NEWS: Dec 10, 2008
Team from Global Santé Journal conducts market research at ICASA-Dakar 2008
Evanston - A team of four led by Dr. Robert Murphy of Northwestern University School of Medicine conducted and completed a market research survey at the International Conference for AIDS and STIs in Africa.
The market research was focused on assessing the market need for Global Santé Journal, a multi-lingual (English, French, Spanish) online journal that will provide high-quality outcomes related research articles on HIV, TB and Malaria to doctors and practitioners in the developing world.
Approximately 100 respondents were asked about their attitudes, behaviors and interests relevant to a new online medical journal covering infectious diseases. 90% of respondents described themselves as anywhere from "interested" to "extremely interested", with most also stating a willingness to pay for a subscription. Respondents were also asked about submitting to the journal and not only did approximately 80% of respondents say that a substantial percentage of their work was relevant to the journal, but most would consider submitting it for publication as well. A little less than half of respondents said they currently publish around one to two articles per year, with 18% saying they publish no articles per year. When asked about accessing the internet, virtually all respondents claimed that they access the internet on a regular basis, with 79% stating they access it anywhere from two to three times per week to four to six times per day. When asked specifically about sites such as HINARI, PubMed, or AJOL, most of the respondents stated they never accessed those sites. However, this is probably due to lack of interest rather than ability as 68% of respondents answered "neutral," "easy," or "very easy" to access free journals online. Respondents were asked, however, to list barriers that hinder their internet access, and connection speed, downloading issues, user friendliness, and the costs of subscriptions were among their top choices. In other questions, those surveyed were asked about their comfort in reading and writing in English and French, and a little less than half said they were "somewhat comfortable" to "very uncomfortable" reading and understanding and English journal, but 67% said they were "comfortable" or "very comfortable" reading and understanding a journal in French. Likewise, around half expressed some level of discomfort with writing articles in English, while around 61% said they were comfortable to one extent or other writing articles in French.
