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Indexing of Tables and Figures:
Scientists’ Reaction
Carol TenopirUniversity of [email protected]/~tenopir/
My research with Donald King shows journal articles are…
Widely read by scientists and students as a reliable source of information
Read for many reasons, including research, writing, teaching/learning, and current awareness
Highly valued and essential Most commonly found through library Increasingly read from library e-collection
Scientists and other scholars must read more…
More articles are published every year Reading more to keep up with their field Peer reviewed journals are essential E-journal systems and search engines
provide access to more journals and articles quickly
150172
188216
252
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1977 1984 93-98 00-03 04-06*
Average Articles Read per year per University Faculty Member
Ave
rag
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um
be
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f art
icle
s re
ad
pe
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*280 with outliers
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348288
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Med Science Eng Soc Sci Hum
Average Articles Read per year per faculty academic discipline
Year of Studies
48 47
36 34
05
101520253035404550
1977 1993-1998
2000-2003
2004-2006
Average Minutes per Article by University Faculty Member
Ave
rage
Min
utes
Per
Art
icle
Year of Studies
Granularity of Journal Articles
Granularity=
Divisible: Made up of conveniently small and independent parts
Encarta Dictionary
1. JournalIssue
2. Article Granularity
Objects granularity: Extract and index figures
CSA Tables and Figures Prototype
Objects DatabaseRecord includes:
•Full image •Captions•Index terms•Link to full text•Other metadata
CSA Prototype Testing Led to:
White paper (Tenopir, Sandusky, Casado: The Value of CSA Deep Indexing for Researchers)
http://info.csa.com/csaillustrata CSA ILLUSTRATA product
Key Research Questions for Tables & Figures (T&F) Indexing
1. What do scientists currently do with T&F?
2. How might they use a T&F index?
3. How effective is T&F searching?
4. How might T&F searching impact practice?
5. What features are most useful?
Participants
UniversitiesResearch Institutes
Totals
United States
5 1 6
Europe 2 1 3
Totals 7 2 9
•9 institutions
•60 scientists (mostly life sciences)
•Over 350 searches
Multiple Methods of Data Collection
Observing Searches
Pre and Post
Surveys
Search Diaries
Results of the Study
What scientists currently do Uses and Purposes of T&F indexing Suggestions for success
What they currently do
Search for photographs and maps more than tables, figures or graphs
Use Google most often Level of satisfaction with searches
consistently rated low locating objects is “difficult” “in general, academic figures, tables, and
graphs are not available to search”
Potential Uses and Purposes
1. To find relevant articles they would not otherwise find
2. To retrieve and use images
3. To compare their work with others’
4. To support analysis
Potential Use: To find articles they would otherwise miss
“Sometimes tables, figures, maps, etc. are ‘hidden’ in other papers. This search tool gives me the opportunity to find these items too”
“…possibility to find information that might be unnoticed in a traditional database”
“…ability to find data that may not be reflected in the title and abstract of the article”
Potential Use: To find articles they would otherwise miss
0
20
40
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No Yes Not Sure
Would Information Be Found Without Tables & Figures Search Capabilities?
Potential Use: To find articles they would otherwise miss
0
50
100
150
200
More Less Same Unsure
The time for a search using a traditional database would have been:
Potential Use: To retrieve and use images
It would be useful “when looking for information difficult to retrieve in written form”
Specific instances noted: “looking for geologic maps of a specific area” “for a quick assessment of photographic quality
in cytogenetics research” “when I need a specific graph, map, photograph,
or figure that would be for presentations or teaching”
Potential Use: To retrieve and use images
0
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Figures Graphs Maps Photos Tables
Importance of Ability to Search for Object Types
Teaching
Research
Potential Use: To compare their work with others’
It would be useful when “writing original manuscripts and comparing data from other researchers to your own findings”
Another researcher refers to “seeking published data with which to compare models”
“Knowing or suspecting that a specific experiment has been done, I can look for the data and compare to one I might do or may have already done”
Potential Use: To support analysis
Participants anticipate using the objects retrieved : for review articles to “be inspired by how other researchers set
up figures/tables” to “expose me to different areas in which
similar methods are used”
Potential to change practice
“I discovered some new publications in areas where I thought I knew all.”
“…made me think about different ways that data is conveyed…I’ll design my own future graphs and figures to better ‘stand alone’ as a result.”
“I actually did a few successful searches where unexpected and interesting information came up.”
Suggestions for Success
Images must be of high quality with ability to enlarge thumbnail images
The context of the whole article is very important—in fact it may be dangerous to see images without the context
Allow table contents to be searchable and support extraction of data from tables
PART 1 of the Enhanced Abstract
PART 2 of the Enhanced Abstract
Q: Would you rather use:
Response N Percentage
Combination of Tables & Figures and Traditional Database
44 96%
Tables & Figures only 1 2%
Traditional Database only 1 2%
N = 46 valid responses
In conclusion
Scientists use journal issues and articles for many different reasons, including current awareness, research and writing, and teaching
They read many articles each year, from a variety of journals and the amount of reading is going up
Journal issues are good for browsing and current awareness; articles found by searching are important for research and teaching
And…
Sometimes scientists need just a part of an article and they need systems that help them read more quickly
Providing access to tables and figures, within the context of the article as a whole, can help scientists in many ways.
Librarians and publishers must think at many levels of granularity—journal issues and whole articles AND parts of articles such as tables and figures.
Thank you!
Questions?
