UK small businesses’ access to academic and professional information is good – but could be better

"Staff in high-tech small businesses...in the UK...place a high value on, and make considerable use of, research articles and other academic and professional information. Their access to such information is good, and improving, although it could be even better, according to a new study from the Publishing Research Consortium....28% of respondents in small businesses said that their journal access was ‘good’ or ‘excellent’, 56% that it varied, and 17% that it was ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’....[M]ore than half had experienced some recent difficulty in obtaining one or more articles, representing 10-20% of articles read annually....[T]hey find current pay-per-view (PPV) arrangements costly and difficult, and ‘walk-in’ access at a local university inconvenient."