Users in the spotlight: study on the use of the Dutch scientific portal NARCIS, 2009

Abstract

The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) conducted three user studies in 2009. The first two studies were online surveys concerning the NARCIS portal. NARCIS (www.narcis.nl) is a gateway to (Open Access) publications published by all the Dutch universities, the Academy, the National Research Council (NWO) and a number of research institutes, to datasets managed by the DANS institute, and to descriptions of research projects, institutes and researchers (CRIS information). The surveys produced information about NARCIS users and usage, and how users rate the content and functionalities of NARCIS. The results will be used to help redesign the NARCIS website. The third study was a general survey of the need for research information, based on semi-structured interviews with various user groups in the Netherlands (researchers, policy-makers and the media). The interviews reveal that these groups make scarcely any use of NARCIS, if at all, but that they would already benefit from doing so. In addition, they have a number of wishes that NARCIS may be able to fulfil at a later stage.