Alongside cognitive and social phenomena, many scholars have examined emotional and affective considerations in information science, but a potential emotional or affective paradigm has not coalesced to the extent of the social or cognitive paradigms. We argue information science research should integrate the social paradigm, as offered by social informatics, with affective and emotional considerations: a socio‐emotional paradigm. A review of existing literature and findings from users' motivations to participate on the Academia section of the Stack Exchange social questioning‐and‐answering site make our case. We uncovered tensions between the intended information‐centric focus of the community and users who believed social, emotional, and affective considerations needed to be foregrounded, speaking to online communities acting as boundary objects, with the “fit” for one user or community not always the same as for another. An integrated socio‐emotional paradigm shows much strength for social informatics and information science research, including uncovering hidden concerns and differences in values, as in our study. Affective and emotional research, often bubbling under in information science, should rise to the surface is not so much a paradigm shift but an integration of social, emotional, and affective considerations into a socio‐emotional paradigm.

Many frequent social Q&A sites to share information, with social and emotional support often important in continued use of these sites as resources for both information and socialization, but balancing these is not easy. We explored the socio-emotional motivations of users of Academia Stack Exchange and the influence of these on community coherence. Findings identified seven categories of socio-emotional motivations contributing positively or negatively to coherence. Academia SE focuses on being an information resource and on acculturation, learning, and translation, akin to legitimate peripheral participation, but empathetic concerns stress the necessity of further balancing socio-emotional and informational considerations.