Table Of Content

ffirs.qxd 3/31/2004 7:16 AM Page i COMMUNICATION PATTERNS OF ENGINEERS ffirs.qxd 3/31/2004 7:16 AM Page ii IEEE Press 445 Hoes Lane Piscataway, NJ 08854 IEEE Press Editorial Board Stamatios V. Kartalopoulos, Editor in Chief M. Akay R. J. Herrick M. S. Newman R. J. Baker R. F. Hoyt M. Padgett J. E. Brewer D. Kirk W. D. Reeve M. E. El-Hawary R. Leonardi S. Tewksbury G. Zobrist 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 ffirs.qxd 3/31/2004 7:16 AM Page iii 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 ffirs.qxd 3/31/2004 7:16 AM Page iv 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. 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TA158.5.T46 2004 620'.001'4—dc22 2003062037 Printed in the United States of America. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 ftoc.qxd 3/31/2004 7:18 AM Page v CONTENTS Preface ix 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Focus of the Book 1 1.2 Structure of the Book 6 2 Communication Models 11 2.1 Introduction 11 2.2 Models of Communication Systems 12 2.3 Models of Scholarly Journals 14 2.4 Models of Information Seeking 22 3 A Communications Framework for Engineers 27 3.1 Introduction 27 3.2 Time Engineers Spend Communicating 29 3.3 Engineers’ Communication Channels 31 3.4 Factors Affecting Engineers’ Communication 35 Choices v ftoc.qxd 3/31/2004 7:18 AM Page vi vi CONTENTS 4 The Engineering Profession and Communication 37 4.1 The Engineering Profession 37 4.2 How Industry and Government Engineers Spend 38 Their Time 4.3 The Importance of Information Resources to 38 Engineers’ Work 4.4 The Value of Reading 41 4.5 The Impact of Information on Innovation 44 4.6 Organizing Information for Better Use in 46 the Workplace 4.7 Engineers’ Adaptation to Information Innovations 52 5 Engineers’ Information Seeking and Use 57 5.1 Introduction 57 5.2 Engineers’ Channels for Information Seeking 58 and Use 5.3 Resources Used by Engineers for Information 63 Seeking 6 Factors Affecting Information Seeking and Use 71 6.1 Introduction 71 6.2 Effects of Geographic and Cultural Differences 72 on Information Seeking and Use 6.3 Effects of the Nature of Work on Information 74 Seeking and Use 6.4 Effects of Organization Policies on Information 83 Seeking and Use 6.5 Effects of Personal Characteristics on Information 85 Seeking and Use 7 Information Output by Engineers 89 7.1 Introduction 89 7.2 Channels Engineers Use to Communicate 91 Information Output 7.3 Resources and Tools Engineers Use for 94 Communicating Information Output 7.4 Communicating the Written Word 95 8 Engineering Education and Communication Skills 99 8.1 Introduction 99 ftoc.qxd 3/31/2004 7:18 AM Page vii CONTENTS vii 8.2 Improving Engineers’ Communication Skills 100 8.3 Improving the Use of Communication Channels 108 and Sources 9 The Engineering Scholarly Journal Channel 113 9.1 Introduction 113 9.2 Engineering and Science Journal 114 Characteristics: 1977, 1995, and 2001 9.3 Engineers’ and Scientists’ Authorship and 117 Reading of Scholarly Journals 9.4 Changes in Information-Seeking and Reading 126 Patterns Following Electronic Journals 10 Engineers’ Journal Information-Seeking and 133 Reading Patterns in an Emerging Electronic Era 10.1 Introduction 133 10.2 Use, Usefulness, and Value of Articles to 135 Engineers 10.3 Where Engineers Get the Articles They Read 139 10.4 Format of Articles Read 140 10.5 How Engineers Learn About the Articles 141 They Read 10.6 Age of Articles Read 143 10.7 Factors That Affect Use 144 11 Engineering Communication Patterns Compared 149 with Science and Medicine 11.1 Introduction 149 11.2 Professions of Engineering, Science, and 151 Medicine 11.3 Communication Channels Used by Engineers, 155 Scientists, and Medical Professionals 11.4 Resources and Tools Used by Engineers, 158 Scientists, and MedicalProfessionals 12 The NASA/DOD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion 163 Research Project 12.1 Introduction 163 12.2 Focus on Commercial Aircraft Manufacturing in 164 the United States ftoc.qxd 3/31/2004 7:18 AM Page viii viii CONTENTS 12.3 Communication by U.S. Aerospace Engineers 166 and Scientists 12.4 Other Related Work 175 12.5 Summary 179 13 Summary 181 Bibliography 187 Index 253 About the Authors 265