percent) selected 'the establishment of collaborative knowledge networks (online groups of trusted peers)', followed by 28 percent who chose 'the linking of data sets to published research', 15 percent who say 'improved interoperability of data and content' and 10 percent who agree 'the ability to correlate data collected across instruments'.
Further indicating an awareness of the importance of knowledge networks to the future of search and discovery, eight in ten (81 percent) respondents agree 'in the next several years, researchers will use knowledge networks (online groups of trusted peers) as a reliable source for filtering and viewing information'.
Highlights of the 'Future of Search and Discovery' survey were recently shared during an Elsevier-hosted webinar. More than 1,200 academic, government and industry researchers participated in the online survey which was fielded in late June/early July. Respondents came from 100 countries and 20 fields within the physical sciences and engineering, life, health and social sciences disciplines.
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