Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2012;7(11):e44302.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0044302. Epub 2012 Nov 2.

Online medical literature consultation habits of academic teaching physicians in the EU and CIS countries: a cross-sectional study

Chiel T M van der Voort  1 , Cees A Swenne, Catharina A M van der Hoorn-van Velthoven, Johannes H J Belt
Affiliations

Online medical literature consultation habits of academic teaching physicians in the EU and CIS countries: a cross-sectional study

Chiel T M van der Voort et al. PLoS One. 2012.

Abstract

Background: Both in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and in the European Union (EU2004), ample availability of up to date medical scientific literature is important for progress in medical science and for the education of the next generation of healthcare workers. The aim of this research is to assess if the use of online medical literature among academic teaching (AT) physicians is at the same level in the CIS as in the EU2004.

Methodology/principal findings: In the capital cities of the CIS and the EU2004 member states, AT physicians holding an academic position at least equivalent to an associate professor and performing the three classical tasks in academic medicine (teaching, research and patient care) were interviewed about their use of and familiarity with the Internet and 9 online literature services, including journals and bibliographical databases such as PubMed (Medline), The Cochrane Library and Web of Science. Library staff members were interviewed about the availability of these online literature services at their libraries. About 750 physicians and 40 library staff members were invited for participation. Eventually 124 AT physicians and 22 library staff members participated. Internet was everywhere available, but used daily by more AT physicians in the EU2004 (71% versus 48% in the CIS, P = .005). AT physicians in the EU2004 accessed a higher percentage of all articles online (74% versus 43% in the CIS, P<.001). PubMed (P<.001), The Cochrane Library (P<.001) and Web of Science (P<.003) were used more frequently in the EU2004. In the EU2004 more AT physicians were familiar with Open Access journals (89% versus 51% in the CIS, P<.001).

Conclusions/significance: AT physicians in the CIS use online medical literature less than in the EU2004. It is recommended that the awareness of freely available online literature services such as Open Access journals is enhanced among AT physicians and library staff members, especially in the CIS.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Usage of Internet and information resources by AT physicians in EU2004 and the CIS.
Dotted line = EU2004, dashed line = CIS. EU2004 N = 70, CIS N = 54. a missing CIS N = 2. b percentage of articles accessed online as part of the articles read, missing CIS N = 1.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Language of 4 most read online journals among AT physicians (%).
Inner circle = CIS (N = 54), outer circle = EU2004 (N = 69).
Figure 3
Figure 3. Language of 4 most read hardcopy journals among AT physicians (%).
Inner circle = CIS (N = 54), outer circle = EU2004 (N = 69).
Figure 4
Figure 4. AT physicians' use of online literature services in EU2004 and the CIS.
Dotted line = EU2004, dashed line = CIS. EU2004 N = 70, CIS N = 54. a British Medical Journal, b Public Library of Science, c missing CIS N = 1, d Excerpta Medica Database, e World Health Organisation Program for Access to Health Research.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Verhoeven AA, Boerma EJ, Meyboom-de Jong B (1995) Use of information sources by family physicians: a literature survey. Bull Med Libr Assoc 83 (1) 85–90 [Medline]. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Smith R (1996) What clinical information do doctors need? BMJ 313 (7064) 1062–1068 [Medline]. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Haug JD (1997) Physicians' preferences for information sources: a meta-analytic study. Bull Med Libr Assoc 85 (3) 223–32 [Medline]. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Timpka T, Ekström M, Bjurulf P (1989) Information needs and information seeking behaviour in primary health care. Scand J Prim Health Care 7 (2) 105–109 [Medline]. - PubMed
    1. Covell DG, Uman GC, Manning PR (1985) Information needs in office practice: are they being met? Ann Intern Med 103 (4) 596–599 [Medline]. - PubMed

Publication types

Grants and funding

The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support by the Jo Keur Fund, Leiden University Medical Center, as well as by the Faculty of Medicine, Leiden University Medical Center. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.