User’s Experience with E-Journal Features: A Research Survey of Aerospace Scientists and Engineers of Bangalore

Today, Government, R&D institutions and Universities are investing substantial amount of money for providing scholars with the digital literature they need for their research work with the intention that improved access to electronic information resources will lead to increasing scholarly productivity. The transformation of the physical library to the virtual library probably saves time, since one can access publications (electronic journals and electronic databases) from one’s desktop. The extent of publications available online combined with easier access has tremendously improved scholars’ ability to keep abreast in their field, and perhaps inspire new ideas and ultimately enhance the quality of their work. A research survey was undertaken to study the User’s Experience (Aerospace Scientists and Engineers of Bangalore), with the various online features provided by ‘Electronic Journals’. The geographic boundary of this research study consists of 16 prominent aerospace organizations of Bangalore. The age-group of this study is between 21-60 years. The broad areas of specialization of the Aerospace Scientists and Engineers have been classified into (a) Thermal and Fluid Sciences, (b) Avionics, Guidance and Control, (c) Aerospace Structures and Allied Mechanical Sciences, (d) Materials and Metallurgy, (e) Flight Operations and other Allied Disciplines, and (f) General Engineering and Support Sciences. The major conclusions of this study are: (1) The chi-square test indicates that ‘e-Mailed Table of Contents’ and the different types of aerospace organizations have significant association (Chi-Square = 95.939, P = 0.002), (2) The chi-square test indicates that ‘e-Mailed Article Citation Alerts on Topics of Interest to You’ and the different types of aerospace organizations have significant association (Chi-Square = 84.388, P = 0.021), (3) The chi-square test indicates that ‘Videos of animated graphics’ and the different types of aerospace organizations have no significant association (Chi-Square = 73.211, P = 0.118). The percentage of preference for ‘Videos of animated graphics’ by the 16 aerospace organizations are approximately the same [Uniformly Distributed], (4) The chi-square test indicates that ‘Hyperlinks from one article to a cited article in a different journal at no charge (toll free linking)’ and the different types of aerospace organizations have no significant association (Chi-Square = 67.726, P = 0.230). The percentage of preference for ‘Hyperlinks from one article to a cited article in a different journal at no charge (toll free linking)’ by the 16 aerospace organizations is approximately the same [Uniformly Distributed], (5) The chi-square test indicates that ‘Hyperlinks from an article to a scientific database’ and the different types of aerospace organizations have significant association (Chi-Square =88.222, P = 0.010), (6) The chi-square test indicates that ‘Hyperlinks from an article to an author’s e-mail address’ and the different types of aerospace organizations have no significant association (Chi-Square = 72.693, P = 0.126). The percentage of preference for ‘Hyperlinks from an article to an author’s e-mail address’ by the 16 aerospace organizations are approximately the same [Uniformly Distributed], (7) The chi-square test indicates that ‘Hyperlinks from an article to an author’s website’ and the different types of aerospace organizations have significant association (Chi-Square = 97.434, P = 0.002), (8) The chi-square test indicates that ‘Pay-per-view’ and the different types of aerospace organizations have significant association (Chi-Square = 81.812, P = 0.032), (9) The chi-square test indicates that ‘Electronic manuscript subscription’ and the different types of aerospace organizations have significant association (Chi-Square = 92.842, P =0.004)