What's the use? Measuring the frequency of studies of information outcomes

Abstract

Several prominent scholars suggest that investigations of human information behavior or "information needs, seeking, and uses" rarely measure how received information is applied or its effects on the recipient, that is, its outcomes. This article explores this assertion via systematic analysis of studies published in journals between 1950 and 2012. Five time periods and four journals were sampled, including 1,391 journal articles, 915 of which were empirical studies. Based on these samples, the percentage of studies of information outcomes climbed from zero in the 1950s and 1960s, to 8% in recent research reports. The barriers to studying information outcomes and possible future research on this topic are explored.

Design guidelines for online resources: a longitudinal analysis of information processing

“…However, there has been a lack of both conceptual clarity and empirical research into the area (Bawden & Robinson, 2012;Case & O'Connor, 2015;niemelä et al, 2012). This paper brings greater conceptual clarity to the area by proposing that information processing and use is a more accurate term than information use, as it covers both the processing of the information and the internal and behavioural use of the processed information, Figure 3.…”

“…Researchers have repeatedly highlighted the ambiguity surrounding information use (Bawden & Robinson, 2012;Case & O'Connor, 2015;niemelä, Huotari, & Kortelainen, 2012). It is an area that has been frequently referenced but is rarely explicated (Savolainen, 2009b).…”

“…Instead, it is left as an ambiguous appendix to information-seeking (ibid). It is perhaps unsurprising then that researchers have also highlighted the lack of empirical investigation into information use (niemelä et al, 2012;Tuominen & Savolainen, 1997), particularly when compared to other areas within information behaviour, such as information needs and seeking (Case & O'Connor, 2015).…”

“…Information behaviour includes 'those activities a person may engage in when identifying his or her own need for information, searching for such information in any way, and using or transferring that information' (Wilson, 1999, p. 249). This paper uses data from a longitudinal study of the information behaviour of expectant and new mothers to explore an area of information behaviour that has received insufficient attention, namely information use (Case & O'Connor, 2015).…”

The Information Seeking and Communication Model

“…Case and O'Connor (2015) note that the focus of such studies has tended to be on information needs and seeking, with less emphasis on the uses to which the information is put. They comment: "Given the high frequency with which the HIB [human information behaviour] literature employs the term use, the lack of attention to the outcomes of seeking is unusual".…”