Information Seeking Behavior of Science Researchers (ISBoSR) protocol
Aim: to
conduct the ISBoSR survey at multiple sites nationwide to gain an understanding
of current information seeking behavior of science researchers so that
libraries can better serve them, and so that researchers can develop better
information seeking tools for them.
Audience:
science researchers, i.e. at academic institutions, faculty, research
scientists, postdocs and graduate students (primarily doctoral students). The plan is to ask for participation from all
academic departments that are science related.
Timeline:
The initial study at UNC completed in June 2005.
We used the results from this study, and review of the survey instrument
to produce a revised final survey instrument for use in the
nationwide survey. We plan to start the
national survey at other sites beginning in 2006 and continuing
through 2009.
Becoming a participating site:
Review the information described in this document, talk with Brad
Hemminger, and complete and submit the site agreement document http://ils.unc.edu/bmh/isb/ISB.site.agreement.doc
to Brad (bmh@ils.unc.edu).
Site Coordinator and Site
Responsibilities:
Each site would have a single contact, the site coordinator. Their
responsibilities are to:
·
review
the survey with PI.
·
identify
the population sample at their university eligible for taking the survey
·
get people there to take it (each site will propose what they believe is a
reasonable goal for them; our goal at UNC was 30% of eligible participants, but
we expended more effort than most national sites will probably be able to).
Stipends:
Sites that successfully complete the survey process would receive a stipend, to
be spent as they see fit (to cover effort of site coordinator, or as
inducements to survey subjects (for instance at UNC we are giving pizza parties
to departments that have over 50% participation). Success would be based on receiving a number
of completed submissions (based on their sample size, i.e. number of possible
participants, and their proposed goal). We have grant funding which
supports the first 20 sites with a stipend of $1500. Additionally, we welcome any site to
participate without the stipend and we will be happy to include you (and
provide all the same support).
Current information about the study, and helpful material for
participating sites is maintained on the study
wiki. A list of
currently planned sites is online at http://ils.unc.edu/bmh/isb/ISB.national-sites.htm.
Administration/Publishing: UNC would be responsible for
operation of the survey instrument, the data, and the overall data
analysis. We would send you a copy of
the database containing your sites data for your own analysis and
research. The only constraint is that we
request that you do not publish any results from it until we have published the
main results from the overall study data.
After that you're welcome to publish anything from your own
results. If you do publish, I ask that
you acknowledge the study, citing the main paper, and list me as author on your
paper (I will review and provide feedback to you on your paper(s)). Each group would also receive all the overall
study analyses and results once these had been completed and published. Each site coordinator would be listed as an
author on the main publication(s) resulting from study.
IRB: The study, including the
nationwide one is covered by our IRB at UNC.
However, we believe that local sites will need to submit their own Iocal IRB (please check with your IRB if you are not sure). We will provide you a copy of our IRB submission
and study documentation so that you can use it as a basis for your submission
if needed.
Survey:
The survey can be seen at
http://ivlab3.ils.unc.edu/isb/test3/
This is
a demonstration version, you're welcome to take it--this is the draft version
of the national survey (is it a revised version of what we ran here at UNC in
the spring of 2005). Each site will have
their own web address for their version of the survey. An html version of the survey is available so
that you can more easily review and comment on it.
http://ils.unc.edu/bmh/isb/National-ISB-Survey.php.htm
We
welcome comments from you on any suggested changes to the study in preparation
for our national release.
Principal Investigator: The PI of this project is Dr. Brad
Hemminger at the
Contact Information
Bradley Hemminger Ph.D.
Assistant Professor Adjunct Assistant
Professor
206A Manning Hall
(919) 966-2998 (919) 966-2998
(919) 962-8071 (fax) (919) 843-8740 (fax)
bmh@ils.unc.edu bmh@ils.unc.edu
http://ils.unc.edu/bmh
Joint Appointment in the
http://genomics.unc.edu
Bioinformatics at
http://ils.unc.edu/bioinfo
Digital Libraries at
UNC-CH
http://ils.unc.edu/cradle