Via a blog post and other communication channels, the tub. in cooperation with the Computing Center invited participation in a survey on the topic of reference management. The feedback will help to ensure that the service offering for reference management continues to provide TU members with the best possible support in the future, in line with existing requirements and needs. The results are now available.
154 people participated in the survey in order to actively contribute feedback, ideas and wishes on the topic to the future service offering at the TUHH. The survey was available in the period from November 30, 2021 to January 06, 2022 (37 days). At this point, we would like to thank all participants once again.
Insight into selected findings
Some results of the survey on reference management and work habits and conditions:
- Of the total 154 persons, 149 answered the questionnaire in the German version. 5 persons used the English version.
- Most respondents use Citavi (40.9 %), followed by Zotero (13.9 %), Jabref (11.7 %) and BibTeX (10.2 %). Also used are Mendeley (7.3%) and Endnote (1.5%).
- Participants use reference management mainly for the creation of bibliographies (more than 83 %). Filing and organization of documents (about 56 %) as well as the collection and formulation of citations (just under 41 %) are also important.
- Popular functions are Word add-ins, BibTeX export and data imports. Depending on the application, functions for sorting and structuring are also used.
- TU members do not wish to be locked into one specific program. At some institutes different programs are currently used and this freedom of choice should be allowed.
- Suggestion for a reference management introduction for Bachelor students. Also for professors an offer that deals with the use of literature management programs would be of interest.
- For the survey participants, good usability plays an important role. Cloud functions that enable collaborative work and work from different devices/computers are also important.
- Almost half of the respondents (approx. 44%) are in favor of the literature management program at the TUHH being open source software.
- 52.9 % of the respondents work in a TUHH-internal group, 32.7 % in an internal and external mixed group.
- Many survey participants work online and offline (76.9%) and on multiple devices (51.9%).
- The dominant writing applications at TUHH are LaTeX and Microsoft Office. The operating systems mainly used are Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Further information
A more comprehensive report (procedure, results in detail), raw data and the questionnaires used are also provided for the survey conducted. Access is possible via the following links:
Questions? We will be happy to advise you on reference management
Email: literaturverwaltung@tuhh.de.
Detlev Bieler
Telephone: +49 40 42878 3288
Florian Hagen
Telephone: +49 40 42878 3003
Alexander Unteutsch
Telephone: +49 40 42878 2855
You are also welcome to use our open online consultation hours via Zoom (identification code: 503035; meeting ID: 832 9724 8626) for questions regarding literature management (Fridays from 09:00 to 09:30).
For further questions regarding reference management or individual consulting appointments, our reference management team will be happy to assist you via mail or other contact channels. Additional information on reference management services at TUHH is provided on our service page.