Undoubtedly, new areas of functionality for electronic texts will come to the fore and create new reading habits and expectations for dealing and interacting with text as electronic texts become dominant in the academic world. These new forms of reading will gradually become as natural as the different activities readers now take for granted, such as searching an online catalog or browsing the web. However, little research has concerned what and how graduate students actually read on a computer screen. This study, therefore, investigated the on-screen reading behaviors of five English-as-a-second-language graduate students in different academic disciplines. The results showed that students had low preference and tendency toward reading texts that required careful reading on a computer screen because they believed that reading screen-based texts limited their use of strategies. However, most students chose online articles when searching for references. In addition, students' on-screen reading behaviors were influenced by several factors, such as their reading purposes, opportunity to read screen-based texts, applications of reading strategies and second-language proficiency. By making sense of on-screen reading occurring specifically in the academic context, this study hopes to enhance teachers' and researchers' understanding and to provide the basis for improved pedagogical practices in education. (Contains 2 notes and 1 table.)