The Publishing Research Consortium has released a study analysing the use of journals by the staff of high-tech small businesses (small and medium-sized enterprises, or SMEs) in the UK – with 250 employees or fewer. The study says that these staffers place a high value on, and make considerable use of, research articles and other academic and professional information. Their access to such information is good, and improving, although it could be even better. This study is projected as an important first step in improving understanding of how staffers in small businesses use journals and what can be done to achieve even greater access.
The full study, ‘Access by small and medium-sized UK enterprises to professional and academic information’, carried out by Mark Ware Consulting Ltd. for the Publishing Research Consortium, is available online at http://www.publishingresearch.net/SMEaccess.htm
According to the findings of the study, while 28 percent of the respondents in SMEs said that their journal access was ‘good’ or ‘excellent’, 56 percent said that it varied, and 17 said percent that it was ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’. However, of those who considered information to be an important success factor for their organisation, 71 percent found access to research articles ‘easy’ or ‘very easy’, while 29 percent felt it was ‘fairly difficult’ or ‘very difficult’. Sixty percent felt that access was easier than five years ago. Despite this, more than half had experienced some recent difficulty in obtaining one or more articles, representing 10-20 percent of articles read annually. Although they use a wide range of access channels, they find current pay-per-view (PPV) arrangements costly and difficult, and ‘walk-in’ access at a local university inconvenient.
The study offers suggestions on what publishers can do to improve access for these users. It suggests that PPV access could be made cheaper and simpler, with more appropriate payment mechanisms for companies rather than individuals. Licences for higher education Institutions could be extended to provide online, rather than just walk-in, access (with appropriate safeguards) for local businesses. A comprehensive, centrally administered national licence could also be negotiated.
The Publishing Research Consortium is a group of associations and publishers that supports global research into scholarly communication in order to enable evidence-based discussion. It seeks to support work that is scientific and pro-scholarship, in order to promote an understanding of the role of publishing and its impact on research and teaching.
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