Journal of Documentation AbstractPurpose: The aim of this study is to better understand why many researchers do not have a profile on social networking sites (SNS), and whether this is the result of conscious decisions.Design/Methodology: Thematic analysis was conducted on a large qualitative data set from researchers across three levels of seniority, four countries and four disciplines to explore their attitudes towards and experiences with SNS. Findings:The study found much greater scepticism towards adopting SNS than previously reported.Reasons behind researchers' scepticism range from SNS being unimportant for their work to not belonging to their culture or habits. Some even felt that a profile presented people negatively and might harm their career. These concerns were mostly expressed by junior and midlevel researchers showing that the largest opponents to SNS may unexpectedly be younger researchers.
Keeping up to date with research developments is a central activity of academic researchers, but researchers face difficulties in managing the rapid growth of available scientific information. This study examined how researchers stay up to date, using the information journey model as a framework for analysis and investigating which dimensions influence information behaviors. We designed a 2-round study involving semistructured interviews and prototype testing with 61 researchers with 3 levels of seniority (PhD student to professor). Data were analyzed following a semistructured qualitative approach. Five key dimensions that influence information behaviors were identified: level of seniority, information sources, state of the project, level of familiarity, and how well defined the relevant community is. These dimensions are interrelated and their values determine the flow of the information journey. Across all levels of professional expertise, researchers used similar hard (formal) sources to access content, while soft (interpersonal) sources were used to filter information. An important "pain point" that future information tools should address is helping researchers filter information at the point of need. IntroductionConducting and delivering up-to-date research is key to academic work, but keeping up to date is becoming more challenging: Researchers have to locate relevant information within a body of literature that is growing by millions of new articles per year (Björk, Roos, & Lauri, 2009;Khabsa & Giles, 2014). Many researchers "feel that they do not find all the information on the topic for which they are searching" (Hemminger, Lu, Vaughan, & Adams, 2007, p. 2211. This "information explosion" has changed information behaviors and exposed new problems. Although information is more accessible than 20 years ago, it is harder to get to the "right information as needed at a given time" (Saracevic, 2009(Saracevic, , p. 2571. The study reported here aimed to better understand current information behaviors of scholars, their adjustments as a result of information overload, and requirements for improved information services, with a particular focus on how they keep up to date.In this paper, we present our analysis of in-depth interviews with 61 researchers, in which we investigated their information needs and requirements for future tools. We use the information journey model (Blandford & Attfield, 2010) to frame the data analysis, and build on the work of Wilson and Walsh (1996), and Järvelin and Ingwersen (2004) to identify dimensions involved in the information journey, This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.how they interrelate, and how the values within each dimension influence the way researchers seek, acquire, and use information. Findings should inform the design of future information systems (e.g., information-seeking tools, dashboards, database...
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