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I'm not a researcher, but I have a friend who used to work as IT in research. He's told me a few things.
More information would be needed about the type of work is being done. For example, if you'd actually like to be able to do some light data-crunching on the side, then it's unlikely that you'd want an ebook reader.
For reading through journals and papers, I imagine the ability to do highlights and notes would be mandatory. So far the only ebook reader I know of that can do that practically would be the Kindle. Tablets are far more efficient though if for nothing else but the screen real-estate and better file handling overall.
There's also your work environment to consider. Some network administrators for research institutes also double as an android or apple app developers. If you know your admin well, and they have this kind of technical ability, then it may be a good investment to buy a tablet with their preferred OS.
Some research also makes use of .csm files gathered from instrumentation, which is basically nothing more than a text file with comma separated values in it. Ebook readers can probably display these, but tablets are better since a spreadsheet application on a tablet may be able to present the data in a way that's easier to read and even manipulate.
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