Going back to the original question of "who is looking at IRs"...
Visitors using the "request copy" button in our IR, i.e. for restricted or under-embargo material, are asked not only to provide the author with a reason for wanting a copy, but also what they do (i.e. academic, postgrad, undergrad etc.).
These requests generally comprise a sample of over 150 per month, and so a case could be made to extrapolate these trends as representative of downloads for the repository as a whole.
The latest available figures (for April) are:
Academics: 35%
Research students: 29%
Undergrad students: 18%
Non-academic: 18%*
*Mostly health practitioners and non-university-based researchers, but also some local government and charity workers. Proportion of access by general public estimated at only 1%.
I think there is an important distinction to be made between visits and downloads. Of course you are going to get a lot of irrelevant, chance visits from the general public... but if someone has decided to actually open and download a document from an IR (or request it if it is restricted), it's pretty safe to assume they have decided that piece of work is of interest to them. These are the users that are of interest to us, and to our academics depositing in our IRs.
Colin Smith
Research Repository Manager
Open Research Online (ORO)
Open University Library
Walton Hall
Milton Keynes
MK7 6AA
Tel: +44(0)1908 332971
Email: [log in to unmask]
Web: http://oro.open.ac.uk
Blog: http://www.open.ac.uk/blogs/ORO
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/smithcolin
-----Original Message-----
From: Richard Rankin [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 01 June 2010 17:12
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: who is looking at IRs
I was at a meeting this afternoon promoting the population of our IR and an academic commented that he would not go to an IR directly for information.
Rather he would do a journal search.
Also commented that on discussion with his colleagues non of them could recollect doing a search that led them to an IR to obtain information on published works.
He then asked who are the people who use IRs as sources of information?
Ricky
______________________
Principal Analyst
Information Services
10 College Park
Queen's University Belfast
Belfast BT7 1LP
tel: 02890 976266
email: [log in to unmask]
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