What problems do researchers encounter when using research content?
Highlighted and debated many times at UKSG’s 35th Annual Conference and Exhibition held in Glasgow, a great many students and researchers experience difficulties in accessing research content. Numerous users find content that appears to be useful but is not freely available. This can be extremely frustrating, especially if an institution claims to have extensive research resources. Does this mean that demand for research content is now beyond the ability of most libraries to satisfy?
The biggest problem faced by users is the sheer volume of information available on most subjects. Can any researcher truly claim to be able to keep abreast of all the content being produced in their field? Students no longer use course reading lists or a library’s printed resources as frameworks for their research, but most users do not have the skills to adequately assess and synthesise all the materials that they can find through a keyword search.
Some users, particularly college students and university undergraduates, also struggle to understand the complex language that research content is often written in.
Most researchers are aware of conventions and rules, written and unwritten, about what constitutes ‘research’ and what determines academic quality. However, many are confused about the details of the research environment.
What could be done to make use of research content easier?
A quick straw poll among librarians and professionals at one of UKSG’s break out sessions revealed that students and researchers often want more guidance, clarity and advice on how to find research content, i.e. how to search, and on how to assess its worth as well as its relevance.
There are fewer problems in situations where the subject has a very tightly defined research base, as in Law or Medicine, or where the discipline has published clear guidance on quality levels and this advice has been communicated directly to users and researchers. For example, in Business Studies, The Association of Business Schools (ABS) has created its own system of rankings for journals – the ABS Academic Journal Quality Guide – and there is anecdotal evidence of this being used by students as a way of sign-posting in an otherwise unfamiliar research environment.
Researchers and students may well also benefit from more explicit and clear guidance on various research environments, including what counts as research and what the difference is between good and bad quality content.
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