Market research and data services provider Research and Markets, Ireland, has announced the addition of the ‘The European Scientific, Technical and Medical (STM) Information Market’ report to their offering. According to the report, growth in the European STM information market remains resilient despite the current economic and financial problems. The European STM information market growth in 2008 was 4.5 percent, the weakest year-on-year growth since 2001.
According to the report, the healthcare sector continued to be a main driver of sales with clinical decision support solutions, particularly those at the point of care, leading sales growth. Sales to the pharmaceutical industry remained weak, following declines in drug launches and reductions in promotional spending. The report further states that while the academic market continues to face budget cuts, interest in open access increased substantially in the last 12 months driven by demands for mandatory open access publishing by research funding bodies, more investment in open access publishing models by leading publishers, and increased understanding of open access among STM authors. Also, significant rise in E-books sales was a major contributor to sales growth in the sector. After a number of years on the margins, the supply of, and demand for, e-books witnessed a significant rise in the last 12 month.
It was observed that declines in advertising spending had a limited impact on most STM information segments. The majority of revenues came from subscription services which are seen to be less affected by cyclical trends and downturns.
Further, the report notes that Web 2.0 developments are likely to play an increasing role in the exchange and use of STM information. Interest in STM networking and collaborative sites is beginning to grow. A survey of academic STM researchers noted that relatively few were using these sites at the start of 2009 but a majority are expecting to turn to these sites in the next year or so.
In addition, the report provides an analysis of market trends and issues (with data from 2005-2008), market forecasts for 2009 and 2010, profiles of key STM information providers, a review of emerging STM networking sites, and results of surveys of UK STM researchers and information professionals undertaken in November/December 2008.
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