A Study on Collaboration and Information Behavior of Researchers in Science and Technology
Date Issued
2010
Date
2010
Author(s)
Hsieh, Jenny
Abstract
Traditionally, the focus of human information behavior research is the individual information users. Over recent years, there has been increasing interest among researchers in the notion of collaborative information behavior. It is gradually recognized that there are many situations, expecially when teamwork is required, that call for people to work together for information seeking. This study intends to explore the research collaboration and collaborative information behaviors of researchers in science and technology. More specifically, this study aims to investigate how researchers, who are involved in team projects, perform their everyday work practices associated with collaboration and information behavior.
This study employed in-depth interviewing as the main method to collect data. Twenty-one researchers from the same institute were chosen purposively. They are comprised of project directotrs, sub-group leaders, senior and junior researchers, engineers, and the like. A half-structured interview outline was used to guide the interviewing. The outline is composed of four facets: 1. the respondent’s daily work practices and work role identity, 2. the respondent’s individual information behavior, 3. the researcher collaboration and collaborative information behavior of the project team that the respondent belongs to, and 4. the factors that affect research collaboration and collaborative information behavior.
The results and findings of this study can be briefly summarized as below:
1. There are two types of collaboration model. One is hierarchical. The team director is on top, the sub-group leaders are in the middle, and the rest team members are on the bottom. The other model is radial. The team director is in the center and other team members are connected to the person directly.
2. The collaborative projects can be divided into three kinds: proactive and innovative type, technical improvement type, and technical service type.
3. The key features of individual information behavior are listed as following:
a. Most researchers would search online whenever they envounter a problem or question. The second most frequently used approach is to ask people around.
b. The characteristics of their information behaviors include data collection, experimentation, tracking, formation, discussion, selection, writing and publishing.
c. The goal of writing a research report or journal article is to fulfill the requirement of work performance, rather than to gain academic fame.
4. The key features of research collaboration and collaborative information behavior include the followings:
a. The team will write a research report collaboratively. The topic is decided by the team director and the writing responsibilities are disdributed to the team members.
b. It is a common practice that a person will be assigned to write a journal or conference paper to publish the findings of the project research. He or she will be the main author or this paper but the team director will add more people to be the co-authors based on their contributions to this paper.
c. Usually, the team director will decide what literature the team members should read or consult.
5. There are many factors that affect research collaboration and collaborative information behavior, such as personality, leadership, role identity, inter-personal relationship, organizational and environmental factors, competitive collaboration, and so on so forth.
Based on the results, the author suggested that the institute should establish a knowledge management system to help researchers effectively manage their research efforts. She also suggested that the librarians of the institute should be more active and creative. They should find a way to be part of the research teams and help them find and deliver the information they need as well as to organize and preserve the efforts they have made.
Subjects
information behavior
collaborative information behavior
research collaboration
science and technology researchers
Type
thesis
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