INFO 414 Information Behavior How we study HIB?

Doing Research (McGrath, 1994) Systematic use of some set of theoretical and empirical tools to try to increase our understanding of some set of phenomena or events. In the social and behavioral sciences, the phenomena of interest involve states and actions of human systems—of individuals, groups, organizations, and larger social entities—and the by-product of those actions.

Features of the research process Some content that is of interest (substantive domain) Some ideas that give meaning to that content (conceptual domain) Some techniques or procedures by means of which those ideas and contents can be studies (methodological domain)

Basic Research (Vogt, 1993) Research undertaken with the primary goal of advancing knowledge and theoretical understanding of the relations among variables

Applied Research Research undertaken with the intention of applying the results to some specific problem, e.g., effects of different methods on law enforcement on crime rates. In applied work, the research questions are most often determined, not by researchers, but by policy makers or others who want to help.

Research Methods Methods enable but also limit evidence All methods are valuable, but all have weaknesses or limitations You can offset the different weaknesses by using multiple methods (triangulation) where the strength of some methods offset the weaknesses of others

Research Methods Experiments (lab or field) Surveys Observation Interviews Focus groups Bibliometrics (content & citation analysis) Transaction log analysis Content or Discourse analysis  Result in quantitative or qualitative data