Scholarly communication in Cyberspace: Profiles of subscribers using the GEOGRAPH electronic mailing list

Abstract

Geographers in increasing numbers are utilizing the Internet for correspondence, sharing information, and keeping current on developments in their fields of interest. Electronic mailing lists (EMLs) are devoted to many topics and include subscribers, especially in North America and Europe. In order to illustrate and study the characteristics of these Internet users, we identify heavy, medium, and light user categories from a survey of GEOGRAPH subscribers and a cluster analysis. We also discuss profiles at the individual level. We select fifteen subscribers and examine their gender, age, e-mail volume, the number of addresses in one’s directory, and e-mail destinations. These regional and gender findings aid in understanding the uses of the Internet for scholarly networking.