The AGRIS e – consultation survey took place from November 2014 to February, 12^nd 2015.The purpose of the survey was to get AGRIS user feedback on various aspects of AGRIS platform, and furthermore, get AGRIS’ users to participate in the continuous development of the AGRIS in 2015 and beyond. The e-consultation focused on the needs of the AGRIS users, how AGRIS presents its data

Brief notes on the survey 

This survey was conducted by means of an online questionnaire which consisted of 19 closed and open-ended questions. The questions focused on

• demographics;
• needs of the users;
• results regarding the existing services of AGRIS portal;
• suggestions and recommendations of the users regarding the AGRIS portal improvement.

The survey was uploaded to the main search page of AGRIS and disseminated by e-mail to AGRIS content providers and via announcements on AIMS and other social media of FAO and Agro-Know.

Summary of results

Demographics – The main participants of the survey were students (38%), researchers (28%) and information managers/librarians (16%) and the majority of the users were from academia and research institutions. AGRIS is targeted primarily at researchers both in academic environment and agricultural research centres.

More users requested research data and publications and besides AGRIS users rely on the Google Scholar (23%) and the platforms in their university libraries (21%). Users were asked a direct question if AGRIS should become like PubMed is to Biomedical sciences – 38% of the respondents considered it extremely important, while 50% considered it important. Some of the top topics of interest included Animal production, Plant Diseases, Plant protection, and pathology…amongst many others.

Regarding the existing services on AGRIS portal, most respondents claimed that it is important for them to save favorite results, while a majority of users want to have a possibility to use AGRIS web portal on tablets. Most users are satisfied with AGRIS current level of service –with 24% extremely satisfied, 59% satisfied and 12% not satisfied.

AGRIS e-consultation participants came from 73 countries and the analysis of the respondents showed that users from Europe, America, Australia had a better connectivity compared Africa and Asia. With regards to general users’ suggestions, most respondents indicated various recommendations on six different fields: interface, services, results presentation, content, multilingualism and accessibility.

The results of the survey will be used to further develop the platform