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1 – 10 of over 5000
Article
Publication date: 8 January 2018

Helena Lee and Natalie Pang

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of task and user’s topic familiarity in the evaluation of information patch (websites).

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of task and user’s topic familiarity in the evaluation of information patch (websites).

Design/methodology/approach

An experimental study was conducted in a computer laboratory to examine users’ information seeking and foraging behaviour. In total, 160 university students participated in the research. Two types of task instructions, specifically defined and non-specifically defined (general) task types were administered. Mixed methods approach involving both quantitative and qualitative thematic coding were adopted, from the data of the questionnaire surveys and post-experiment interviews.

Findings

In the context of task attributes, users who conducted information seeking task with specifically defined instructions, as compared to the non-specifically defined instructions, demonstrated stricter credibility evaluations. Evidence demonstrated the link between topical knowledge and credibility perception. Users with topical knowledge applied critical credibility assessments than users without topical knowledge. Furthermore, the evidential results supported that the level of difficulty and knowledge of the topic or subject matter associated with users’ credibility evaluations. Users who have lesser or no subject knowledge and who experienced difficulty in the information search tended to be less diagnostic in their appraisal of the information patch (website or webpages). Users equipped with topical knowledge and who encountered less difficulty in the search, exhibited higher expectation and evaluative criteria of the information patch.

Research limitations/implications

The constraints of time in the lab experiment, carried out in the presence of and under the observation of the researcher, may affect users’ information seeking behaviour. It would be beneficial to consider users’ information search gratifications and motivations in studying information evaluations and foraging patterns. There is scope to investigate users’ proficiency such as expert or novice, and individual learning styles in assessing information credibility.

Practical implications

Past studies on information evaluation, specifically credibility is often associated with users’ characteristics, source, or contents. This study sheds light on the context of task type, task difficulty and topical knowledge in affecting users’ information judgement.

Originality/value

One of the scarce studies in relating task orientation, task difficulty and topical knowledge to information evaluations.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 74 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 3 September 2019

Pertti Vakkari and Anna Mikkonen

The purpose of this paper is to study what extent readers’ socio-demographic characteristics, literary preferences and search behavior predict success in fiction search in library…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to study what extent readers’ socio-demographic characteristics, literary preferences and search behavior predict success in fiction search in library catalogs.

Design/methodology/approach

In total, 80 readers searched for interesting novels in four differing search tasks. Their search actions were recorded with a Morae Recorder. Pre- and post-questionnaires elicited information about their background, literary preferences and search experience. Readers’ literary preferences were grouped into four orientations by a factor analysis. Linear regression analysis was applied for predicting search success as measured by books’ interest scores.

Findings

Most literary orientations contributed to search success, but in differing search tasks. The role of result examination was greater compared to querying in contributing search success almost in each task. The proportion of variance explained in books’ interest scores varied between 5 (open-ended browsing) and 50 percent (analogy search).

Research limitations/implications

The distribution of participants was biased toward females, and the results are aggregated within search session, both reducing the variation of the phenomenon observed.

Originality/value

This study is one of the first to explore how readers’ literary preferences and searching are associated with finding interesting novels, i.e. search success, in library catalogs. The results expand and support the findings in Mikkonen and Vakkari (2017) concerning associations between reader characteristics and fiction search success.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 76 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 19 January 2015

Joachim Griesbaum, Nadine Mahrholz, Kim von Löwe Kiedrowski and Marc Rittberger

– The purpose of this paper is to get a first approximation of the usefulness of online forums with regard to information seeking and knowledge generation.

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to get a first approximation of the usefulness of online forums with regard to information seeking and knowledge generation.

Design/methodology/approach

This study captures the characteristics of knowledge generation by examining the pragmatics and types of information needs of posted questions and by investigating knowledge related characteristics of discussion posts as well as the success of communication. Three online forums were examined. The data set consists of 55 threads, containing 533 posts which were categorized manually by two researchers.

