Collaborative information behaviour––exploring Kuhlthau’s Information Search Process model in a group-based educational setting

Information behaviour in high risk decision making: Study of international postgraduates

This article explores the role of information in high risk consumer decision making. Forty-two qualitative interviews were undertaken with international non-EU postgraduates when making the high risk decision to study in a UK Business School. Prospective international postgraduates moved iteratively through the stages in Kuhlthau’s Information Search Process model and learnt from the search process they had undertaken in a continuous cyclical manner. Word-of-mouth recommendations were the most influential sources of information gathered, and online sources were perceived to be credible regardless of their origins. The perception of risk impacted the rigour of the information search process. An iterative decision making cycle model is proposed with Kuhlthau’s model and word of mouth information at its core, which reflects the connectedness of individuals in this digital era. This study provides new insights by combining both marketing and LIS models and extends Kuhlthau’s research into a new context.

The role of psychological, skill level and demographic variables in information-seeking behaviours in mental health professionals

The aim of this study was to identify the variables that can potentially affect information-seeking behaviour in mental health service providers using a quasi-experimental research design. The sample included 30 mental health professionals (with minimum 2 years of experience) to each of whom a scenario was presented in which signs and symptoms of three patients were presented, simulating an actual diagnostic interview. Stress response evaluation (SRE), questionnaires, behavioural observation by the Morae software, and semi-structured interviews were used as means of data collection. Our findings showed that variables such as demographic (e.g. field of study, level of education, work experience and age), psychological (e.g. state and trait anxiety, and therapist’s self-assessment) and skill level (e.g. information literacy and expert knowledge) had significant effects on information-seeking behaviour. These results can hopefully provide insights to designers and librarians who seek to create novel or optimise the existing physician-assisted systems.

Levels of critique in models and concepts of human information behaviour research

Purpose

To elaborate the nature of critique presented in the models and concepts of human information behaviour (HIB) research by identifying the issues to which the critique is directed and the ways in which the critique is conducted.

Design/methodology/approach

Conceptual analysis focusing on 58 key studies on the topic. First, the objects and ways of conducting the critique were identified. Thereafter, three levels of depth at which the critique is conducted were specified. The conceptual analysis is based on the comparison of the similarities and differences between the articulations of critique presented at these levels.

Findings

At the lowest level of depth, critique of HIB research is directed to the lack of research by identifying gaps and complaining the neglect or paucity of studies in a significant domain. At the level of critiquing the shortcomings of existing studies, the attention is focused on the identification and analysis of the inadequacies of concepts and models. Finally, constructive critiques of research approaches dig deeper in that they not only identify weaknesses of existing studies but also propose alternative in which the shortcomings can be avoided, and the conceptualizations of HIB enhanced.

Research limitations/implications

As the study focuses on critiques addressed to HIB models and concepts, the findings cannot be generalized to concern the field of Library and Information Science (LIS) as a whole. Moreover, due to the emphasis of the qualitative research approach, the findings offer only an indicative picture of the frequency of the objects critiqued in HIB research.

Originality/value

The study pioneers by providing an in-depth analysis of the nature of critiques presented in a LIS research domain.

Subject structure of the research area on collaborative information behaviour

Purpose

The principal aim of the present study was to identify and model the subject structure of the research area on collaborative information behaviour (CIB).

Design/methodology/approach

A qualitative, inductive and exploratory approach was adopted, and the method of thematic analysis was used. This study was based on the analysis of 79 publications selected from the Library, Information Science and Technology Abstracts (LISTA) database in April 2019.

Findings

Collaborative and collective information behaviours were differentiated, and the subject structure of the CIB research area was identified to contain collaborative activities oriented to both information access and content, their various conditions, means of conducting, experiences of selected communities and metascientific research on the area itself.

Research limitations/implications

The limitations result primarily from relying on the research material selected from the database (LISTA) focussed mainly on the issues of library and information science.

Originality/value

This study contributes by proposing an original model of the CIB research area representing its subject structure and providing a coherent list of subjects of interest to CIB researchers. Hopefully, it will also contribute to the harmonisation of terminology related to this research area and thus facilitate communication between CIB researchers and accelerate the cumulative development of scientific knowledge on CIB.

Triggers and strategies related to the collaborative information-seeking behaviour of researchers in ResearchGate

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to identify the triggers, strategies and outcomes of collaborative information-seeking behaviours of researchers on the ResearchGate social networking site.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected from the population of researchers who use ResearchGate. The sample was limited to the Ph.D. students and assistant professors in the library and information science domain. Qualitative interviews were used for data collection.

