The research paper in the digital age: educating digitally literate students in the academic library environment

The academic research paper as a mini-research article has had tremendous benefits in teaching students how to prepare work in a model that met the standards of scholars and the requirements for business. The research paper has long roots and an established history going back over a century as a mechanism to summarize knowledge, similar to the journal article that it emulated. Today’s journal literature has a growing graphic and digital presence. Some medical journals now exist solely in video format. It is possible that student work may follow a similar trajectory. That research paper is now in the process of undergoing major changes as the text-based world rapidly transforms into a digital landscape. The primary goal of the proposed study is to map past and current practices with likely futures moving from traditional research papers to digital products. This exploratory study used an online survey and personal interviews in a study involving three groups of individuals—professors, librarians, and teaching assistants—from four academic subject areas—humanities, social sciences, sciences, and professional schools. The survey sample included 148 participants and the in-depth interview sample consisted of 16 volunteers. The sample included professors who had published in peer-reviewed video journals. Analyses of responses have revealed that position, academic area, age, and technology use of respondents are indicators of acceptance of new digital multimedia formats and how these might define an educated person in today’s society. Models include all cases followed by analyses of the sub-groups. This study used a mixture of exploratory quantitative and qualitative data analyses to suggest hypotheses for later investigations. This project is significant because it looks at the changes to research papers in academia and what it means to be an educated person in a multimedia digital environment. Such an understanding would assist in educating library and information professionals and in serving undergraduate students as the definition of an educated person continues to evolve. It is hoped that ‘educated’ students will have a beneficial impact on society through communication of knowledge as it progress toward a dynamic multimedia digital environment.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical referencesby GoUn Ki