Investigating the use and needs of digital resources across the digital scholarship lifecycle: Evidence from researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences

Abstract

Understanding researchers’ use and needs of digital scholarship resources is essential for strengthening research support across academic institutions. Drawing on the research lifecycle, KAP, and performance improvement models, this study developed a theoretical framework to examine researchers’ academic activities and resource requirements. An empirical survey was conducted among 1226 researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Results show that most respondents viewed contemporary research as increasingly data-driven and tool-dependent (85.5%), and believed that digital technologies have fundamentally reshaped research practices (74.6%). Academic search engines, literature databases, reading and translation tools, and editing and formatting tools were the most frequently used resources. Chi-square tests and regression analyses revealed that gender, academic rank, and discipline significantly influenced the use of specific digital resources; notably, female researchers exhibited higher overall usage rates than their male counterparts. Moreover, researchers highlighted several unmet needs, including broader access to literature, expanded institutional access to paid tools, and fewer network restrictions on international resources. In conclusion, this study provides a comprehensive evaluation of the transformative role of digital resources in modern scholarship and highlights the evolving needs of researchers in a digitized academic landscape, underscoring the importance of coordinated support from academic libraries, research departments, publishers, funding agencies, and information service providers.