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No scholar is an island: The impact of sharing in the work life of scholars
Author(s) -
Tenopir Carol,
Allard Suzie,
Christian Lisa,
Anderson Robert,
AliSaleh Suzan,
Nicholas Dave,
Watkinson Anthony,
Woodward Hazel
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
learned publishing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.06
H-Index - 34
eISSN - 1741-4857
pISSN - 0953-1513
DOI - 10.1002/leap.1090
Subject(s) - scholarship , download , promotion (chess) , value (mathematics) , work (physics) , citation , order (exchange) , sociology , scholarly communication , public relations , facet (psychology) , political science , computer science , psychology , business , social psychology , world wide web , law , publishing , mechanical engineering , finance , personality , machine learning , politics , big five personality traits , engineering
The sharing of scholarly articles is an intrinsic and often ignored facet of the value and mission of scholarship. It is so entwined in the daily work life of scholars that it has almost become second nature, an integral part of the research process itself. This article addresses this often overlooked area of research in usage studies. In an international survey of 1,000 published scholars, the Beyond Downloads project examined their sharing behaviours in order to gain a more contextualized and accurate picture of their usage beyond download patterns and citation counts. Scholars share published articles with others as a mode of content discovery and dissemination, particularly if they work in groups, and most expect to increase their sharing in the future. While their methods of sharing articles may change, and their reasons for sharing may vary from self‐promotion to the more altruistic motives of scientific progress, they desire to share the final published versions of articles with their colleagues.