Patterns of authors' information scattering: towards a causal explanation of information scattering from a scholarly information-seeking behavior perspective

  • Authors:

  • Zahed Bigdeli;Morteza Kokabi;Gholam Reza Rajabi;Ali Gazni

  • Affiliations:

  • Department of Library and Information Science, Shahid Chamran University, Ahvaz, Iran;Department of Library and Information Science, Shahid Chamran University, Ahvaz, Iran;Department of Library and Information Science, Shahid Chamran University, Ahvaz, Iran;Islamic World Science Citation Center (ISC), Shiraz, Iran and Department of Library and Information Science, Shahid Chamran University, Ahvaz, Iran

  • Venue:
  • Scientometrics
  • Year:
  • 2013

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Abstract

This study primarily aims to reveal the worldwide patterns of authors' information scattering through illustrating the possible differences among authors based on subject, country, geographic region, institution, economic and scientific level factors. Second, changes in patterns of information scattering during the past 21 years are checked. Finally, a hypothesis aimed at demonstrating a probable relationship among the three research domains including information scattering, scholarly information-seeking behavior and scholarly journal usage is presented. 176,943 authors, who have more than ten papers in WoS from 1990 to 2010 were examined. The findings revealed that patterns of information scattering have changed during the past 21 years, and the number of journals in the core and middle zones has almost doubled. It was also found that authors tend to use a small number of journals to retrieve the majority of their required information, while a small amount of their information needs come from a wide variety of journals. However, with regard to patterns of information scattering, some differences exist among authors based on factors including institutions, countries and subject fields. In addition, this study shows that information-scattering patterns might be affected by scholars' information-seeking behaviors. A causal explanation of information scattering through scholarly information-seeking behavior has, without a doubt, the potential to provide practical solutions to better meet scholars' information needs and requirements.