Utilization of electronic scientific information resources among undergraduate dental students in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

This study aimed to evaluate undergraduate dental students’ utilization of electronic scientific information resources and to identify the specific trends found among students at different years of study. A cross-sectional web survey of all undergraduate dental students in Riyadh Colleges of Dentistry and Pharmacy was conducted. Descriptive analysis was undertaken and differences between groups were examined using Chi-square test. A response rate of 40.5% (n = 740) was achieved. 44% of the respondents used Medline for study purpose and 47.8% for research. 56.1% used full-text journal articles online for both study and research purpose. Only 25.9% searched Medline at least 1 to 7 times/month for study purpose and 22.2% for research. 42% used full-text journal articles at least 1 to 7 times/month for both study and research purpose. Clinical students were more likely to use full-text journal articles for study and research and female students were more likely to use Medline for research (p < 0.05). A majority of the respondents were non-users of Medline. The use of Medline and full-text journal articles increased moderately toward the end of the study. Training dental students in effective information searching and including the use of full-text articles in the dental curriculum will increase the use of electronic scientific resources.