Findings

Results show that questioners often ask for personal estimations. Information needs often aim for actionable insights or uncertainty reduction. With regard to answers, factual information is the dominant content type and has the highest knowledge value as it is the strongest predictor with regard to the generation of new knowledge. Opinions are also relevant, but in a rather subsequent and complementary way. Emotional aspects are scarcely observed. Overall, results indicate that knowledge creation predominantly follows a socio-cultural paradigm of knowledge exchange.

Research limitations/implications

Although the investigation captures important aspects of knowledge building processes, the measurement of the forums’ knowledge value is still rather limited. Success is only partly measurable with the current scheme. The central coding category “new topical knowledge” is only of nominal value and therefore not able to compare different kinds of knowledge gains in the course of discussion.

Originality/value

The investigation reaches out beyond studies that do not consider that the role and relevance of posts is dependent on the state of the discussion. Furthermore, the paper integrates two perspectives of knowledge value: the success of the questioner with regard to the expressed information need and the knowledge building value for communicants and readers.

Details

Aslib Journal of Information Management, vol. 67 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2050-3806

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 May 2014

I-Chin Wu and Pertti Vakkari

The authors introduce two semantics-based navigation applications that facilitate information-seeking activities in internal link-based web sites in Wikipedia. These applications…

Abstract

Purpose

The authors introduce two semantics-based navigation applications that facilitate information-seeking activities in internal link-based web sites in Wikipedia. These applications aim to help users find concepts within a topic and related articles on a given topic quickly and then gain topical knowledge from internal link-based encyclopedia web sites. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

The WNavi s application consists of three information visualization (IV) tools which are a topic network, a hierarchy topic tree and summaries for topics. The WikiMap application consists of a topic network. The goal of the topic network and topic tree tools is to help users to find the major concepts of a topic and identify relationships between these major concepts easily. In addition, in order to locate specific information and enable users to explore and read topic-related articles quickly, the topic tree and summaries for topics tools support users to gain topical knowledge quickly. The authors then apply the k-clique of cohesive indicator to analyze the sub topics of the seed query and find out the best clustering results via the cosine measure. The authors utilize four metrics, which are correctness, time cost, usage behaviors, and satisfaction, to evaluate the three interfaces. These metrics measure both the outputs and outcomes of applications. As a baseline system for evaluation the authors used a traditional Wikipedia interface. For the evaluation, the authors used an experimental user study with 30 participants.

Findings

The results indicate that both WikiMap and WNavi s supported users to identify concepts and their relations better compared to the baseline. In topical tasks WNavi s over performed both WikiMap and the baseline system. Although there were no time differences in finding concepts or answering topical questions, the test systems provided users with a greater gain per time unit. The users of WNavi s leaned on the hierarchy tree instead of other tools, whereas WikiMap users used the topic map.

Research limitations/implications

The findings have implications for the design of IR support tools in knowledge-intensive web sites that help users to explore topics and concepts.

Originality/value

The authors explored to what extent the use of each IV support tool contributed to successful exploration of topics in search tasks. The authors propose extended task-based evaluation measures to understand how each application provides useful context for users to accomplish the tasks and attain the search goals. That is, the authors not only evaluate the output of the search results, e.g. the number of relevant items retrieved, but also the outcome provided by the system for assisting users to attain the search goal.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 70 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 14 December 2023

Cahit Erdem and Mustafa Polat

This study aims to discover the general trends, the structural characteristics of the knowledge base, and developments in the field of internationalization of higher education…

