Information support of research information interactions of PhD. students in Slovakia

The support of research process in information practices has long attracted attention of information science, especially in terms of digital scholarship and science 2.0. However, there is a need to manage large volumes of digital data in science and new information strategies of young researchers should be designed. The goal of this paper is to report on research of information needs of doctoral students in contexts of information support off digital research data and processes. Based on the concept of information interactions we concentrate on information practices of doctoral students. The study was designed as the follow up of previous research projects on relevance judgments of doctoral students and information ecology of the academic environment. The concept of the study includes the following information interactions: research behavior, information use, information seeking, organization of information, information production, social media. We applied qualitative methodology of semi-structured interviews with doctoral students in different disciplines and visualization of information horizons. Results of data analyses confirm differences in information needs and information strategies in research behavior of doctoral students. Research of dicusssion groups is briefly summarized from the viewpoint of interactive interfaces. Main information problems of doctoral students were identified, namely finding focus, expert support, networking and collaborative information behavior in discussion groups. The final model of information interactions in different disciplines is described and recommendations for information portal design are proposed. Grey information objects in information interactions in digital scholarship are identified and value-added services for the community are also articulated.Includes: Conference preprint, Powerpoint presentation, Abstract and Biographical notesXAInternationa