Overcoming information overload - Annual Reviews white paper

[Charlie Rapple <charlie.rapple@tbicommunications.com>]

Dear colleagues,

With apologies for cross-posting, I thought you might be 
interested in a new white paper from Annual Reviews. It explores 
how researchers cope with information overload, based on research 
among early-career scientists and interviews with luminaries 
including Gene Garfield and Dick Zare. Annual Reviews will be 
giving away copies of the white paper at ACRL later this week 
(their booth is 945 - do drop by for a copy if you are 
interested!) or you can view it online at 
http://www.annualreviews.org/r/infooverload

Further details are given in the press release below.

All the best,

Charlie Rapple
TBI Communications
On behalf of Annual Reviews


The Role of the Critical Review Article in Alleviating 
Information Overload: An Annual Reviews White Paper

Palo Alto, CA -- March 28, 2011. Annual Reviews, the nonprofit 
publisher that synthesizes critical research literature, is 
pleased to announce the release of a new white paper that shares 
the results of research conducted by Annual Reviews, along with 
expert opinion from leading scientists, to explore how today?s 
researchers cope with information overload.

Although the term 'information overload' was not popularized 
until the 1960s, the growth of published output in academic 
research had presented scientists with an acknowledged problem 
since the early twentieth century. The white paper charts the 
topic from the advent of Annual Reviews in the 1930s, through the 
continuing importance of helping researchers assimilate and apply 
new knowledge, to expectations for how skills, responsibilities, 
technologies, and content itself will help address the ongoing 
challenges.

The paper draws on a survey of early-career researchers conducted 
by Annual Reviews to examine their approach to academic 
literature, such as how and why they read it, how much time they 
dedicate to it, what informs their reading choices, and how they 
assess quality. One-on-one interviews were then conducted with a 
range of prestigious scientists including Eugene Garfield 
(Thomson Reuters Scientific) and Richard Zare (Stanford 
University) to interpret the results in the broader research 
environment. Finally, current and past members of Annual Reviews 
staff explain the lifecycle of a critical review article, in 
terms of how it helps scientists address the challenge of 
information overload.

The white paper brings together these different perspectives and 
proposes future ways in which authors, readers, editors, 
librarians, and publishers may filter the flow of scholarly 
content.

To obtain your copy, visit Annual Reviews at either ACRL (booth 
945) or UKSG (booth 27), or download from 
http://www.annualreviews.org/r/infooverload
.