Implications and Potential Impacts of Information Behavior Research

This pilot study identifies how information behavior (IB) researchers address implications and potential impacts of their study results—the “so what?” questions. Thirty IB research articles were randomly selected from refereed journals published in the U.S. and Canada between 2008 and 2012. Each article was coded to capture types and characteristics of their stated implications. Twenty-three articles offered practical implications and seven provided both scholarly and practical implications. This poster presents the patterns of implications generated by the articles analyzed. We make suggestions to facilitate generating stronger implications, which will ultimately strengthen the impact of IB studies and contribute to advancing IB research.ye