The information practices of Business PhD students

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate how PhD students discover, choose and use information and literature for their research. Design/methodology/Approach: Eight PhD students at the Norwegian Business School (BI) were interviewed. The interviews were based on a phenomenological approach. Findings: The use of both library databases and Google Scholar is frequent and contextual. The informants ranked the library databases as more useful than Google Scholar. Methods for keeping up to date varied and were contextual. Although, formal information seeking in library databases was seen as more academic than the tracking of references this latter method was more widespread. Students felt they mastered the tools associated with formal information seeking, which constituted a continuous activity in their research practices. Wilson's (1983) theory on cognitive authority may give a better understanding of the findings. Practical implications: Acquiring knowledge about the information practices of PhD students in a specific discipline will help libraries to improve their services and acquire relevant resources for their users. Originality/value: This paper examines PhD students' ranking of information resources, identifies preferred methods for keeping up-to-date and reveals in which contexts the informants use either formal or social information seeking practices.

Is Information-Seeking Behavior of Doctoral Students Changing?: A Review of the Literature (2010–2015)

“…With regard to searching, it is reported in Catalano (2013) that doctoral students in the social sciences make more use of library resources than in other disciplines, to the exception of business and economics graduate students who seem to favour Internet resources. Bøyum and Aabø (2015) have, however, found in their small case study at the Norwegian Business School that this is not necessarily true. Indeed, the authors found that doctoral students reported using both library resources and Google Scholar, but found library databases more useful for their research.…”

“…There is good evidence in the literature that, overall, doctoral students' selfreported perceptions of their own capabilities indicate that they are satisfied with their own information-seeking skills (Bøyum andAabø 2015, Fleming-May andYuro 2009;, although when looked at closely their practice seems to be telling a different story altogether. Search strategies are by definition an iteration process.…”

“…They also understand better the snowball effect in literature searching, whereby one single source of information may open a number of search avenues through the information available in the list of references it contains (Fleming-May and Yuro 2009). Despite all this, Bøyum and Aabø (2015) found that doctoral students still lack a systematic approach to information searching. This later point is not helped by the fact that the way researchers search and browse for information has shifted from linear reading to power browsing, the latter characterised by 'bouncing', 'flicking', 'skim reading' and 'super quick evaluation of hit lists' .…”

Det åpne bibliotek

“…Bibliotekarene har innsikt i, forstår og anerkjenner disiplinens eller underdisiplinenes ulike informasjonspraksiser (se f.eks. Bøyum & Aabø, 2015;Jamali & Nicholas, 2008). Bibliotekarene kan oppleves som relevante diskusjonspartnere for studenter med samme faglige bakgrunn.…”

Modelos de práticas informacionais

“…Percebe-se, na literatura sobre a temática (BØYUM; AABØ, 2015;COIMBRA, 2008;ISAH, 2009;NUNES, 2014;OLIPHANT, 2010), a prevalência de análises qualitativas, geralmente a partir da criação de categorias.…”