Establishing a research agenda for studies of online search behaviors

✍ Scribed by Carol Barry; Joseph Janes; Abby Goodrum; Sandra Hirsh

• Publisher: Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
• Year: 2006
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 653 KB
• Volume: 42
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0044-7870
• DOI: 10.1002/meet.14504201149

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

As follow‐up to discussions at the 2002 ASIST SIG USE Research Symposium on “Measuring Search Behaviors,” a Delphi study was conducted. It was designed to solicit expert opinion on two methodological aspects of research on online search behaviors: (1) the variables that are most critical to such studies and (2) methods for measuring these variables. A panel of over 75 experts participate in the three rounds of the study. A small number of variables related to the search process, databases and search systems, and the user/searcher were identified as having the highest priority for research, and can form the basis for a research agenda in the study of online searching behaviors. The third round of the survey identified the strengths and weaknesses of possible approaches to measurement of 11 of the variables that pose significant measurement challenges. In this panel, the outcomes of the study will be briefly reported. Then the panelists will discuss these results from the perspectives of a scholar who did not participate in the study (Janes), a scholar who did participate (Goodrum), and a practitioner who did participate (Hirsh).