PHYSICS WORLD
Physical scientists use and access information in very different ways depending on the precise field they work in, according to a report released today by the UK’s Research Information Network, the Royal Astronomical Society and the Institute of Physics, which publishes physicsworld.com. Google Scholar, for example, is used by 73% of Earth scientists and by 70% of nanoscientists to discover new research findings, but by just 13% of particle physicists and 7% of astrophysicists. Meanwhile, whereas all chemists and Earth scientists surveyed say they read online journals, only 38% of particle physicists do so, largely preferring preprint servers such as arXiv.
Entitled Collaborative Yet Independent, the new report is based on interviews with 51 researchers and focus-group sessions with 35 participants in seven different fields. It reveals that although physical scientists have led the way in using computers to analyse data, they are still fairly conservative when it comes to adopting new communications technologies, with formal publication in traditional journals “remaining the gold standard” for disseminating findings. Indeed, the report says that talking to peers and experts seems likely to remain one of the most important ways for such researchers to learn about new results.
Few physical scientists use blogs, Twitter, Open Notebook Science, social networks, public wikis or other “public-facing” technologies to share research information, the report finds, although some particle physicists and astrophysicists use internal, private wikis. Most physical scientists view these services as “distractions” from their communications with key colleagues – the only exception being researchers involved in “citizen-science” projects such as Galaxy Zoo, which rely on close collaboration with members of the public. Indeed, three-quarters of particle physicists still use e-mail lists to find new information.
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