Use of information technology by biological researchers

摘要

Recent studies of computer-based information-handling by scientists have tended to look at such activities across all the sciences. This is true, in particular, of the recent detailed Royal Society (RS)ZBritish Library (BL)/Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP) survey. The present study aims to complement these by concentrating on the biological sciences only. It surveys the usage of information technology and related factors by researchers at four institutions - an agricultural faculty, a university school of biology, a government research establishment and a pharmaceutical laboratory. It is found that there are differences in usage, depending on the institution and specialism involved. It also appears that senior researchers in biology are typically more information-active than junior researchers, but that senior/junior differences in the use of information technology are relatively minor, and can mostly be explained in terms of the pressures on senior staff time. When compared with the RS/BL/ALPSP survey, some results of the present study agree well (e.g. regarding the average level of online access to information). Others differ (e.g. electronic information usage in the pharmaceutical laboratory is higher than the earlier survey might suggest). Overall, the present study indicates that, though the information-handling activities of biologists may differ on average from other specialisms, their total spread is so great that most approaches can be matched by some group within the biological sciences.