Serials e-news reports that Elsevier has released highlights from a new survey that indicates that researchers around the globe are ready for the next phase in search and discovery and prepared to actively contribute to making it a reality.
It’s an interesting article and can be read in full at
http://www.ringgold.com/UKSG/si_pd.cfm?AC=0720&Pid=10&Zid=5710&issueno=230
?
Building on earlier qualitative work, the online ‘Future of Search and Discovery’ survey offers a quick insight into the attitudes and opinions of more than 1,200 researchers across the globe. Respondents came primarily from academia (79%) with the balance from government (15%) and industry (7%).
The survey investigated 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 suggest awareness of the potential these trends hold for enhancing search. Almost all respondents agreed that “open data is important to the future of search and discovery”, with 71% indicating it is “very important” and another quarter (26%) finding it “somewhat important”.
Researchers also had a high level of awareness of APIs, seeing them as important components that can foster innovation. Eight in 10 agreed that the “availability of APIs will foster experimentation and the development of innovative search and discovery applications”.
“The ability to find and access raw data is increasingly critical to research. As the volume of data continues to grow and repositories proliferate, researchers will need new solutions to help them find and use that data,” said Judson Dunham, Senior Product Manager Science and Technology for Elsevier. “New platforms, APIs and tailored applications can help to release the full potential of that data. The survey suggests that researchers recognise the potential for these trends to accelerate research.”
More than two-thirds of respondents (68%) said 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% identified “the opportunity to help speed up research among the scientific community as a whole” as best describing the driving force behind their interest. Less than one third (31%) said their motivation would be to speed up their own research.
Despite their attraction to application building, less than one third of these researchers (31%) felt their institution would be supportive in terms of time and resources. In fact, 41 percent indicated their institutions would expect them to develop applications in 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% say they would be interested if they could collaborate with others who would handle the technical aspects.
