A Qualitative Study of the Process of Knowledge Utilization in the Social Sciences

The purpose of this research was to propose a model of knowledge utilization in Social Sciences based on the analysis of the views of Iranian academics. This research was conducted based on a qualitative approach using grounded theory. The structured interview method was used to obtain the views of the experts. The research population consisted of academic members of Social Sciences in Iranian universities. Due to extensive statistical population, the sequential theoretical sampling was employed to select 25 academics having the highest number of both publications and citations (h-index) as the interviewees. So as to ensure the validity and reliability of this research, the evaluative criteria proposed by Lincoln and Guba were adopted. Moreover, to analyze the collected data and reach a theory, Theoretical Coding was applied. After coding, classifying and analyzing data, the research findings led to a model derived from the ideas of Social Sciences experts in four areas as Knowledge Production, Knowledge Transfer, Knowledge Sharing, and Knowledge Utilization. According to the results achieved from analyzing the ideas of Social Sciences experts, knowledge utilization was determined as the central core of the model.https://dorl.net/dor/20.1001.1.20088302.2021.19.2.8.6

The investigation of utilization of research findings in humanities: the effects of individual characteristics of faculty members on their viewpoints

Abstract Purpose: As the interaction between the practical users and researchers in different fields, from defining the research topic to publishing the research, knowledge translation (TM) is a method through which exploitation of knowledge is more probable. The purpose of the present research was to investigate the relationship between individual characteristics of members of humanities faculties of Iran and their viewpoints on knowledge translation. Methodology: This research would undergo the category of applied researches and was conducted with an analytical survey method. The research tool was a researcher-made questionnaire based on the knowledge translation model presented by National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) whose face and content validity were assessed. The research population consisted of all members of humanities faculties of Iran. Findings: According to the results of T-test, ANOVA and Pearson, there was no significant difference between gender and work experience and knowledge translation. However, there was detected a significant and positive relationship between the viewpoints of the respondents on knowledge translation in humanities in Iran and demographic variables including age, academic rank, humanities academic disciplines and number of research papers. Originality: This research is the first attempt made in investigating the effects of individual characteristics of members of humanities faculties on their viewpoints about knowledge translation

Information Anorexia and Application of Information Technology: A Correlation Analysis

Information anorexia can be defined as lack of or reduced absorption of information, especially information which necessary for everyday life and work. This research tries to investigate the correlation between application of information technology and information anorexia in a higher education setting. This survey was conducted among higher education students in “Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman” (Iran). Data collected from 343 higher education students through cluster sampling. Findings revealed that there was a direct relationship between expected performance and the expected effort in information technology and information anorexia; and a direct relationship between information technology and information anorexia. Also, there was an inverse relationship between social influence and facilitators in information technology and information anorexia. The results of this study showed that despite the abundance of information and the advancement of information technology in the present era, the unawareness of the proper utilization of these facilities had led to a massive baseless information- without scientific authority. This is an important factor in the creation and growth of information anorexia toward authoritative information

Establishing and Analyzing the Pattern of Relationships in Co-authorship Networks: the Case Study of Scientific Productions of Researchers at Kerman University of Medical Sciences

Abstract: Introduction: The purpose of this research is to evaluate the co-authorship network of researchers of Kerman University of Medical Sciences. This assessment includes a look at the co-authorship, patterns of co-writing, researchers\u27 outputs, authors ranking, map drawing of the co-authorship network, comparing the network of co-writing of the medical field with other domains, main component and key researchers, review The fit of the network of the co-writing of medical researchers with the small world theory, as well as person-centered indicators such as degree centrality, between centrality, closeness centrality Eigenvector, vector centrality, beta centrality, and interstitial centrality. Method: This research was carried out using scientific methods and network analysis techniques. The statistical population of this research is all articles of the faculty members and other researchers of Kerman University of Medical Sciences, indexed at the ISI database (the Science of Science Web site) during the period from 1978 to 2015, which consists of 1710 articles. The data were analyzed by Bibexcel, Histcite and Net drive softwares after pre-processing. Findings: The review of the articles showed that the pattern of four and five writers had the highest percentage of the co-written articles. The co-authorship network of this university is lower un an index such as the number of papers for each author from many other areas, and in the index of authors for each article is higher than most of the areas. The density index of this network is 0/003, its clustering coefficient is 0/64 and the percentage of the co-written articles in companion with the single-written articles is 97%. The researchers of this university have a high degree of collaboration in writing their articles, Iran University of Medical Sciences , Shahid Bahonar Kerman University and Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, and the United States, Australia and England have the most scientific cooperation with Kerman University of Medical Sciences. Studies show that most of the articles published at Kerman University of Medical Sciences have been produced by a small number of researchers of this university, and the ratio of national-to-international collaboration at this university has been. 2/9. Conclusion: The co-authorship network of the researchers of this university is characterized by the average length trajectory and relatively high clustering coefficient, which is a small world network. The study of the distribution of the degree centrality of the central and key researchers of the network shows that the principle of success breeds success , which was proposed by Age and Rousseau in 1996, is also valid in the surveyed network, and the researchers with high centrality play a very important role in the development and The evolution of co-writing network

