Concurrent 5B: Beyond the Download: The Secret Life of the Scholarly Article
We can track when an article is in the electronic realm, but what happens to it after it has been downloaded? The Beyond Downloads project examines the post-download behavior of scholars to reveal what is happening beyond what we know from traditional metrics. Interview, focus groups and an international survey, were used to investigate the ways in which scholars store, share, and use downloaded scholarly articles. We also gauged researchers attitudes towards the sharing of their own work and the work of other scholars. Traditionally, usage measured as downloads has been the proxy for the value derived by reading. We believe that the relationship between downloads and readership is unlikely to be static: real usage cannot be measured in traditional ways. For example, preliminary findings suggest that informal sharing of material is increasing. This presentation looks at the wider implications for publishers and libraries.
