1992 BIOSCI newsgroup usage statistics

[David Kristofferson]

Here as promised are the 1992 BIOSCI usage stats.  I was not surprised
to find that the number of postings in 1992 increased by over 

			  *** 2.2 times ***

compared to 1991.  During 1992 there was an average of almost 45
postings a day to the BIOSCI newsgroups versus slightly more than 20
per day in 1991.  It is not surprising in light of this that almost
60% of our readers now use news software instead of e-mail to follow
the newsgroups.  Not surprisingly, the METHODS newsgroup led the pack
followed by BIO-SOFTWARE and then BIOFORUM.  Only one newsgroup,
CHROMOSOME-22, fell below the minimum usage criterion and a call will
go out for votes on that newsgroup shortly to determine whether or not
to terminate it.

My thanks to all of you for your continued support of BIOSCI and also
to NSF, DOE and NIH for their continued support.

				Sincerely,

				Dave Kristofferson
				BIOSCI/bionet Manager

				kristoff at net.bio.net




                      Usage of BIOSCI Newsgroups
		     1/1/92 - 12/31/92 inclusive
         ranked in order of number of messages posted per day

Newsgroup Name           Messages Posted      Messages per day*  '92/'91**
--------------           ----------------     ----------------   -------
METHODS-AND-REAGENTS           2757                  7.53          3.45
BIO-SOFTWARE                   2174***               5.94          1.84
BIOFORUM****                   1707                  4.66          1.23
PLANT-BIOLOGY                   798                  3.56          N/A
BIO-INFO                       1014                  2.77          1.75
EMPLOYMENT                      656                  1.79          1.67
ARABIDOPSIS                     598                  1.63          1.73
NEUROSCIENCE                    561                  1.53          1.38
GENBANK-BB                      526                  1.44          1.57
BIO-JOURNALS                    464                  1.27          2.19
BIONAUTS                        433                  1.18          2.11
IMMUNOLOGY                      206                  1.11          N/A
WOMEN-IN-BIOLOGY                110                  1.05          N/A
BIONEWS****                     293                  0.90          N/A
MOLECULAR-EVOLUTION             323                  0.88          1.06
JOURNAL-NOTES                    25                  0.78          N/A
AGEING                          275                  0.75          5.36
SCIENCE-RESOURCES               271                  0.74          1.80
PROTEIN-ANALYSIS                259                  0.71          1.69
VIROLOGY                         27                  0.69          N/A
PROTEIN-CRYSTALLOGRAPHY         117                  0.51          N/A
COMPUTATIONAL-BIOLOGY           179                  0.49          0.96
HIV-MOLECULAR-BIOLOGY           153                  0.42          0.84
TROPICAL-BIOLOGY                137                  0.42          N/A
POPULATION-BIOLOGY              120                  0.33          1.32
GENETIC-LINKAGE                 104                  0.28          2.80
HUMAN-GENOME-PROGRAM            103                  0.28          0.90
AGROFORESTRY                     99                  0.27          1.29
BIO-MATRIX                       90                  0.25          0.89
EMBL-DATABANK                    56                  0.15          1.15
GDB*****                         27                  0.13          N/A
CHROMOSOME-22******              34                  0.09          1.13

Totals:                      14,696                 44.53          2.21


* Nine newsgroups came in to existence during the course of 1992.  The
statistic is calculated only over the number of days that the
newsgroup was actually available during 1992.  No attempt is made to
exclude postings for lack of content.  Newsgroups created during the
year include the following:

BIONEWS/bionet.announce, GDB, IMMUNOLOGY, JOURNAL-NOTES,
PLANT-BIOLOGY, PROTEIN-CRYSTALLOGRAPHY, TROPICAL-BIOLOGY, VIROLOGY,
WOMEN-IN-BIOLOGY

** ratio of 1992 messages per day to 1991 messages per day.  N/A = not
applicable because newsgroup was not in existence during 1991.

*** includes 19 postings to the associated newsgroup
bionet.software.sources

**** Note that in early 1992 the old BIONEWS became BIOFORUM and a new
moderated BIONEWS newsgroup was created.  The BIOFORUM totals include
all postings in 1992 to bionet.general.  The BIONEWS totals include
all postings to bionet.announce.

*****  In 1992 the old GENOMIC-ORGANIZATION newsgroup was taken over by
the Genome Data Bank and renamed GDB.

****** CHROMOSOME-22 has failed to meet the minimum of 52 postings per
calendar year and a call for votes will go out on that newsgroup
shortly to determine whether or not the group will be terminated as
per BIOSCI policy.


Statistics for bionet.molbio.genbank.updates are not tabulated.