Shifts in Scientists' Reading Habits

For the first time in 35 years in which researchers have tracked the reading habits of American scientists, they report that the number of scientific papers they read each year has declined, Nature reported. In 2012, scientists estimated that they read, on average, 22 scholarly articles a month. That's a decline from 27 that they reported when the survey was last conducted, in 2005. The survey is a project of professors at the Center for Information and Communication Studies at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. A majority of articles read in 2012 were read online, up from about 20 percent of articles read in 2005. However, the study found that 58 percent of articles read by scientists older than 60 were read on paper, although that includes printed versions of articles downloaded online.