Reseach Activities, Information
Seeking and Communication Behavior
of Australian Academic Psychologists:
Effects of the Internet
Presented by:
Saeed Rezaei Sharifabadi, Associate Professor
(Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran)
SIG USE Annual Research Symposium at
ASIS&T 2009
November 7, Vancouver, Canada
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What is the Internet ?
Why Internet as a research topic ?
Why Psychologists as study subjects ?
How data were collected ?
Who participated ?
Who used Internet / Who did not ?
What did they say ?
Is Internet really affecting academic work ?
What next?
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I dream of the day when I will have a little gadget
on my desk which will have a telephone dial on top
and slot at the bottom. By using the dial it will be
possible to obtain within one minute, a list of
references in any desired area covering any desired
period of time, or to obtain the table of contents of
any desired journal, or to obtain a copy of any
desired article for which the reference is known.
Such a device is technically possible and would be
worth every penny spent on its development (APA
1963 ,Report# 2 , P.35)
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‘…is not computers, servers, routers,
multimegabyte-per-second transfer rates, or
specialised software. It is a community of users
whose work is facilitated, not dominated, by
hardware and software. (Ruth & Gouet , 1993, P.
49)
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Internet as one the most popular example of
technological progress and innovation in the areas
of CMCs and electronic networks has contributed
to changes in almost every aspects of its users ’lives.
The impact of the Internet on scholarly
communication, and changes in information seeking
behavior are some areas worthy of study
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How can the use of electronic networks facilitate
the tasks and goal of particular communities of
users within academic setting ?(McClure, 1994)
The information needs and information gathering
behavior of psychologists have been studied
extensively by APA in the 1960s .Therefore, baseline data from the pre-electronic era exist for
them .
More generally, psychologists are themselves
interested in studying various aspects of behavior
and are therefore likely to respond well to study of
their own behaviour .
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Exploratory study (printed questionnaire )
Base-line study (printed questionnaire)
In-depth study (on-line questionnaire)
Diary study (on-line diary)
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Publications study (citation analysis)
Monitoring log data (transaction logs) of actual use
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Please tick the boxes below to indicate your
willingness to participate in other aspects of my
study ,
*An interview
*A printed questionnaire
*An online follow up study
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Exploratory study (72%) 21 out of 29 psychologists in
the School of Psychology, UNSW
Base-line study (54%) 283 out of 527 psychologists
from 22 schools of psychology in Australian UNIs
In-depth study(84%) 100 out of 119 psychologists from
22 schools of psychology in Australian UNIs
Diary study (26%) 26 out of 100 psychologists from
16 schools of psychology in Australian UNIs
The results of the base-line study revealed that :
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239 respondents (94%) were Internet users
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15 respondents did not use the Internet
Internet non-users (N=15)
• It is more trouble than it is worth (5)
• I do not have access to the Internet (3)
•
I do not feel it would be of any great use to me (2)
• I do not have time (2)
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Other reasons, like lack of training and
retirement
Changes in informal communication :
 Email as the single most useful Internet service
- Invisible college phenomenon
- Immediate contact that is not complicated by social
aspects of personal communication (S 132)
 More interaction with more colleagues
- especially overseas ... I have had more interaction
with more researchers / collaborators since using
the Internet (S 90)
Excuses for little interaction :
- I don’t interact much. I am somehow shy, I tend to
work away at small projects that interest me, there
is little time and other such excuses (S 16)
 Wider collaboration on research / writing:
- Before Internet, virtually all my collaboration was
with people here, whereas now most of it is with
people overseas (S 201)
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Effects on formal communication:
•
Publications
Role of Journal:
(Communicating information;Validating the quality of
research; Distributing rewards; Building scientific
communities)
I don’t really believe this is useful. We have an information
overload and I prefer that my reading is screened by
referees. If it’s good research, it will be published in
good journals. There’s too much rubbish around
already (S 227)
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Quantity of research / writing:
More, with quicker and easier communication with
overseas collaborators (S 125)
More, I suppose, because I find access more
immediate and am more stimulated (S 16)
No change. The Internet is a tool to do what I
would have done anyway. But there are some likely
new directions which may change this (eg. starting
up an electronic journal next year) (S 176)
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Quality of research / writing:
‘The opportunity to see what others are doing and
contribute has improved the quality of my work ’(S
104)
‘Better quality due to more feedback on my work
and generation of ideas . (S 103)
‘I haven’t noticed any changes in the quantity or
quality of my research or writing (although I expect
there to be beneficial changes in the future as I
become more adept at finding my way around the
Internet. (S 115).
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Internet role in future improvements of research /
writing activities:
‘I am associate editor of an electronic journal. I
guess, I’ll be looking to develop electronic
publications ’ (S 101)
‘Establishment of Internet courses and seminars.
Having a course taught by the big names in the field
regardless of their physical location and allowing
access to students across the globe will be a very
useful supplement to face-to-face classroom
participation’(S 164)
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‘Exchanging ideas; electronic exchange of documents;
electronic submission of papers; dissemination of
project outputs through WWW’ (S 253)
‘I expect full-text library resources to increase, and
search engines to improve. This will make a big
difference in accessing information. I do field research
on real and complex problems, and there are many
relevant literatures. Access will become very much
easier, I expect ’(S 176).
‘If it is legal, I’m planning to create a Web page about a
friend in prison- who I am sure was wrongly convicted ’
(S 70).
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Has it ?
I am not sure.
‘Currently, we are unable to assess meaningfully the
impact of global networking on individuals,
organisations, and larger social institutions. The
academic institution is not exempt from this
problem .(McClure, 1994, P.2)
 Will
it? I believe so!
But, there is a need for
further empirical
examination of the
effects of electronic
networks on users.
As the Internet continues to expand its base of
users (both in terms of the scholarly and
general communities), more research will be
needed to continue to develop our
knowledge of communication and
information seeking patters .(Hirsh ,1997 ,
Examiner’s report on Ph.D thesis)
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Information overload (Turetken & Sharda, 2004; Lucian
& Farias, 2009)
Internet addiction (Young, 2007; Bakken, Wenzel,
Götestam, Johansson, & Oren, 2009)
Establishing the quality and relevance of information
found on the Web (Borlund, 2003; Choo et al., 2000;
Spink, Greisdorf, & Bateman, 1998)
life gaps in information usage (Kraaijenbrink, 2007)
on psychologists’ information seeking behavior since
the mid-1990s study on Australian academic
psychologists use of the Internet
Jone, Johnson-Yale, Millermaier, and
Perez’s Study (2008):
overall Internet use for academic purposes
has increased
but satisfaction with it for academic
interactions may be on the decline.
Rezaei Sharifabadi, S. (1996). Effects of the Internet on
research activities, information seeking and
communication behavior of Australian academic
psychologists. Ph. D. dissertation, the University of
New South Wales. School of Information, Library
and Archive Studies (SILAS). Full Text(PDF) Available
at:
http://staff.alzahra.ac.ir/rezaei/Ph.
D%20Dissertation.htm
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American Psychological Association. (1963-69). Reports of the Project on Scientific Information Exchange in
Psychology. Vol. 1-3. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.
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