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The ecosystem of research tools for scholarly communication

Purnima Rao (Fortune Institute of International Business, New Delhi, India)
Satish Kumar (Department of Management Studies, Malaviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur, India) (Faculty of Business, Design and Arts, Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak, Kuching, Malaysia)
Weng Marc Lim (Faculty of Business, Design and Arts, Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak, Kuching, Malaysia) (Sunway Business School, Sunway University, Sunway City, Malaysia) (School of Business, Law and Entrepreneurship, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia)
Akshat Aditya Rao (School of Management Studies, The Northcap University, Gurugram, India)

Library Hi Tech

ISSN: 0737-8831

Article publication date: 23 November 2022

Issue publication date: 23 July 2024

574

Abstract

Purpose

Numerous research tools exist but their usage among researchers across the different phases of the research cycle of scholarly communication remains unknown. This research aims to address this knowledge gap by mapping the research tools frequently used by global researchers against the various phases of the research cycle of scholarly communication.

Design/methodology/approach

This research adopts a descriptive research design and conducts a cross-tabulation of secondary data consisting of 20,663 useable responses in a global survey of research tools for scholarly communication. This research also administered a survey to academic experts to classify the research tools according to traditional, modern, innovative and experimental categories.

Findings

This research reveals the six phases of the research cycle (i.e. discovery, analysis, writing, publication, outreach and assessment) and the research tools of scholarly communication frequently used by researchers worldwide in each phase as a whole and by roles, disciplines, regions and career stages. Notably, this research indicates that most of the research tools used by researchers are classified as “modern” and “innovative”.

Originality/value

The original insights herein should be useful for both established and early career researchers to gain and share research insights, as well as policymakers and existing and aspiring service providers who wish to improve the utility and usage of research tools for scholarly communication. Notably, this research represents a seminal endeavor at enhancing a global survey (secondary research) using a follow-up expert survey (primary research), which enabled the organization of research tools for scholarly communication into four refined categories. In doing so, this research contributes finer-grained insights that showcase the importance of keeping up with the advancement of technology through the use of modern, innovative and experimental research tools, thereby highlighting the need to go beyond traditional research tools for scholarly communication.

Keywords

Citation

Rao, P., Kumar, S., Lim, W.M. and Rao, A.A. (2024), "The ecosystem of research tools for scholarly communication", Library Hi Tech, Vol. 42 No. 4, pp. 1132-1151. https://doi.org/10.1108/LHT-05-2022-0259

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited

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