To date I've received 144 replies to my survey of 'registered readers' of IR and I've analysed the first fifty-six. This analysis reveals...
The modal registered reader of Information Research -
- is in the 41-50 age group
- is a practitioner in the information area
- started reading IR in 2002
- reads one or two of the papers on-screen, when advised of a new issue
- reads one or two other journals regularly
- is reading the journal to keep up to date with research developments
- believes that the quality of papers in the journal is the same as those in other research journals in the field
- can't remember the most interesting paper read, or the most useful, and is unable to suggest a 'Best Paper'
- never refers to the World List of Departments and SchoolsÂ… or to the directory, Digital Information in the Information Research Field, or to Electronic Resources for Research Methods, or to the Information Research Weblog, and rarely looks at Professor Wilson's home page
- occasionally follows up titles on the 'What's in the open access e-journals page'
- never uses the author index, or the search engine
- occasionally uses the subject index
- as a researcher, cites paper from the journal in papers s/he writes or mentions them in e-mail messages to friends
- doesn't know how much the journal would cost if it was a subscription journal
- regards it as essential that the journal remain open access and freely available
- would not make a voluntary contribution to ensure the continued existence of the journal, and
- lives in Canada :-)
Will this reader please identify himself or herself?
