281 OLATOKUN: ELECTRONIC MAIL USE IN RESEARCH COLLABORATION Annals of Library and Information Studies Vol. 55, December 2008, pp.281-291 Electronic mail use in research collaboration: observations from a Nigerian University Wole Michael Olatokun Department of Library and Information Studies, Private mail Bag 0022, University of Botswana, Gaborone.Email:wole.olatokun@mopipi.ub.bw/woleabbeyolatokun@yahoo.co.uk A study of 102 research collaborators, conducted using semi-structured questionnaire revealed that the research collaborators employed e-mail for daily communication, file/document exchange, dissemination of results, and data collection. Widespread use of e-mail, its timeliness and cost-effectiveness were the main motivating factors. Also demonstrates that research collaborators’ publication activities were greatly enhanced by their use of e-mail. Benefits derived from e- mail use include its flexibility, ensuring easy linkage with peers and colleagues, ease of file/document exchange, privacy and confidentiality of information, and its distance friendliness. Irregular power supply was the major constraint against e- mail use in research collaboration. Findings revealed that job position was the highest significant factor that contributed to e-mail usage, while motivations for using e-mail, benefits of e-mail, and e-mail usage collectively contributed to the productivity of the research collaborators. Concludes that e-mail use in research collaboration at the University of Ibadan contributed to the productivity of research collaborators and the benefits of e-mail use in research collaboration outweigh the constraints. Introduction From the second half of the twentieth century, the system of communication began to undergo a dramatic transformation at a rate that could never have been imagined 1 . Electronic mail (e-mail) is one of the essential resources on the internet that was invented in 1990 by Tim Berners-Lee and Cailliau. It has huge benefits inherent in it, especially its capability to blur all boundaries of geography, disciplines, time, cost, and being able to achieve virtually all that the conventional postal mail had not been able to achieve. The fact that e-mail, as well as other resources on the internet, was initially developed for scholarly use, and has become today an exceedingly important platform for both formal and informal scholarly communication and collaboration, has necessitated the need to investigate how its use has enhanced collaborative research. Over the years, there has been increasing interest in research collaboration among researchers and within science policy circles. It is widely assumed that collaboration in research is a ‘good thing’ and that it should be encouraged. Numerous initiatives have been launched with the aim of developing collaboration among individual researchers - bringing them together, for instance, in new and larger centres of excellence, or alternatively in interdisciplinary research groups. Most governments have been keen to increase the level of international collaboration engaged in by researchers whom they support in the belief that this will bring about cost-savings or other benefits. The use of e-mail in collaborative research makes researchers communicate without the cost of travel and, perhaps, more easily transcend cultural barriers. It enables collaborators to contribute different skills, experiences, and perspectives to the collective work of the research team. While consistently found to be the most used tool for distance collaborative research 2 , there are advantages and disadvantages of e-mail use. Significant aspects of e- mail use include universal platform, cost effectiveness, accessibility, and easy learning curve for research team members 3 . Other advantages include succinct messaging and the benefit of being able to send attachments quickly and efficiently. Of more benefit to the collaborative research team is the fact that both sender and recipient manage controlling the timing of their portion of the communication 4 . However, this can also be a disadvantage as lack of timeliness leads to poor communication or the undermining of the collaborative relationship. Another drawback presented by e-mail is