Science in the Digital Age: Exploring Online Behaviors of Researchers

“Science in the Digital Age: Exploring Online Behaviors of Researchers” is a new report from BioInformatics that investigates where scientists are naturally gravitating online using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Surveying over 545 science researchers, this report describes their personal and professional online habits. You’ll discover which websites, social media platforms, and influencers are popular among researchers and the level of trust scientists have in these resources. This report offers data-backed insights to inform channel and messaging strategies.

This NEW report outlines current online habits of researchers and will focus on the following objectives:

• Investigate where scientists are naturally gravitating online and understand how often they go online for both job/career-related topics and personal use.
• What online newsletters do scientists subscribe to? What other online media (including non-science related channels) do they consume?
• How are scientists deciding where to go online? What are the purposes behind scientists accessing specific scientific social media or career-based sites?
• Which science related forums are people accessing? How did they learn about these?
• What topics are they investigating online (science and non-science related)? Where would they trust finding this information?
• Investigate who key online influencers are that scientists follow and through what channels to they consume that media. Understand how did they hear about those influencers in the first place?

BioInformatics designed an online quantitative survey with accompanying qualitative interviews to address the objectives.

The survey this report was based on was fielded to n=545 respondents and n=7 one-on-one interviews, members of the Science Advisory Board (SAB) — a segment of the scientific community with a demonstrated willingness to participate in market research activities.