Is Information-Seeking Behavior of Doctoral Students Changing?: A Review of the Literature (2010–2015)

Abstract

The advent of the Internet and networked communications in the last 15 years has arguably considerably changed the information behaviours of doctoral students, including the discovery process. Information seeking includes initiating a search, constructing search strategies, locating and evaluating the identified sources. Current research on informationseeking behaviours is focusing on understanding how the Internet, social media and other technological and communication-based changes, including mobile technologies, have changed the way students seek information in order to understand the information behaviours of the students of tomorrow. This paper offers a review of the literature on information-seeking behaviours, with a particular focus on recent years (2010-15). It aims to determine whether notable changes in the information-seeking behaviour of doctoral students have emerged in recent years. The study shows that the information-seeking behaviours of doctoral students follow a steady trend, with some subtle changes, particularly in the (patchy) use of social media and networking sites. There appears to be more similarities than differences across disciplines in the information-seeking behaviours of doctoral students. Considerations to their information literacy skills are given to understand better the role supervisors and library staff can play to support the doctoral students population in the early stages of the research process.

Where and how early career researchers find scholarly information

“…We should be conscious that in a global, ever more open information world, where searching can be conducted seamlessly, anywhere and anytime, new (and old) researchers are going to be doing it differently. For a review of the recent (2010-2015) literature on researchers' information-seeking behaviours, see Spezi (2016); for a longitudinal view of the developments in this area, see the series of Ithaka S+R US faculty surveys and the Ithaka S+R/Jisc/RLUK surveys of UK academics (Housewright, Schonfeld, & Wulfson, 2013a, 2013bWolff, Rod, & Schonfeld, 2016a, 2016b. See also the NeoRef research group's national studies into the information-seeking behaviour of US academic scientists, reported in Hemminger, Lu, Vaughan, &Adams, 2007 andNiu et al, 2010. True, junior scientists, as arguably the most vulnerable populations in the scholarly community, usually cope with their challenging circumstances by following the norms of their chosen discipline (Harley, Acord, Earl-Novell, Lawrence, & King, 2010).…”

Headlines from the discovery files: Key publications on scholarly content discoverability

“…Many featured reports demonstrate that online peer reviewed journals – with their various search, browse, and alerting features – are considered a routine information channel for researchers at all developmental levels, particularly for advanced students and faculty (Spezi, ; Tenopir et al ., ), whereas monograph‐style content serves other purposes within the academic lifecycle. The Gardner and Inger surveys started with a focus on journal information channels, but, in 2012, when they introduced questions about book discovery, they began to report greater variability in user needs and habits when seeking monographs.…”

Does the scholarly communication system satisfy the beliefs and aspirations of new researchers? Summarizing the Harbingers research

“…Thus, in today's digital, ever more expansive, and increasingly open and accessible world of scholarly resources, searching for information has never been easier. Yet, Spezi (), found that the whole range of information‐seeking behaviours of novice researchers – initiating a search, constructing search strategies, and locating and evaluating the identified sources – follow a steady trend, with only subtle changes from the past, particularly in the use of social media and networking sites. Indeed, the shift towards their greater use of novel ways and means of locating information remain subtle to this very day as the findings of the latest cycle in the series of Ithaka S+R US Faculty Surveys show: while it is the younger researchers who assign the greatest importance to utilizing academic social networks for keeping up with relevant scholarship, the differences among the age cohorts are not very marked (Blankstein & Wolff‐Eisenberg, ).…”