How do students and researchers use the research content they discover?
The majority of users of research content employ what they discover to validate and substantiate a point in their own work – particularly if they are students in an educational setting. However, students and even junior researchers often demonstrate varying degrees of complexity and sophistication in their use of research content in this way. Some will use a journal article, for example, to reference a point and many will quote directly from the content; a smaller number will use content to gain a greater understanding of the field and then present their own response within their assignment task.
A great deal of students use abstracts in journals in order to get a quick understanding of the research. These students will read quickly, not deeply, and will only digest content to their agenda, ignoring content that they do not understand or that is irrelevant to their needs. They also use research to find references to other research.
Many university libraries archive the dissertations of their own students at Masters and PhD level, but very few institutions provide these online or archive undergraduate dissertations. In 2008 the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) launched an online journal of undergraduate research called Diffusion and there are similar initiatives at the University of Warwick – Reinvention – and Enquiry at The University of Sheffield, to name but a few.
Each of these journals and collections aim to:
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promote undergraduate research / inquiry-based learning
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offer material evidence of research carried out by undergraduates at their respective universities
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showcase undergraduate research achievements
While these initiatives do indeed make undergraduate research more accessible, it is unclear as to what impact they have had on students’ use of research content.
More sophisticated users, including graduate teaching assistants (GTAs), will use research content as a model for their own work. However, undergraduate students and junior researchers often fail to see that there could be any relationship between their own work and the content they are accessing.
Edit: Additionally, indexing hugely affects the success of researchers finding the right results, as detailed in the following video:
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