Survey "Bibliographic and Reference Information Management"

Performed by: Erik Wilde (TIK, D-ITET)

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This survey is about your management of reference information, most importantly bibliographic information and Web bookmarks. The motivation for this survey is to understand how scientists at ETHZ are using this information, and what (if anythying) they would like to have as an improvement. Answering this survey is possible in less than 10 minutes; if you don't want to invest this much time, please do not answer anything rather than answering it only partially. Thanks a lot for your cooperation!

1  Bibliographic Information

Bibliographic information refers to information that identifies bibliographic documents (books, articles, papers, ...), but is kept separately and individually.

1.1  Do you use and maintain bibliographic information?

  1. No (please proceed directly to Section 2)
  2. Yes, and I use BibTeX
  3. Yes, and I use EndNote
  4. Yes, and I use ProCite
  5. Yes, and I use a database (FileMaker, MS Access, some Web-based solution such as PHP+MySQL, ...)
  6. Yes, but I use something not mentioned earlier (please describe what you are using: )

1.2  Do you share your bibliographic information with other users?

  1. No
  2. Yes, but informally (e.g., discipline-based file sharing)
  3. Yes, using a system providing authentication and access control

1.3  How do you enter your bibliographic information?

  1. Mostly manually (typing it in when reading the publication)
  2. Mostly by using copy/paste from other sources (such as Web pages)
  3. Mostly by using some kind of import feature of my bibliography management tool

1.4  As a rough estimate, how many references are in your bibliography?

1.5  Do you use any additional classification or information in your bibliography (such as keywords, abstracts, your personal thoughts regarding this publication, links to copies, ...)?

  1. No
  2. Yes (please describe what you are using: )

2  Bookmarks

Web bookmarks are references to anything that can be identified with a URL (e.g., "http://www.ethz.ch/"). All modern browsers provide functions for creating and managing bookmarks, but not all people use this functionality.

2.1  Do you use and maintain Web bookmarks?

  1. No (please proceed directly to Section 3)
  2. Yes, and I use Internet Explorer's bookmark functions
  3. Yes, and I use Netscape/Mozilla/Firefox's bookmark functions
  4. Yes, and I use Opera's bookmark functions
  5. Yes, and I use Konqueror's bookmark functions
  6. Yes, and I use a Web-based bookmark tool
  7. Yes, but I use something not mentioned earlier (please describe what you are using: )

2.2  As a rough estimate, how many Web bookmarks do you have?

2.3  Do you use additional information for managing your Web bookmarks?

  1. No
  2. Yes, some sort of folder metaphor
  3. Yes, but something more elaborate than a folder metaphor (please describe what you are using: )

3  User Expectations

The following questions discuss possible features of a Web-based solution for managing references (mainly targeted at managing bibliographic information and Web bookmarks). Please do not routinely click on all 'yes' buttons to indicate that more features are always better... It would be interesting to know which features you would expect to be of personal value to you in your scientific work, and which features you would consider dispensable.

3.1  Would you like to share your bibliography and/or bookmarks?

  1. No, this is my personal information and I would like to keep it private
  2. Yes, but only for making them accessible to others (read-only for others)
  3. Yes, and I would like to work collaboratively with such a shared collection (given there is sufficient authentication and access control)

3.2  Would you like to manage your bibliography and bookmarks using a single tool?

  1. No, these are separate things and should be kept separate
  2. Yes, both are references to important information and should be treated in a unified way

3.3  Would you like to be able to access your bibliographies and bookmarks over the Web?

  1. No, I use non-Web methods (local software, file access) and would like to keep it that way
  2. Yes, but it is essential that I can still use my information when I am offline (i.e., have no Web access)
  3. Yes, and online access would be sufficient (i.e., my information would only be accessible online)

3.4  If ETHZ provided a tool for managing bibliographies and Web bookmarks online, would you consider using it?

  1. No, I am happy with the way I manage this information
  2. Yes, but only if it was as easy to use as my current tools
  3. Yes, and I would be willing to invest some time to get a more powerful tool than my current tools

If you have any comments about this poll, please enter them below:


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End of Survey - Please Submit!

Thanks a lot for filling out this survey! If you are interested in the results of the survey, please visit the survey Web page where the results will be posted once the survey is completed and the evaluation of the results has been completed.

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