This report describes a user research study of literature search behaviour, within the life sciences. The study was conducted by the Europe PMC User Experience team at the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI). The research methods included a diary study, usability testing and a web analytics review. The report documents the methodology and findings, and provides initial suggestions for improvements to Europe PMC, based on insights from the research study. The report may be of interest to Europe PMC funders, and organisations and start-ups working in the science publishing domain.