Elpub buttonEl.pub Reader Survey Results
January 2001

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CONTENTS:
Methodology | Main results | Screen resolution | Organisation activity | Country | EU funded project participant | Useful parts of the web site | Website visit frequency | Number of readers | Newsletter length and style | European funding | More analysis | Other comments

FRAMEWORK PROGRAMME - INTERACTIVE ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING
January 2001 El.pub survey results

EPIFOCAL project
Date: 2 March 2001

Methodology

A short questionnaire was mailed to the El.pub Weekly e-mail alerter list, a version of which was also posted on the web site for three weeks in January/February 2001. A copy of the questionnaire used (on the web site) is available on the web, and the emailed version is available for download as a zipped text file.

URL: download zipped email questionnaire ftp://ftp.pira.co.uk/users/ket/public/quest3.zip
URL: web questionnaire http://www.elpub.org/quest3.htm

These results are primarily for the survey of newsletter subscribers. Responses to the questionnaire on the web site were low. In the second survey (April 2000) we had a total of 124 responses (web and newsletter), and 93 in the first survey (May 1999). In this third survey we had 145 replies to the newsletter questionnaire (compared with 54 in the second survey) and 5 replies to the web site questionnaire.

This is a very good response and is about 14% of the newsletter addresses. In the first two surveys the newsletter subscribers were given the option of filling in the survey on the web site. In this survey we did not do that as we wished to ask different questions of the newsletter readers. It is clear from the result that in the first two surveys (where the questionnaires were identical) many of the newsletter readers responded via the web. The results for the web site questionnaire are covered in section 13. below.

URL: May 1999 survey http://www.elpub.org/results.htm
URL: April 2000 survey http://www.elpub.org/results2.htm

The non-random nature of the survey means that one should not place too much faith in the detailed results.

The questionnaire was designed to answer a number of questions:

A PC-zipped WinWord copy of the survey can been downloaded by ftp from the URL below.
URL: ftp://ftp.pira.co.uk/users/ket/public/results3.zip

Main results

Screen resolution

 
Jan 2001
April 2000
1024 x 768 and above
65%
58%
800 x 600
29%
32%
640 x 480
5%
5%
Don’t know
1%
5%

Organisation activity

 
Jan 2001
April 2000
Computer industry
21%
14%
Academic
19%
24%
Information industry
16%
19%
Other commercial
14%
19%
Publishing
11%
12%
Government
10 %
6 %
Entertainment industry
4%
not asked
Broadcasting
2%
not asked
Other
1%
5%

The question was changed slightly and people were asked for the principal activity to avoid multiple answers.

Country

 
Jan 2001
April 2000
EU country
75%
70%
North America
8%
20%
Other European
8%
4%
Asia / Middle East
6%
6%
Pacific / Australasia
3%
2%
Africa
1%

EU funded project participant

 
Jan 2001
May 1999
Yes
26%
33%
No
74%
67%

This question was not asked in the second survey. This result probably reflects the greater direct connection between the IESERV concertation project and the projects (through frequent concertation meetings with the projects), and the current awareness project. The result implies that about 300-350 project participants read the newsletter.

Parts of the web site found useful (multiple choice: % of respondents choosing)

 
Jan 2001
April 2000
News pages
80%
67%
Topic information
64%
n/a
Topic information
64%
n/a
Project information
48%
47%
Product information
48%
51%
E-journal information
43%
40%
Resource and download pages
32%
40%
News archives
36%
36%
News archive
30%
33%
Educational publishing section
26%
n/a
Analytic section
25%
new 2000
Creative technology section
23%
36%
Search engine
20%
27%
VR section
10%
12%
GI systems section
10%
10%
Translation service
6%
6%

Website visit frequency

 
Jan 2001
May 1999
Daily
4%
4%
Weekly
46%
58%
Monthly
30%
23%
Less than once a month
17%
9%
Never
4%
n/a

This question was not asked in April 2000. Note that this is for predominantly newsletter readers and the first survey results are for all respondents (web and newsletter).

Number of readers

 
Jan 2001
One
75%
2-5
17%
5+
8%

This is a new question to estimate the number of readers of the newsletter, as opposed to the circulation figure. The results imply that the readership is closer to 1300 than the raw circulation figure of 1000 we recently passed.

Newsletter length and style

 
Jan 2001
Longer with independent links
17%
Current (no change)
68%
Short - headlines and links to web site
12%
No response
3%

This question was designed to elicit information on whether a longer stand-alone newsletter would be popular. The results are not sufficiently good to make a clear decision. However some other comments implied that a few readers would strongly favour direct links rather than via the web site.

European funding

 
Jan 2001
Pro
63%
Anti
34%
Non-response
3%

This question was to see whether information on European Electronic Publishing funding opportunities would be popular (as suggested by the first project review). The results are clearly in favour.

More analysis

 
Jan 2001
Yes
52%
No
41%
Non-response
8%

This question was to see whether the result of Analytic was to raise demand for more analysis or not. The results imply that there is a demand but that it needs to be separated from the other material and the newsletter so as to leave those currently happy with an unchanged basic service.

Other comments

72% did not add any further comments. 21% provided positive comments, 4% negative. 7% provided useful information (the rest were simply that they liked the site). Most of the negative comments related to the problem of links to the web site from the newsletter going out of date after a few weeks as date fades into the archive or wishing for direct links to original sites rather than having to visit the web site.

So far there are 5 responses to the web site questionnaire (2 respondents also read the newsletter). The fact that overall most responses are from newsletter readers no doubt reflects their greater interest in the subject and emphasises the importance of having a parallel newsletter. Adding the web site responses to the newsletter responses for the common questions does not alter the results above. The number of responses to the web questionnaire is not sufficient for an analysis of the other question that was related to how the user discovered the web site.

We would like to thank all the people who took part in the survey

and hope that we continue to meet your needs.

File Downloads - Please note
File downloads from the El.pub site are currently suspended - the links however have not been updated to reflect this. If you would like access to a particular download file - please email webmasters@elpub.org with a suitable request confirming a description of the file you wish to download.

El.pub - Interactive Electronic Publishing R & D News and Resources
We welcome feedback and contributions to the information service, and proposals for subjects for the news service (mail to: webmasters@elpub.org)

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Last up-dated: 16 February 2024

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