Abstract

This study aims to discover the general trends, the structural characteristics of the knowledge base, and developments in the field of internationalization of higher education (IHE) in Turkey. In this respect, the studies published in journals indexed by SSCI, SCI-Expanded, ESCI, and AHCI in Web of Science (WoS) between January 1, 1975, and November 20, 2021, were analyzed. The dataset included 260 articles. We administered descriptive analysis reflecting the topographical features and the dynamics of the related literature through Excel and the WoS analysis tools. We conducted bibliometric analyses to shed light on the current view of the literature and reveal the intellectual structure of the knowledge base and topical foci. The volume of the research in the field of IHE in Turkey and their yearly distribution suggests that this area of research is still in its infancy; however, there has been a rapid growth in the number of publications recently. Author co-citation analysis reveals four distinct schools of thought labeled as “Higher Education Policy Studies in EU,” “Global Socio-politics and Economics of IHE,” “Socio-cultural and Psychological Dimensions of Internationalization” and “Language Studies.” Finally, topical foci in the knowledge base emerged as “International Student Mobility,” “Psychological and Cultural Adaptation of International Students,” “Higher Education Policy Reforms,” “International Staff Mobility” and “Migration Related Issues.” The results are discussed with related review studies and suggestions for future research are provided.

Details

Annual Review of Comparative and International Education 2022
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83797-484-9

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 28 October 2019

Rob Angell, Matthew Gorton, Paul Bottomley, Ben Marder, Shikhar Bhaskar and John White

Newsjacking (real-time deployment of news stories in communications) is now ubiquitous for brands using social media. Despite its pervasiveness, little analysis of its…

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Abstract

Purpose

Newsjacking (real-time deployment of news stories in communications) is now ubiquitous for brands using social media. Despite its pervasiveness, little analysis of its effectiveness exists. The purpose of this paper is to test if newsjacking positively influences various consumer responses (attitude toward content, brand attitude and purchase intent). Taking an audience perspective supported by the elaboration likelihood model, the research also establishes if a higher level of news involvement, as well as an ability to recognize the story behind the content, enhances the effectiveness of newsjacking content.

Design/methodology/approach

An experimental design using taglines (newsjacking vs non-topical content) from a real BMW campaign was tested on a sample of 252 consumers. Three research questions pertaining to the effectiveness of newsjacking were specified and analyzed within a structural equation modeling framework.

Findings

The findings support the conclusion that newsjacking is an effective communication tool. More favorable consumer responses were elicited in the newsjacking condition, as compared to content deploying a non-topical tagline. In addition, recipients reporting a higher level of news involvement rated the content more favorably in the newsjacking (vs the non-topical) condition. Deploying news stories that are more recognizable increases the chances of successful newsjacking. Messages received by those with higher product involvement (category level: cars) were more effective regardless of the type of the appeal.

Originality/value

The authors contribute to the communications and social media literatures by investigating the effectiveness of an emerging but popular tactic leveraged by content creators. The work builds upon the limited research that has tested consumer responses to newsjacking. From a practical perspective, the research provides insight into the type of audience and situations most likely to yield a favorable outcome from newsjacking.

Details

Information Technology & People, vol. 33 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0959-3845

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 31 July 2007

Ian Ruthven, Mark Baillie and David Elsweiler

The purpose of this paper is to examine how different aspects of an assessor's context, in particular their knowledge of a search topic, their interest in the search topic and…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine how different aspects of an assessor's context, in particular their knowledge of a search topic, their interest in the search topic and their confidence in assessing relevance for a topic, affect the relevance judgements made and the assessor's ability to predict which documents they will assess as being relevant.

Design/methodology/approach

The study was conducted as part of the Text REtrieval Conference (TREC) HARD track. Using a specially constructed questionnaire information was sought on TREC assessors' personal context and, using the TREC assessments gathered, the responses were correlated to the questionnaire questions and the final relevance decisions.

Findings

This study found that each of the three factors (interest, knowledge and confidence) had an affect on how many documents were assessed as relevant and the balance between how many documents were marked as marginally or highly relevant. Also these factors are shown to affect an assessors' ability to predict what information they will finally mark as being relevant.

Research limitations/implications

The major limitation is that the research is conducted within the TREC initiative. This means that we can report on results but cannot report on discussions with the assessors. The research implications are numerous but mainly on the effect of personal context on the outcomes of a user study.

