Predicting Response Quantity from Linguistic Characteristics of Questions on Academic Social Q&amp;A Sites

Lei, Li; Li, Anrunze; Xue, Sichuang; Li, Xinran; Huang, Kun; Ye, Edwin Mouda

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-64452-9_37

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…However, this research only uses content analysis to analyze a small number of characteristics of a small amount of question content. Li et al (2020b) used the linguistic characteristics of the question to predict the high or low response rates of a question on ResearchGate Q&A but found that the prediction accuracy was low and the prediction effect was not ideal. Understanding the response quantity of a question is a complex matter, and there may be many other factors at work.…”

Section: Academic Social Qanda Sitesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterizing response quantity on academic social Q&A sites: a multidiscipline comparison of linguistic characteristics of questions

Lei

Xue

et al. 2021

LHT

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PurposeAs academic social Q&A networking websites become more popular, scholars are increasingly using them to meet their information needs by asking academic questions. However, compared with other types of social media, scholars are less active on these sites, resulting in a lower response quantity for some questions. This paper explores the factors that help explain how to ask questions that generate more responses and examines the impact of different disciplines on response quantity.Design/methodology/approachThe study examines 1,968 questions in five disciplines on the academic social Q&A platform ResearchGate Q&A and explores how the linguistic characteristics of these questions affect the number of responses. It uses a range of methods to statistically analyze the relationship between these linguistic characteristics and the number of responses, and conducts comparisons between disciplines.FindingsThe findings indicate that some linguistic characteristics, such as sadness, positive emotion and second-person pronouns, have a positive effect on response quantity; conversely, a high level of function words and first-person pronouns has a negative effect. However, the impacts of these linguistic characteristics vary across disciplines.Originality/valueThis study provides support for academic social Q&A platforms to assist scholars in asking richer questions that are likely to generate more answers across disciplines, thereby promoting improved academic communication among scholars.

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Section: Academic Social Qanda Sitesmentioning

confidence: 99%