Usage Bibliometrics

摘要

How researchers access and read their technical literature has gone through a revolutionary change. Whereas fifteen years ago nearly all use was mediated by a paper copy, today nearly all use is mediated by an electronic copy. Within individual disciplines the change has been nearly instantaneous. As an example, in mid-1997 the number of papers downloaded from astronomy's digital library, the Smithsonian/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS; ads.harvard.edu) exceeded the sum of all the papers read in all of astronomy's print libraries, combined (Accomazzi, Eichhorn, Kurtz, Grant, & Murray, 2000; Eichhorn, Kurtz, Accomazzi, Grant, & Murray, 2000; Grant, Accomazzi, Eichhorn, Kurtz, & Murray, 2000; Kurtz, Karakashian, Grant, Eichhorn, Murray, Watson, et al., 1993; Kurtz, Eichhorn, Accomazzi, Grant, Demleitner, & Murray, 2005; Kurtz, Eichhorn, Accomazzi, Grant, Murray, & Watson, 2000). This was six months after two of astronomy's four largest journals became available electronically, and six months before the other two were available online. Studies (Tenopir, King, Boyce, Grayson, & Paulson, 2005; Kurtz, Eichhorn, Accomazzi, Grant, Demleitner, & Murray, 2005) show that the ADS is used on a near-daily basis by a large majority of research astronomers.