Patterns of Iran’s Research Collaboration in the field of Pharmacology and Pharmacy: A Bibliometric Study

Purpose: This research aims to analyze and visualize the structure of Iranian scholarly networks in the field of “pharmacology and pharmacy”. This study includes an overview of co-authorship, efficiency and ranking of the researches, visualizing the co-authorship network, changes in the main core of the publications and macro and micro-level metrics such as social influence. Methods: This research utilizes social network analysis (SNA). The preliminary data of this research includes all the Iran’s documents in Web of Science in “Pharmacology and Pharmacy” during the period of 2005 to 2016. After the preprocessing of 6204 records and creating relational matrix, a combination of bibliometric software (including UCINET, NetDraw, HistCite and VOSviewer) were used to analyze and uncover network features. Results: Results indicated that most papers are multi-authored. Four-authored articles are the main common authorship pattern. Some measures such as author frequency, multi-authored papers, and single-authored papers in each time interval are ascending. Moreover, “density” reduction of the scientific collaborations indicates that fragmentation level has increased based on the “clustering coefficient” in each period. Besides, Iranian researchers of the field has the most collaboration with the scholars of England (%2.85), U.S.A. (2.61%) and Canada (1.76%), respectively. Conclusions: Fragile structure and low closeness of the network imply low maturity of Iran’s research in the field of “pharmacology and pharmacy”. Also, test of the correlation coefficients indicates that with increasing “degree centrality” and “betweenness centrality”, the “number of articles” increases as well. However, there is no correlation between “closeness centrality” and “number of articles”

Identification, Extraction, Organization and Sharing of Personal Knowledge: Using Grounded Theory

This study aimed at evaluating the feasibility of identification, extraction, organization and sharing of personal knowledge of Kerman public librarians. This study was a qualitative one based on grounded theory. The research population consisted of all knowledge and information science experts in public libraries in Kerman and snowball sampling was used to select participants. In-depth interview was the data collection tool in this study. In order to ensure the validity and reliability of this research, Lincoln and Guba's evaluative criteria was adopted and data collected from the interview, were coded and analyzed. Personal knowledge is shared through group discussions, question and answer meetings with experts and elites or even sending an email to co-workers. Knowledge and information science experts in public libraries in Kerman have no definite tool to be always used by all for identifying of personal knowledge. The method of extraction of personal knowledge mostly depends upon the manner of organization of personal knowledge. Knowledge and information science experts’ success in personal knowledge management depends on letting out the knowledge available in their minds. In this regard, knowledge sharing which includes the dissemination or transfer of knowledge from one individual to a group or an organization is the fundamental factor for achieving goals and filling knowledge gaps in organizations. Therefore, it is the task of public libraries to promote the culture of personal knowledge sharing, create an encouraging and rewarding environment and establish trust among knowledge and information science experts at wor

An Infodemiological Study of Information-Seeking Behavior of Users and Scientific Products of Researchers in the Field of Multiple Sclerosis in Iran

