Changing styles of informal academic communication in the age of the web:Orthodox, moderate and heterodox responses

Purpose- The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of a study to investigate changes in scholarly communication practices among a group of scholars in the UK and build upon the results that were published in a previous paper. Design/methodology/approach- The study deployed a naturalistic inquiry approach using semi-structured interviews as a qualitative research tool. A sample of 40 participants from four UK universities were interviewed to explore the changes in informal scholarly communication behaviour. Findings- The analysis of the interviews revealed that there are three ideal types of behaviour: the ?Orthodox? uses formal and traditional scholarly communication approaches; the ?Moderate? prioritises formal communication approaches, but at the same time is trying to get benefits from informal channels; and, the ?Heterodox? uses all channels available in scholarly communication. Originality and value - The value of the current study lies in using a naturalistic inquiry approach to investigate the changes in scholarly communication practices, and to explore different scholarly communication styles. In the context of this study, the use of a naturalistic approach and grounded theory principles in connection with coding provided a stance that allows for the gathering of rich information to enable understanding and explanation of scholarly communication activities in addition to uncovering themes that related to scholarly behaviour.authorsversionPeer reviewe

Factors affecting undergraduate students’ information sharing behaviour when dealing with COVID-19 misinformation: theory of reasoned action

Sharing misinformation has become a widespread phenomenon. Social media networks have significantly contributed to spreading and sharing misinformation, especially during crises and pandemics. However, little is known about why people share misinformation. The study aims to identify the factors affecting undergraduate students’ information sharing behaviour when dealing with unverified information. The study also seeks to discover any statistically significant differences (α=0.05) in students’ behaviour of sharing information related to COVID-19 without verification attributed to demographic variables, self-efficiency, attitude towards verifying information, individual’s beliefs, and subjective norms. The study adopted the theory of reasoned action. A quantitative research approach was adopted via the use of questionnaires. An e-mail was sent to all undergraduate students enrolled at Sultan Qaboos University during 2020-2021, yielding 407 valid answers from various colleges. The reliability of the survey is 0.916 as a whole, 0.741 for the individual’s self-efficacy scale, 0.312 for the attitude towards verifying information scale, 0.809 for the individual’s beliefs scale, 0.916 for the subjective norms scale, and 0.846 for the behaviour of using and sharing information related to COVID-19 without verification scale. The effect of self-efficacy, Attitude Towards Verifying Information, beliefs, and Subjective norms on the behaviour of sharing information related to COVID-19 without verification were tested. Quantitative data retrieved from the questionnaire were analysed using SPSS 24. Several analysis tests such as frequencies, T-test, and multiple regression tests were conducted.Results. The findings support that there’s a significant effect of demographic variables, self-efficacy, attitude towards verifying information, individual’s beliefs, and subjective norms on students’ behaviour of sharing information related to COVID-19 without verification. This research showed that many factors affect information sharing behaviour. The research concluded that the students’ information behaviour could be enhanced by focusing on information literacy skills.Peer Reviewe

Scholarly communication trends in the digital age: Informal scholarly publishing and dissemination, a grounded theory approach

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate scholars’ attitudes toward informal publishing and dissemination to provide a view of the challenges and advantages of using such channels. Although considerable research has been carried out in relation to peer-reviewed scholarly publishing, relatively few studies have investigated the adoption of informal scholarly communication platforms in the scholarly publishing process. Design/methodology/approach – The paper deployed a grounded theory approach using semi-structured interviews as a qualitative research tool. A theoretical sample of 40 researchers in 4 universities were interviewed to gather data regarding informal publishing, platforms, factors that affect the researchers’ decision and the use of informal channels in dissemination. Findings – Results of the interviews suggest that there is an increasing trend among researchers toward informal publishing and dissemination throughout the scholarly communication cycle. The paper shows that there are three types of scholars who are involved in the scholarly communication process: conventional, modern and liberal scholars. Each of these scholars carries different beliefs regarding the scholarly communication process. Research limitations/implications – This paper was conducted on a relatively small sample of academic researchers, and therefore, the results cannot be easily generalized into a wider community of scholars. Originality/value – The paper provides insight into informal scholarly publishing practices using a grounded theory approach. This approach helped to capture the changes in both scholarly publishing practices and the adoption of informal techniques among the scholarly community. </jats:sec

Enjeux et stratégies de la conservation numérique des archives à Oman

Cet article présente les résultats d’une enquête menée auprès des archivistes exerçant dans des institutions publiques omanaises sous forme d’entretiens semi-structurés portant sur les stratégies de la préservation et d’accessibilité aux documents administratifs, ainsi que sur les défis et perspectives, notamment en présence des technologies numériques, de ces deux concepts qui représentaient l’essence du travail des archivistes à travers le temps. L’échantillon a été basé d’une façon raisonnée sur l’expertise et l’expérience des professionnels. Les principaux résultats primaires montrent bien l’importance et l’intérêt donnés à la préservation numérique, dont les raisons renvoient à l’amélioration de la sécurité et de l’organisation des documents, et aussi à l’aspect législatif exprimé par la loi omanaise sur les archives. Néanmoins, l’enquête a montré aussi l’absence d’une stratégie unifiée et commune de la préservation numérique et que des défis énormes sont à faire face liés notamment à la présence des ressources humaines qualifiées, à l’obsolescence technologique, à la gestion des grosses données et à une infrastructure nationale de sécurité