COMMUNICATION PATTERNS OF ENGINEERS IEEE Press 445 Hoes Lane Piscataway, NJ 08854 IEEE Press Editorial Board Stamatios V Kartalopoulos, Editor in Chief M Akay R J Baker J E Brewer M E El-Hawary R J Herrick R F Hoyt D Kirk R Leonardi G Zobrist M S Newman M Padgett W D Reeve S Tewksbury Kenneth Moore, Director of Business and Information Services Catherine Faduska, Senior Acquisitions Editor Christina Kuhnen, Associate Acquisitions Editor IEEE Education Society, Sponsor EDS Liaison to the IEEE Press, Robert J Herrick IEEE Professional Communications Society, Sponsor PCS Liaison to the IEEE Press, Gene Hoffnagle Technical Reviewers Thomas E Pinelli, NASA Langley Research Center W David Penniman, University of Buffalo Katherine Thomes, University of Pittsburgh COMMUNICATION PATTERNS OF ENGINEERS CAROL TENOPIR DONALD W KING IEEE Education Society, Sponsor IEEE Professional Communications Society, Sponsor IEEE PRESS A JOHN WILEY & SONS, INC., PUBLICATION Copyright © 2004 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc All rights reserved Published simultaneously in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600, or on the web at www.copyright.com Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008 Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representation or 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Tenopir, Carol Communication patterns of engineers / Carol Tenopir, Donald W King p cm Includes bibliographical references and index ISBN 0-471-48492-X (cloth : alk paper) Communication in engineering I King, Donald Ward, 1932– II Title TA158.5.T46 2004 620'.001'4—dc22 Printed in the United States of America 10 2003062037 CONTENTS Preface ix Introduction 1.1 Focus of the Book 1.2 Structure of the Book Communication Models 11 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Introduction Models of Communication Systems Models of Scholarly Journals Models of Information Seeking A Communications Framework for Engineers 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Introduction Time Engineers Spend Communicating Engineers’ Communication Channels Factors Affecting Engineers’ Communication Choices 11 12 14 22 27 27 29 31 35 v vi CONTENTS The Engineering Profession and Communication 37 4.1 The Engineering Profession 4.2 How Industry and Government Engineers Spend Their Time 4.3 The Importance of Information Resources to Engineers’ Work 4.4 The Value of Reading 4.5 The Impact of Information on Innovation 4.6 Organizing Information for Better Use in the Workplace 4.7 Engineers’ Adaptation to Information Innovations 37 38 Engineers’ Information Seeking and Use 38 41 44 46 52 57 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Engineers’ Channels for Information Seeking and Use 5.3 Resources Used by Engineers for Information Seeking 57 58 Factors Affecting Information Seeking and Use 71 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Effects of Geographic and Cultural Differences on Information Seeking and Use 6.3 Effects of the Nature of Work on Information Seeking and Use 6.4 Effects of Organization Policies on Information Seeking and Use 6.5 Effects of Personal Characteristics on Information Seeking and Use Information Output by Engineers 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Channels Engineers Use to Communicate Information Output 7.3 Resources and Tools Engineers Use for Communicating Information Output 7.4 Communicating the Written Word Engineering Education and Communication Skills 8.1 Introduction 63 71 72 74 83 85 89 89 91 94 95 99 99 CONTENTS 8.2 Improving Engineers’ Communication Skills 8.3 Improving the Use of Communication Channels and Sources The Engineering Scholarly Journal Channel 9.1 Introduction 9.2 Engineering and Science Journal Characteristics: 1977, 1995, and 2001 9.3 Engineers’ and Scientists’ Authorship and Reading of Scholarly Journals 9.4 Changes in Information-Seeking and Reading Patterns Following Electronic Journals vii 100 108 113 113 114 117 126 10 Engineers’ Journal Information-Seeking and Reading Patterns in an Emerging Electronic Era 133 10.1 Introduction 10.2 Use, Usefulness, and Value of Articles to Engineers 10.3 Where Engineers Get the Articles They Read 10.4 Format of Articles Read 10.5 How Engineers Learn About the Articles They Read 10.6 Age of Articles Read 10.7 Factors That Affect Use 133 135 11 Engineering Communication Patterns Compared with Science and Medicine 11.1 Introduction 11.2 Professions of Engineering, Science, and Medicine 11.3 Communication Channels Used by Engineers, Scientists, and Medical Professionals 11.4 Resources and Tools Used by Engineers, Scientists, and MedicalProfessionals 139 140 141 143 144 149 149 151 155 158 12 The NASA/DOD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Research Project 163 12.1 Introduction 12.2 Focus on Commercial Aircraft Manufacturing in the United States 163 164 viii CONTENTS 12.3 Communication by U.S Aerospace Engineers and Scientists 12.4 Other Related Work 12.5 Summary 13 Summary 166 175 179 181 Bibliography 187 Index 253 About the Authors 265 ... information needs and uses of engineers from those of scientists; and offers a review of significant studies and projects that explore the communication practices of engineers The 1950s witnessed... Systems Models of Scholarly Journals Models of Information Seeking A Communications Framework for Engineers 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Introduction Time Engineers Spend Communicating Engineers? ?? Communication. .. however, remains on how engineers communicate, whether communication patterns have changed, and what might be done to improve communication of engineers This book broadly defines communication as encompassing