The significance depends on how carefully you look at it:
Some arithmetic:
Corrected for response rate, that's 35,254 unique
individuals
during a single week. Approximately 2/3 of them are visiting
for
the first time, which gives 36,111 new visitors, which
amounts to
960,000 new visitors a year. This figures are for what has
been
deliberately selected as the slowest week of the year, July
13-20. Assuming that average activity is twice that, this
is 2
million people a year.
About half the total visitors (including the medically
related
80%) did not have subscription access---either personal or
institutional-- to the full site.
If we add "other", which seems reasonable in this
context, that
would be another 50%. (Journalists are a separate category,
not
included)
2 to 3 million people a year. A twofold increase per year
would
mean 4 - 6 million next year. These numbers are about double
what
I would have guessed.
The amount of the demand looks a little different when you
look
at people instead of percentages.
2-3 million a year. One single journal. Astounding.
David Goodman, Ph.D., M.L.S.
dgoodman princeton.edu
----- Original Message -----
From: Sally Morris <sallymorris-assocs.demon.co.uk>
Date: Thursday, August 23, 2007 3:05 pm
Subject: RE: e: PR's 'pit bull' takes on open access
To: liblicense-llists.yale.edu
> Apologies for this much delayed response (due to
temporary
> unavailability of the BMJ statistics during their
website revamp)
>
> Peter Banks (whose sound good sense we all miss sadly)
may not
> have interviewed 'homemakers in Houston', but anyone
can have a
> look at the usage information on the British Medical
Journal's
> website (see
> http:
//resources.bmj.com/bmj/about-bmj/visitor-
> statistics/questionnaire).
> Year after year, just 2% of usage has been from
patients, and 4%
> from the general public; this year the figures jumped
to 6% and
> 5% respectively. However, this still does not exactly
look like
> overwhelming demand to me...
>
> Sally
>
> Sally Morris
> Consultant, Morris Associates (Publishing Consultancy)
> South House, The Street
> Clapham, Worthing, West Sussex BN13 3UU, UK
> Tel: +44(0)1903 871286
> Fax: +44(0)8701 202806
> Email: sallymorris-assocs.demon.co.uk
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-liblicense-llists.yale.edu
> [mailto:owner-liblicense-llists.yale.edu] On Behalf
Of Peter
> Banks
> Sent: 30 January 2007 01:55
> To: American Scientist Open Access Forum
> Subject: Re: e: PR's 'pit bull' takes on open access:
excerpts
> from article
> in Nature Magazine
>
> Mr. Banks has not interviewed homemakers in Houston.
Instead, I
> spent 20 years in patient education. I've looked at
the
> statistics that show 90 million Americans have limited
health
> literacy; considered the 40 million Hispanic patients
for whom
> English is often a second language; considered the fact
that 47
> million Americans have no health insurance and
therefore no
> opportunity to discuss health information with a
physician. I've
> created low-literacy health publications, Spanish
language
> publications.
>
> I have also been a cancer patient and used the
Internet. In the
> search for information, NIH's MedLine Plus, the
American Cancer's
> Society page, and many other patient-oriented pages
were
> extremely useful. PubMed Central was largely useless,
since I do
> not happen to be a cultured cell or a rat.
>
> At the same time, we made virtually all the content of
the
> journal Diabetes Care freely available (after a 3-month
delay).
> I/we did this not because it would help very many
patients--from
> usage statistics, it very clearly didn't--but not to
inhibit
> those few who might use the information productively.
>
> What we didn't do is to adopt the reprehensible tactic
of some OA
> advocates or Sen. Cornyn and suggest that a treatment
for breast
> cancer or diabetes was locked behind subscriptions
barriers. OA
> may be a good idea on some grounds, but patient
education is not
> one of them.
>
> Those who know little about patient education and
empowerment
> shouldn't presume to lecture others.
>
> Peter Banks
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