Value of the energy data base
An assessment was made of the Energy Data Base (EDB) of the Department of Energy's Technical Information Center (TIC). As the major resource containing access information to the world's energy literature, EDB products and services are used extensively by energy researchers to identify journal articles, technical reports and other items of potential utility in their work. The approach taken to assessing value begins with the measurement of extent of use of the EDB. Apparent value is measured in terms of willingness to pay. Consequential value is measured in terms of effect - for searching, the cost of reading which results; and for reading, the savings which result from the application of the information obtained in reading. Resulting estimates of value reflect value to the searchers, the reader, and the reader's organization or funding source. A survey of the 60,000 scientists and eingineers funded by the DOE shows that annually they read about 7.1 million journal articles and 6.6 million technical reports. A wide range of savings values were reported for one-fourth of all article readings and three-fourths of all report readings. There was an average savings of $590 per reading of all articles; there was an average savings of $1280 for technical reports. The total annual savings attributable to reading by DOE-funded scientists and engineers is estimated to be about $13 billion. An investment of $5.3 billion in the generation of information and about $500 million in processing and using information yields a partial return of about $13 billion. Overall, this partial return on investment is about 2.2 to 1. In determining the value of EDB only those searches and readings directly attributable to it are included in the analysis. The values are $20 million to the searchers, $117 million to the readers and $3.6 billion to DOE.
- Research Organization:
- King Research, Inc., Rockville, MD (USA)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AI05-80OR11232
- OSTI ID:
- 6145064
- Report Number(s):
- DOE/OR/11232-1; ON: DE82014250
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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