Zetoc Survey 2011 Summary

Introduction.

A questionnaire was included in the Zetoc web site on the 23rd December 2010 and taken down on the 31st January 2011. The tables and charts below present a summary of the responses.

Results.

There were a total of 389 useable surveys completed. Percentages are rounded to nearest whole no, 5 is rounded up.

1. Where do you study/work?

89% of respondents were UK based.

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2. In which role are you using Zetoc?

62% of respondents were involved in academic work as students, researchers or lecturing staff.

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3. Please indicate your subject area (select all that apply).

Many respondents chose more than one option so the figures include every subject area selected for each respondent.

The greatest number of respondents selected Medicine including dentistry (12%) for their subject area, followed closely by Social Sciences (11%) and Nursing, midwifery and allied health (11%).

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4. On average, how often do you use this service?

40% of respondents used Zetoc at least weekly.

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5. How do you find using Zetoc?

62% of respondents agreed that Zetoc is easy to use.

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6. My work would take longer if Zetoc were not available.

66% of respondents agreed that Zetoc saved them time.

Respondents were asked to comment - Why do you say that?

Of the respondents who agreed or strongly agreed that Zetoc saved them time, their reasons included the Alerts (40%), its coverage (15%) and its ease of use, searching and speed (14%).

122 respondents neither agreed nor disagreed that Zetoc saved them time, and of the 50 of those who left comments 23 had never used Zetoc before or were using it for the first time.

10 out of 389 respondents disagreed that without Zetoc their work would take longer. Of the 7 of those who left comments, their reasons included lack of links to full text for particular institutions, there are other TOC services available and the time taken to sort through alerts for information useful to them.

188 respondents left comments. 198 comments in total.

A sample of the comments:

“Although other electronic systems are available for providing electronic tables of contents, none are as comprehensive as Zetoc - if the NHS opted out of Zetoc, several systems would need to be checked and utilised lengthening the admin process and becoming more complicated in training staff.”

“Zetoc allows me to provide a CAS (Current Awareness Service) to staff here.”

“I distribute Zetoc alerts for 20+ journals to clinical staff (doctors, AHPs, nurses) to keep them up to date with developments in their field of interest. They can request articles or borrow journals when they find particularly useful articles. It's an efficient way of promoting awareness and helping them keep up with current practice and research.”

“It is very useful to have a search engine looking out for relevant publications for me, which not only saves time but also alerts me to papers I might never have come across otherwise.”

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7. I would recommend Zetoc to others.

80% of respondents agreed that they would recommend Zetoc to others.

Respondents were asked to comment – Please tell us why you would, or would not, recommend Zetoc?

Of the respondents who agreed or strongly agreed they would recommend Zetoc, ease of use (21%), currency/timeliness (19%), and coverage (14%) were the most cited reasons.

Of the 69 respondents who neither agreed nor disagreed they would recommend Zetoc, 19 left comments. 17 of these indicated they had never used Zetoc before, or were using it for the first time.

From 199 total comments there were only 10 comments from respondents who would not recommend Zetoc. The reasons included the requirement to renew alerts annually, no links to full text for a particular institution and the search tool not being as comprehensive as other databases.

160 respondents left comments. 201 comments in total.

A sample of the comments:

“When I use Zetoc, it's generally because other options have not located information I know or suspect to have been published. My 'hit-rate' for successful location of publications that haven't reached other services is high and I consider Zetoc a valuable resource for this reason. I find things here that I wouldn't find elsewhere.”

“It's essential in science to keep up with the literature, and Zetoc is the best (only) tool for that.”

“It is one of the most useful research tools for Higher Education.”

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