Practical implications

One major consequence is that we should take more account of how we construct search tasks for IIR evaluation to create tasks that are interesting and relevant to experimental subjects.

Originality/value

Examining different search variables within one study to compare the relative effects on these variables on the search outcomes.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 63 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 14 December 2023

Mustafa Polat and Kürşat Arslan

The worldwide interdependency of nations has been acknowledged throughout the globalization literature and by many national and international organizations, including higher…

Abstract

The worldwide interdependency of nations has been acknowledged throughout the globalization literature and by many national and international organizations, including higher education institutions (HEIs), which have become an essential tool to accelerate this process. Financial, cultural, and political motives have driven 21st century higher education (HE) toward a more international direction shaping HE policies and promoting the mobility of ideas and individuals across the world. Utilizing bibliometric and descriptive tools, the article aims to analyze the existing knowledge base on international mobility of academics (IMA) as a core component of internationalization. More specifically, the study examines 423 papers published between 1970 and 2021 in Scopus and Web of Science (WoS) databases to reveal the big picture of the knowledge base by identifying the volume, growth trajectory, geographical dispersion, the most influential authors, articles, journals as well as the intellectual structure and the topical foci in the field. The findings have produced four distinct schools of thought labeled as “Knowledge Transfer and Mobility Networks,” “Academic Mobility in IHE Process,” “Expatriate Studies,” and “Scientific Mobility.” Moreover, the co-occurrence keyword map has yielded several topical foci: “Internationalization and Expatriate Academics,” “Academic Mobility and Career Paths,” and “Knowledge Transfer, Migration, and Academic Identity.” Considering the general trends and developments in the field, the study might provide more insight into further research.

Details

Annual Review of Comparative and International Education 2022
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83753-738-9

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 16 June 2008

Jennifer L. Fecowycz, Ernest R. Larkins, Gary A. McGill and Thomas M. Porcano

Accounting programs and tax course offerings have been evolving in recent years, and one concern is the coverage of international tax topics. Although international tax is of…

Abstract

Accounting programs and tax course offerings have been evolving in recent years, and one concern is the coverage of international tax topics. Although international tax is of prime importance to multinational corporations and Congress, little research has addressed the extent to which accounting programs cover international tax topics and whether demand for such coverage exists. This chapter presents the results of surveys about how students desiring a career in international tax services (ITS) can obtain international tax knowledge and what topical areas are most important. Many graduate accounting and taxation programs offer stand-alone international tax courses. Recruiters and professors characterize foreign tax credits, transfer pricing and treaties as the most important areas to emphasize in these courses. Though not essential to a career in ITS, taking an international tax course while in school exposes the student to this career opportunity, and a significant percentage of new hires come from programs offering such a course. Our results provide accounting educators with information to evaluate their coverage of international tax topics, and to make changes if needed.

Details

Advances in Taxation
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84663-912-8

Article
Publication date: 1 December 2002

R. Maule, G. Schacher and S. Gallup

Government agencies carry out many events each year designed to determine future requirements and capabilities. These events include field experiments, surveys, interviews…

Abstract

Government agencies carry out many events each year designed to determine future requirements and capabilities. These events include field experiments, surveys, interviews, simulations and workshops. Similar themes are evident across many of these events. Unfortunately, mechanisms for passing information from one event to the next, or for developing bodies of knowledge in the topical areas they address, have yet to be fully developed. The task is difficult on two fronts. In response to this need a knowledge management capability was developed to help provide structure for dynamic and static data and thereby, aid in the analysis of complex experimentation. The system warehouses qualitative and quantitative data and supports mining operations through a number of traditional and artificial intelligence‐based techniques. Described are the information architecture of the system, the knowledge processing methodologies, and the structure of the thematic data sets that form the knowledge ontologies.

Details

Internet Research, vol. 12 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1066-2243

Keywords

1 – 10 of over 5000