Mobile information PRODUCTS Martha Sedgwick, executive director, online products, SAGE S
ince 2011, SAGE’s journal collection has been available in a mobile-optimised format. Readers visiting one of 700+ SAGE journals using their iPhones, Androids or other smartphones are redirected to the mobile version. Subscribers can view content in a format designed for the smaller screen size and functionality of their mobile device. This year we launched a mobile-optimised site for SAGE Knowledge, supporting 2,500 books and reference works. We are also undertaking projects to monitor changing needs in regards to mobile; this has included testing with academics and students on our existing mobile sites, as well as survey and focus groups with researchers in several disciplines on mobile use. As result of this, this year we launched SAGE Mobile Study: access to mobile revision sites via a QR code for on-the- go learning. Recently used with SAGE’s leading statistics textbook, Andy Field’s ‘Discovering Statistics Using SPSS’, Mobile Study is one of the first mobile revision tools to incorporate QR codes, and is a significant step for SAGE in supporting the interactive student learning experience on a mobile device. The mobile learning tool will be rolled out across a number of SAGE higher education and college market textbook titles by end Q1 2014. We have found that the way researchers access material, and the format in which they access it, is dependent on the type of reading they wish to do. Researchers don’t tend to use their
mobile devices for ‘deep reading’ but instead, our focus groups have shown us that they use them for initial searches for snippets they can refer back to at a later date. The primary use case for mobile activity on our platforms is search- locate- share- save. We have also found that the best mobile site features keep users up-to-date, for example with journals’ tables of contents. People want to locate the information they need quickly, keep up to date, and then archive this for later reading. Users from mobile sites are more likely to land on our journal platform at the article level following a free web search than
‘The way researchers access material, and the format in which they access it, is dependent on the type of reading they wish to do’
users accessing from non-mobile devices. Our journal platform supports this type of reading, providing researchers with a mobile-optimised interface for researchers to locate the material that they want, and then create favourite lists and saved citations to refer back to when they have access to tablets or laptops. SAGE’s Mobile Study also works in this
Patricia Cleary, eProduct manager, Springer M
obile is becoming an important way researchers use to stay current, as quick reference and for a user-friendly extended reading experience, especially on tablets. Mobile is all about where our users are, and about their ability to interact with our content at a time that is right for them. We see growth in mobile usage in the research community, and think this trend will continue as mobile technology improves and data connection speeds/bandwidth increase. Currently we receive approximately three per cent of visits from mobile devices, and we see this usage increasing over time. Springer’s strategy is that our content should be available to all online users, no matter
www.researchinformation.info @researchinfo
where they are or what device they are using to access the internet. We provide our users with mobile-optimised versions of our sites (such as SpringerLink and SpringerProtocols). We also provide native apps, when appropriate, for iOS and Android, for major journals and societies, and utilities or companion apps for some books. We recently re-designed our SpringerLink app for iOS, and launched a version for Android phones and tablets. We think users will be very happy with the upgrades and improved functionality. It’s just a matter of time before all our sites are mobile and tablet ready. Mobile technology is changing rapidly, so it’s essential to stay flexible, watch the market, and make adjustments to our mobile strategy when
‘Our content should be available to all online users, no matter where they are or what device they are using’
needed. Mobile technology improvements, and increasing data connection speeds and bandwidth, mean more tools will be available for researchers to use and adapt to their needs. The ability to provide anytime, anywhere access to information, plus new ways to present and organise content, indicates an emerging revolution in scholarly communication that will continue to evolve and enhance research in ways that may surprise us.
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format, enabling students to access key textbook extracts and additional study resources, links through to lecturer resources and additional summary material for students to engage with. Both support the level and type of ‘on-the-go’ reading required by students or researchers, enhancing the interactive learning experience and supporting the ‘deeper reading’ that they prefer to do when tablets and laptops are available. Overall, we see usage from mobile devices to our online products growing and, where we do make a mobile-optimised site available, this jumps further as our content becomes more accessible in that format. Our goal is to provide a great web-based user experience for mobile access to our products, and we will be rolling this out across our other sites over the next year. This has been a priority over large-scale mobile app investment as a result of the research we have undertaken.
In addition to this we continue to evaluate the opportunities offered by app development, working closely with our society and partners to understand and respond to what users in their fields require. We are at an exciting point in the development for both the higher education, college and library markets, as technology is opening up opportunities and access for teaching, learning and scholarship.
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