Internet user profile in the field of parasitology

This study determined a profile of current Internet users in parasitology, their use patterns on the Internet for parasitologic purposes, and the Web sites they would recommend. In a European survey, 689 parasitologically eng aged scientists were asked to fill out a questionnaire about Internet acces s, current problems, current and future use, and which Web sites they would recommend as well as about the use of e-mail. In all, 153 (22.2%) of the i nterviewees returned the questionnaire. Only one participant had no access to the Internet. Time expenditure was considered the main problem involved in use of the Internet. The Internet was mainly used for e-mail (96.1%); fo r literature research (93.5%); for reading of electronic journals (51.6%); and for gathering of information, e.g., about institutes and colleagues (58 .2%) and about congresses (49.7%). In the future, 71.9% of the respondents would like to read electronic journals more often and 49.7% would like to u se the web more intensively for acquisition of information about congresses , universities, and institutions. Requests for the future included an easie r application of the browser software (33%) and a shorter response time (47 .7%). The survey demonstrates that the Internet has assumed a definite plac e in the lives of researchers in the field of parasitology. Survey response s indicate a need for electronic journals. In our opinion, universities and parasitology societies should be urged to publish journals electronically on the Web. To diminish current problems involved in the finding of relevan t information on the Internet, we strongly recommend careful reading of the instructions regarding the search engines used. Web pages with clear struc tures, small file sizes, precise HTML (hypertext markup language) key-word editing, and page titles would facilitate more accurate discovery of specif ic sites. In addition, there seems to be a need for regular publication of reviewed parasitology-link collections.