Under the microscope: purchasing patterns for STM
Jinfo Blog

By Robin Neidorf

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FreePint Research recently launched a new survey to examine buying patterns for STM (science, technology, medicine) content. Although we are still very early in the data collection process, I'm already seeing interesting variations emerge for STM, compared with "corporate" content like news, company and people information.

Although content budgets have been under pressure over the past two years, STM purchasing may not have been as deeply affected as corporate content. Respondents to date report "stable" STM budgets and that the STM component of their annual content budget is a slightly bigger piece of the pie than it was a year ago.

The most important type of STM content so far in the responses is the research paper, followed by the scientific journal article. (Does the STM research paper have an equivalent in corporate content? Perhaps the analyst report?) Patents are also rated as relatively important – and this is a type of STM content that's becoming increasingly important to all kinds of organisations across industries as companies attempt to get a jump on competitive information and emerging opportunities.

At the bottom of the list of importance are eBooks, which do not seem to have much uptake for either STM or corporate content.

Respondents so far indicate that offline conferences remain an important source of intelligence about what's happening in the STM content marketplace. This is in direct contrast to FreePint Research finding that offline conferences have decreased in importance for influencing purchases of corporate content. I suspect that more input from respondents on FreePint Research: Survey on Buying Patterns for STM will have an impact on this result, more in keeping with what we see for corporate content.

Still, I wouldn't be surprised should we learn that live conferences are more important for STM content for a couple of reasons: first, the content is more vertically oriented than other corporate content categories, and the trend for conferences and events is that verticals are stronger than universal or general programmes. Second, the scientific sector in general continues to have a stronger tradition and culture for conferences, which I'd hypothesise carries over to STM content purchasing patterns.

However, we won't know the full truth of these and other questions, unless you take the time to complete the survey too. A bit longer than many FreePint Research surveys, this one should take 15 minutes to complete. Your responses are anonymous, but if you provide an email address at the end, you will receive a free copy of the full results upon publication in early June. Complete the survey by 15 May to be eligible for a random drawing to win one of three gift cards valued at £50.

This project is generously sponsored in part by Elsevier, Informa and Springer.

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