This infodemiological study examined information-seeking behavior of users and the scientific production of Iranian researchers in the field of multiple Sclerosis (MS). The present study was conducted using a mixed-methods research approach. In the qualitative part, the preferred terms and keywords used by Iranian users in the field of MS from 2009 to 2019 were extracted through focused group discussions. In the quantitative part, based on the keywords extracted from the focus group discussions, the data on the information-seeking behavior of Iranian users were collected through Google Trends (using data mining techniques). Besides, the data on the scientific production of Iranian researchers published on multiple Sclerosis in PubMed, Web of Science (WoS), and Scopus from 2009 to 2019 were collected (using scientometric methods). The data collected using web mining techniques consisted of the keywords obtained from the focus group interviews, and the data collected using scientometric techniques included scientific products of Iranian researchers indexed in PubMed, Web of Science (WoS), and Scopus databases. Finally, to investigate the relationship between the information-seeking behavior of Internet users and the scientific production of researchers in the field of MS, the cross-correlation method, Shapiro-Wilk test, and Pearson correlation test was used in R software. The results of the Shapiro-Wilk test indicated that the information-seeking behavior of users in Google Trends and the scientific production of Iranian researchers on MS were normal (P-value> 0.05). However, the two variables had a powerfully negative and significant correlation (r = -0.81). The data also revealed that the keyword MS had the highest search volume index in Google Trends and was considered the final keyword in each category. The core category in the searches conducted by Iranian users in the MS field was MS treatment; most searches were conducted in 2013. The study's findings also indicated that the countries with higher search volume indexes for the keywords "MS" and "Multiple Sclerosis" worldwide were Italy, Spain, France, Russia, and Greece. However, the United States had the highest volume of scientific production. The results of the present study showed that Iranian researchers working in the field of multiple Sclerosis ignore reducing the questions of Iranian users in this field and have conducted their research projects for other reasons; In fact, many factors contribute to increasing the volume of scientific production in multiple Sclerosis. However, users' demand for health information or their information-seeking behavior online cannot be considered one of these factors. Information-seeking behavior of Iranian users in Google Trends and the scientific production of Iranian researchers have a strongly negative and significant correlation. Thus, the scientific production in the field of MS has increased over time. Still, Iranian users' tendency to engage in behaviors to seek information about MS in Google Trends has decreased over time. This implies that with scientific advancements in MS, physicians prevent most patients from searching the Internet for information about their disease. Nevertheless, the increasing use of online social media in recent years has effectively reduced the search volume index and changed information-seeking behavior

Examination of the “Theory of Guidance” in the View of ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib (a): An Exploration into the Nahj Al-Balaghah

ABSTRACT This study examines the “Theory of Guidance” according to ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib (a). This theory is based on three divine covenants or fundamentals in guidance including the divine Prophet, the divine Book, and the divine human nature (fitrat). Research in this regard seems essential because this theory has not been previously considered or researched in the discipline of education. Research findings indicate that all three of the pedagogic fundamentals—namely the teacher, the student, and the subject matter—are essential elements in guidance. Education can be properly realized through the interaction of these constituents enabling attainment of a status worthy of humankind. It is important to note that the teacher, the student, and the subject matter each have their own place, and none can take the place of another. In this relationship, the teacher begins the educational process. It is the teacher who must understand the role of each of these elements and guide them wisely. In order to fulfill the process of education, the teacher must be prepared to receive guidance, understand the position and character of the student, and have a good command of the topic in a way that matches the nature and needs of the student

Investigation of the Currency, Disappearance and Half-Life of Urls of Web Resources Cited In Iranian Researchers: A Comparative Study

This research was intended to comparatively investigate the currency, disappearance and half-life of URLs of web resources cited in Iranian researchers’ articles indexed in ISI in information science, psychology and management from 2009 to 2011. The research method was citation analysis. The statistical population of this research was all articles by Iranian researchers in psychology, information science and management from 2009 to 2011 which were indexed in SSCI. In order to extract bibliographic information of articles, ISI database was searched and the titles of the articles were extracted. After investigating the currency and disappearance of cited URLs and calculating the half-life of web resources, collected data were analyzed in accordance with research questions by means of Excel Software..

Evaluation and analysis of uncertainty in the information seeking behavior of medical post-graduate students

This study aimed to explore and analyze uncertainty in the information seeking behavior among the students of Kerman University of Medical Sciences (KUMS) based on Kuhlthau Information Search Process Model. This is an applied research. Data gathered using questionnaire. Research population included 1075 students from all graduate students of KUMS in M.Sc. and Ph.D. grades. The sample size estimated 263 people .The studied students had relatively similar senses as reported by Kuhlthau in her information search process model. Among demographic variables, only gender affected the presentation stage. Women had better performance in the presentation stage. Ph.D. students performed better than master students when selecting their research topics. These two groups had no clear differences in other stages. Students with previous experience in research activities had better performance in title selection, literature exploration and presentation stages and also had lower uncertainty. The students’ performance decreased in different stages as their ages increased. The effect of individuals’ age on their performance was considerable in the stages of literature exploration and result presentation. The graduate students of KUMS follow the same stages as Kuhlthau information search process model and have similar feelings with that. Uncertainty was felt in the different stages of information search by graduate students of KUMS. The factors like age, gender, level of education and previous experience were effective in some stages on decrease or increase of uncertainty