Findings

Based on the findings of the study, informal communications and complex information needs lead to a decision to use collaborative information-seeking behaviour. Also, easy access to sources of information and finding relevant information were the major positive factors contributing to collaborative information-seeking behaviour of the ResearchGate users. Users moved from collaborative Q&A strategies to sharing information, synthesising information and networking strategies based on their needs. Analysis of information-seeking behaviour showed that ResearchGate users bridged the information gap by internalizing new knowledge, making collaborative decisions and increasing their work's visibility.

Originality/value

As one of the initial studies on the collaborative information-seeking behaviour of ResearchGate users, this study provides a holistic picture of different triggers that affect researchers' information-seeking on ResearchGate.

Group trip planning and information seeking behaviours by mobile social media users: A study of tourists in Australia, Bangladesh and China

Social media plays an increasingly important role in travel information seeking and decision-making. However, there is limited understanding of how a group of tourists use social media to plan trips collaboratively and the different practices between countries. In this study, we investigated the collaborative information seeking (CIS) and sharing behaviours of mobile social media users from Australia, Bangladesh and China. Specifically, we surveyed a total of 219 participants to explore the differences in CIS behaviours when people were planning a group trip. The findings suggest significant differences among three countries in terms of the motivations of using social media, CIS activities and social interactions outside the group. Key findings include Bangladeshi and Chinese travellers preferred known contacts on social media, while Australian tourists intended to use both known contacts and user-generated contents for seeking information. The findings also show that social interactions employed by individuals are considered as an important complement of and are interwoven with in-group CIS; both contribute to tourism information seeking. Finally, we propose a framework for CIS research in the tourism domain.

Empirical studies of collaborative information seeking: a review of methodological issues

Purpose

Information seeking is often performed in collaborative contexts. The research into such collaborative information seeking (CIS) has been proceeding since the 1990s but lacks methodological discussions. The purpose of this paper is to analyze and discuss methodological issues in existing CIS studies.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors systematically review 69 empirical CIS studies.

Findings

The review shows that the most common methods of data collection are lab experiments (43 percent), observation (19 percent) and surveys (16 percent), that the most common methods of data analysis are description (33 percent), statistical testing (29 percent) and content analysis (19 percent) and that CIS studies involve a fairly even mix of novice, intermediate and specialist participants. However, the authors also find that CIS research is dominated by exploratory studies, leaves it largely unexplored in what ways the findings of a study may be specific to the particular study setting, appears to assign primacy to precision at the expense of generalizability, struggles with investigating how CIS activities extend over time and provides data about behavior to a larger extent than about reasons, experiences and especially outcomes.

Research limitations/implications

The major implication of this review is its identification of the need for a shared model to which individual CIS studies can contribute in a cumulative manner. To support the development of such a model, the authors discuss a model of the core CIS process and a model of the factors that trigger CIS.

Originality/value

This study assesses the current state of CIS research, provides guidance for future CIS studies and aims to inspire further methodological discussion.

Impact of Task Types on Collaborative Information Seeking Behavior

This study examined the task type as an important factor in collaborative information seeking activities, devoting special attention to its impacts on collaborative information seeking behavior, awareness and sentiment. Collaborative information search experiments were conducted on a collaborative search system—Coagmento—for three different types of task (informational, transactional and navigational). System log, surveys and semi-structured interviews were used to collect data, with quantitative and qualitative analyses carried out on the data which related to 12 participants in four groups. Quantitative analysis employed SPSS 20, while qualitative analysis was carried out using ATLAS.ti. Through our research, we found that the task types have impact on users’ collaborative information seeking behavior in terms of web page browsing, search and image using, as well as interact with task awareness. A collaborative team approach is more suitable for completing the informational task than transactional and navigational tasks, while the task type also influences the sentiment. Concretely speaking, the transactional task causes more negative emotions.

Collaborative information searching as learning in academic group work

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore users’ learning in the collaborative information search process when they conduct an academic task as a group.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper presents a longitudinal study for a three-month period on an actual task. The participants, who were undergraduate students, needed to write a research proposal in three months to apply for funding for a research project, including a three-hour experiment.

Findings

The results show that undergraduates’ learning in the collaborative search process for academic group work included knowledge reconstruction, tuning, and assimilation. Their understanding of the topic concepts improved through the process, and their attitudes became more optimistic. Besides, the learning in the collaborative information search process also enhanced participants’ skills in communication, research, information search, and collaboration. To improve learning outcomes, professional and appropriate academic resources are required, as well as effective division of labor, positive sharing behaviors, and use of collaborative systems.

Practical implications

The future development of collaborative information search systems should focus on the needs of academic research and support for elements such as instant communication and knowledge sharing.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to research into searching as learning by understanding undergraduates’ collaborative search behavior for writing a proposal.

