User interaction with online information resources: an informetrics approach

This research strived to investigate and provide answer to these questions: how researchers interact with online information resources when they search for information to meet their information needs. The research also intended to address the issues and problems involved in information retrieval to provide an appropriate solution to their challenges. We have conducted a qualitative approach to the investigation. We carried out interview to collect data. In this way, we chose and interviewed the 15 most informed scholars who normally interact with information and resources. Results indicated that the use of web-based information resources is dominants among researchers. Researchers were more likely to get the resources they needed from social networks. Consulting the databases and scientific social networks such as Google Scholar was common. Among the online information resources, the use of academic journals, specialized and public libraries website and online resources and personal repositories has been among highly commended resources. Among the challenges that researchers have had in using information sources was that some of resource titles did not reveal information within them. Researchers were to search for hours and days to find the information seekers and users. Lack of standarized format for searching information in search engines for databases lead researchers to misinformation, and most of interviewees complained about this matter. Results also showed that researchers categorize the retrieved information into four components: 1. Explicit useful information 2. Hidden useful information 3. Explicit inappropriate information 4. Explicit Disturbing information Findings advice information systems policy makers to adjust their propositions on the information behavior of the new generation researchers and online residents and revise their indexing and collection development guidelines