Communication researchers in Ibero-America
consider that they frequently use (52.65%) or inten -
sively use (31.06%) the so-called e-Tools (software,
hardware and digital devices for collecting, processing
and diffusing data) for a variety of research tasks. As
can be seen in table 1, they demonstrated that they
had used at least one e-Tool for scientific communication
and collaboration, especially email (81.33%),
archive sites and document sharing (62.97%) and
social networks (62.34%). Similarly, an important
number of respondents used video conferencing with
commercial internet providers such as Skype (46.52%),
chats (41.14%) and virtual environments for collaboration
(48.10%). Apart from this last tool, which includes
platforms such as EVO and Moodle (a virtual education
tool but one that is also used for the design of
collaborative projects (Arroyave & al., 2011), all of the
other applications are commercial internet tools that
have a wide diffusion amongst users. Tools such as
video conferencing with advanced networks (17.09%)
or organizing online scientific events (10.44%) are less
commonly used.