The embeddedness of collaborative information seeking in information culture

Professionally, people often conduct their work in settings containing a range of different collaborative situations and work practices in which people handle information and work activities. Still, work tasks are usually considered and perceived as individual activities although the technology and the characteristics of the tasks require collaborative and cooperative handling processes. This viewpoint still produces technologies that, in general, assume individual information management and decision-making. Based on previous research on information culture (IC) and collaborative information seeking (CIS), this paper proposes an integrated framework where both environmental (cultural) as well as collaborative aspects of organisational information behaviour are present. This kind of framework would be useful in studies looking into how information is retrieved, how information is organised and managed, and how information is used as a resource in collaborative settings. It gives a more holistic perspective to information use and practices in organisations where culture, collaboration and awareness are especially brought to common attention for effective information management in organisations.

The Impacts of Mutual Collaboration Experience and Domain Knowledge Levels on CAIS Behavior: An Experimental Study

Some studies have investigated participants’ information-seeking practices from the perspective of mutual collaboration experience and level of domain knowledge. This study provides insights into collaborative academic information-seeking (CAIS) behaviour. The article explores whether groups with different levels of domain knowledge and mutual collaboration experiences had different CAIS behaviour. It also asked whether domain knowledge level or mutual collaboration experience had an impact on CAIS behaviour. We describe a user study with 18 participants in nine pairs with an experimental collaborative information-seeking tool, the participants categorized into three types of groups: high domain knowledge level and few mutual collaboration experiences (Group 1), low domain knowledge level and many mutual collaboration experiences (Group 2), and no domain knowledge level and no mutual collaboration experience (Group 3). Quantitative and qualitative data analysis were used to analyse the user data collected. The results showed that compared with members of Group 3, participants in Groups 1 and 2 had a better understanding of search tasks and were aware of the ways of completing the tasks successfully. They did not depend on the information-retrieval system when constructing search queries, and adopted diverse cooperation strategies. They were more likely to recommend information to their partners. Domain knowledge had greater impact on CAIS behaviour than collaboration experience. The findings help us to understand social interactions among community members and help CAIS researchers to understand user interactions and inform information system designers as they design collaborative systems to facilitate social communication in the information-seeking process. Our work was limited by the group types we chose and the small group size, which could affect the generalizability of our findings and should be addressed in future studies.

Exploring collaborative work among graduate students through the C5 model of collaboration: A diary study

Collaborative work among students, while an important topic of inquiry, needs further treatment as we still lack the knowledge regarding obstacles that students face, the strategies they apply, and the relations among personal and group aspects. This article presents a diary study of 54 master’s students conducting group projects across four semesters. A total of 332 diary entries were analysed using the C5 model of collaboration that incorporates elements of communication, contribution, coordination, cooperation and collaboration. Quantitative and qualitative analyses show how these elements relate to one another for students working on collaborative projects. It was found that face-to-face communication related positively with satisfaction and group dynamics, whereas online chat correlated positively with feedback and closing the gap. Managing scope was perceived to be the most common challenge. The findings suggest the varying affordances and drawbacks of different methods of communication, collaborative work styles and the strategies of group members.

Relationships among tasks, collaborative inquiry processes, inquiry resolutions, and knowledge outcomes in adolescents during guided discovery-based game design in school

This research study investigates US middle school students’ collaborative information-seeking, sense-making and knowledge-building practices in a guided discovery-based programme of game design learning in which students and their teachers participate in a formal, in-school class daily, for credit and a grade for an entire year. The learning is supported by information affordances including a wiki learning management system (LMS) housing the curriculum, organized design activities, social media features, tutorials and informational assignments. Students engage in a Constructionist blended learning setting in their classroom, and work collaboratively in teams on game design. The study draws on qualitative video data from six team cases using a coding scheme of categories for the concepts of task, collaborative information seeking (CIS) Modality, and inquiry resolution outcomes. The study also considers linkages between processes and learning outcomes. Variation in engagement across the categories among students was charted, and certain patterns emerged. Findings indicate that some categories of task appear related to some categories of students’ chosen CIS Modality for solving problems. Further, CIS processes in support of tasks appear related to inquiry incident resolution (resolved/unresolved). For student completion of advanced programming tasks in particular, we observe more frequent uses of the wiki-based LMS resources, and greater levels of challenge in fulfilling tasks. Results support existing work on these theoretical constructs in the information sciences, and lead to questions on how naturalistic emergence of CIS practices result from greater task knowledge, and whether learned CIS practices (as tasks in and of themselves) can yield project task knowledge gains. Findings of the study and the ongoing questions the work invites hold instructional design implications, and show how social constructivist educational contexts involving collaborative and information seeking and knowledge building among youth game designers can contribute to scholarly understanding of these processes more broadly in related project-based work contexts occurring among both youth and adults.

Two ' s company, but three ' s no crowd

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to investigate when and how people working in collaboration could be benefitted by an exploratory search task, specifically focussing on team size and its effect on the outcomes of such a task.

