Identifying Scholarly Search Skills Based on Resource and Document Selection Behavior among Researchers and Master’s Students in Engineering

Abstract

This study focuses on differences in the scholarly search approaches of researchers and students in contemporary information environments by examining use of academic resources and elements in search results (such as title or abstract) to identify scholarly search knowledge and skills. To examine how users select documents for different search situations, an online survey of resource selection and the use of search result elements was conducted among 48 researchers and 40 master’s students in the field of engineering in Japan. The results show that researchers use resources and search result elements differently for each situation, while students lack that ability.