Trends in Industrial Information Use – Opportunities for STM Publishers and Information Providers

Author: David Bousfield, Affiliate Analyst

The Scientific, Technical & Medical (STM) publishing sector caters to a wide range of markets, including the industrial and corporate market sector. Despite this sector’s size, the majority of STM sales and product development activity fall outside of it, largely due to concerns about proprietary intellectual property. However, as firms are under constant pressure to innovate, they are finding ways to share information and to integrate it with the information available from STM vendors in order to make better decisions, faster. This report describes some of the dramatic changes occurring in the way industry creates and uses technological information and identifies examples where these changes are creating opportunities for STM publishers. This report includes:

- Outsell data and analysis on global patterns in industrial R&D;
- Examples of transnational STM initiatives generating volumes of new content and new demands on the technologies used to make sense of it;
- Examples of initiatives that reflect the new form of industrial organization, and companies that are thriving in this marketplace;
- Success stories in industry knowledge management and creation;
- Essential actions for STM publishes and information providers.