Design/methodology/approach

– The paper investigates the effects of team sizes on exploratory search tasks using a lab study involving 68 participants – 12 individuals, ten dyads, and 12 triads. In order to assess various factors during their exploratory search sessions, an evaluation framework is synthesized using relevant literature. The framework consists of measures for five groups of quantities relevant to exploratory search: information exposure, information relevancy, information search, performance, and learning.

Findings

– The analyses on the user study data using the proposed framework reveals that while individuals working alone cover more information than those working in teams, the teams (dyads and triads) are able to achieve better information coverage and search performance due to their collaborative strategies. In many of the measures, the triads are found to be even better than the dyads, demonstrating the value of adding a collaborator to a search process with multiple facets.

Originality/value

– The findings shed light on not only how collaborative work could help in achieving better results in exploratory search, but also how team sizes affect specific aspects – information exposure, information relevancy, information search, performance, and learning – of exploratory search. This has implications for system designers, information managers, and educators.

Collaborative information seeking environments benefiting from holistic ergonomics

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to explore the value of utilising a holistic ergonomic approach, covering engineering, cognitive and social perspectives, to cultivate beneficial and productive collaborative information seeking (CIS) systems and environments, specifically with regard to three main CIS pillars (control, communication and awareness).

Design/methodology/approach

– A qualitative research approach, based on a selective corpus of CIS literature, was utilised to perform a content analysis to note if terms and concepts normally associated with engineering, cognitive and social ergonomics can be used to eliminate terms reflecting issues related to three CIS pillars (control, communication and awareness) that can benefit from a holistic ergonomic approach.

Findings

– The content analysis revealed that a fairly extensive amount of holistic ergonomic terminology is prominent within the CIS literature, therefore establishing a connection between the two disciplines: CIS and ergonomics. This suggests that CIS system issues could benefit from the insights of a holistic ergonomic approach.

Research limitations/implications

– Since this is an exploratory study the scope of CIS literature utilised in the content analysis was limited to a selection considered most important by the authors; this should be supplemented by further research.

Practical implications

– Intended to instigate interest in further exploration of the beneficial and productive implications and practical application of holistic ergonomics in designing CIS systems and environments.

Originality/value

– This is the first research paper in the Library and Information Science literature that explores the potential of utilising holistic ergonomics to cultivate CIS systems and environments.

The interplay of affective and cognitive factors in information seeking and use

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to elaborate the conceptual picture of the relationships between the affective and cognitive factors in information seeking and use.

Design/methodology/approach

– Conceptual analysis focusing on the ways in which the affective and cognitive factors and their interplay are approached in the Information Search Process model developed by Carol Kuhlthau, and the Social-Biological Information Technology model elaborated by Diane Nahl.

Findings

– Kuhlthau’s model approaches the cognitive factors (thoughts) and affective factors (feelings) and affective-cognitive factors (mood) as integral constituents of the six-stage information search process. Thoughts determine the valence of feelings (positive or negative), while mood opens or closes the range of possibilities in a search. Nahl’s taxonomic model defines the affective and cognitive factors as components of a biologically determined process serving the ends of adaptation to information ecology. The interplay of the above factors is conceptualized by focusing on their mutual roles in the cognitive and affective appraisal of information.

Research limitations/implications

– The findings are based on the comparison of two models only.

Originality/value

– So far, information scientists have largely ignored the study of the interplay between affective and cognitive factors in information seeking and use. The findings indicate that the examination of these factors together rather than separately holds a good potential to elaborate the holistic picture of information seeking and use.

Information literacy-related practices in the legal workplace: The applicability of Kuhlthau’s model to the legal profession

This article examines evidence of information literacy in the context of legal education and legal practice in Nigeria. It seeks to explore the application of Kuhlthau’s Information Search Process model as the dominant framework used in investigating issues of uncertainty and task complexity in a study conducted among graduate lawyers in Nigeria. The article provides an analysis of the empirical validity of the model in investigating the connection between learning, experience and the development of expertise among novice practitioners in the legal workplace in Nigeria. Data were obtained using quantitative and qualitative approaches while a case study method was employed for the study. Based on the findings of the study, the article offers insight into the role of the cognitive and affective dimensions in information seeking and the implications they have on issues of curriculum design, teaching methods and learning experiences in the context of legal education and practice in Nigeria.

The complete information literacy? Unforgetting creation and organization of information

Even though the concept of information literacy typically embraces an idea of a complete participation in an information community, its definitions have tended to underline the phases of seeking, searching and evaluation instead of creating information. Shortcomings of information creation can, however, explain many of the difficulties of finding information. This article develops the notion of information literacy with a specific focus on integrating creation and organization of information as central aspects of being information literate and discusses the implications of developing information creation processes from the point of view of information professionals and users. Finally, suggestions are made for how information creation might be improved in practice.