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Proposal for new approach in information science
Information centred research should support online research
The emergence of new information sources associated with new technologies such as Websites and blogs seems set to continue and expand. Hence, there will probably be many initially plausible social science and humanities applications for data collected on a large scale from the new sources. This has created the need for a new information-centered style of research that seeks to identify which research problems the data sources may be useful for rather than assessing the data for a given research problem. This is proposed by Mike Thelwall, Paul Wouters and Jenny Fry in a brief communication published by the Journal of Information Science and Technology.
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Information science as a discipline is most suited to this role, the authors argue, because information centred research can most easily be conceptualized as being within its disciplinary boundaries. Moreover, its combination of computing skills and contact with a range of social science and humanities fields gives many information scientists the necessary skills. Although ICR can be conducted by individual researchers and research groups, information scientists should organize and apply for funding for ICR because it is beneficial to the social sciences and humanities in general. Funded ICR hubs should probably take the form of national centers or, more informally, of individual research programs designed to interface with existing national networks and centers, such as the UK’s National Centre for e-Social Science. The extent to which information-centered research is adopted on an international scale will be determined by factors including the success of early initiatives and the support of existing senior information scientists. The extent to which information scientists can play a role at the national level of brokering new information sources will be affected by political and practical considerations, determined perhaps by the influence of information science among senior national social scientists and the skills of national information scientists to persuade funding agencies that this will support wider social science goals. The article can be found here.
About the author
Lead author Mike Thelwall is Professor of Information Science and leader of the Statistical Cybermetrics Research Group at the University of Wolverhampton, UK. He is also visiting fellow of the Amsterdam Virtual Knowledge Studio, a Docent at Åbo Akademi University Department of Information Studies, and a research associate at the Oxford Internet Institute. He has developed tools for downloading and analysing web sites, blogs and social networking sites, including the research web crawler SocSciBot and software for statistical and topological analyses of site structures (through links) and site content (through text). He has published 138 refereed journal articles, five book chapters, the book Link Analysis: An Information Science Approach, and sits on nine editorial boards. Click here for more information about Mike Thelwall.
3 comments
Some responses
Thanks very much for this Michela - interesting points!
Here are some thoughts on the issues raised.
"they, as information specialists, will never be so much into another discipline as to suggest other specialists what problems to solve with raw data". This is a good point. But I think that there are some circumstances in which this is possible. There are many subject-specialist librarians, so it can be expected that a librarian picks up some subject expertise in this context. Librarians or information scientists are sometimes also part of research teams (especially in commercial contexts, I believe) and could be expected to really develop familiarity with the research area that they could suggest problems to solve with raw data. Probably this would be an unusual case, however.
A more usual case might be that librarians with knowledge of data sources could use them to suggest alternative answers to questions asked of them. For example blog search engines (e.g., blogpulse.com) are a great source of public opinion information and they could be suggested as an alternative to looking up more traditional sources of public opinion (e.g., newspaper articles, annual surveys).
"If we are to propose which research problems some data sources may be useful for, how are we establishing that a problem is relevant within a discipline? How is dialogue with other disciplinary parts to be maintained?" I think that this depends upon the environment in which the information scientist or librarian operates. If the person is part of a multidisciplinary team, as above, or if they are routinely interacting with researchers as part of their job as a subject-specialist librarian (which not all subject-specialist librarians will be required to do) then this is not a problem. Otherwise, I think that it is a difficult task. In theory, investigations into a data source would reveal likely areas of relevance and then the investigating information scientist could approach researchers that they deemed appropriate to investigate. These researchers would investigate the problem, perhaps after applying for a suitable research grant. In practice, interesting others into researching your own idea is a difficult task! It will be particularly difficult unless you have already established a relationship of trust or the data addresses what they would regard as a key problem. Another option – that used by the Statistical Cybermetrics Research Group – is to conduct pilot studies without subject experts in order to advertise the capability of the data. Still another option is to give talks about the potential of the data to subject-specialist audiences, such as via the Virtual Knowledge Studio or at conferences or internal research meetings.
"I feel that becoming interdisciplinary and addressing new audiences can make a real difference in information science." I agree with this 100% - I think that we have to become interdisciplinary and really push our areas of expertise – both in terms of what we are good at and in terms of demonstrating to others what we are good at – in order to grow as a field. As the Sperber article hints at, being interdisciplinary doesn’t just mean working in teams with others from different disciplines but also trying to understand other disciplines so that there can be a meaningful dialog.
some questions
I discussed this article with my students, and they liked it because, concerned as they are with career opportunities in library and information science, it had the merit of discussing alternatives and new specializations. However, they all recognized that they, as information specialists, will never be so much into another discipline as to suggest other specialists what problems to solve with raw data.
I liked the article as well, for the same reasons as my students. However, it left me with several answered questions. If we are to propose which research problems some data sources may be useful for, how are we establishing that a problem is relevant within a discipline? How is dialogue with other disciplinary parts to be maintained? I think that the concept of “dialogue” is pivotal to this information-centered research, or am I misunderstanding it? In a fascinating article about interdisciplinarity, Dan Sperber explains that the failure of many interdisciplinary research projects is precisely the lack of real dialogue among disciplines (www.interdisciplines.org/interdisciplinarity/papers/1). Is this information-centered research program addressed to researchers or to professionals as well? Researchers are usually people with high information-literacy skills, whereas professionals may be more in need of information professionals’ help. They are more likely to benefit from specific indications on what you can use certain information for. In conclusion, I feel that becoming interdisciplinary and addressing new audiences can make a real difference in information science. But, what do the authors think?
Information centred research and information science education
I think this perspective really calls for our responsibilities as educators. My experience is that usually subject specialists learn some basic concepts of library and information science and act as subject librarians, but less commonly the other way round. Luis Martinez Uribe and Stuart Macdonald are working precisely on data curation and their background is science, not library and information science. Information scientists keep conceiving of themselves primarily as intermediaries more than team players, and they are seen as such as well. Should we conceive of them as (potential) team players? I think so, or otherwise, redefine the terms of this mediation, as you do in your proposal. In either case, however, I feel that an educational shift is needed.