The 1st Annual Emerald/EFMD Outstanding Doctoral Research Awards 2005
Winner:
Dr Theresa AndersonUniversity of Technology, Sydney (UTS), Australia
Understandings of relevance and topic as they evolve in the scholarly research process
Theresa Anderson receiving her award from JDoc Editor David Bawden (left) and Emerald Editorial Director John Peters (right)
AbstractExploring assessments of relevance within the complexity of computer-mediated information activities is the focus of this thesis. Drawing on two years of observation of academics in the process of locating and using information for their research, the thesis builds on portrayals of relevance as a complex interwoven activity to thoroughly examine the human and contextual dimensions of relevance. While the theoretical frameworks are grounded in information science, the thesis also builds on the literature and methods of education, cognitive science, communication and human-computer interaction about relevance and searcher behaviour. It also examines the challenge of creating an authentic depiction of multiple, shifting positions of all the actors in this investigation. The eight chapters provide a comprehensive development of parallel conceptual and methodological strands. Supporting material includes road-maps, text boxes to highlight central points in sections, and vignettes portraying the two informants.
An ethnographic approach resulted in two narratives portraying the research experiences of two academics and their evolving judgements of relevance over a two-year period. The creation and analysis of these narratives are at the heart of the thesis. A diverse range of material was analysed, including search histories, audio and video recordings of search and evaluation sessions, e-mail correspondence and documents generated by the academics during their research. Chapters surrounding these stories provide critical examination ofconceptual and methodological frameworks under pinning the approach taken to collect, craft and analyse these texts.
The thesis contributes both to understandings about the ways relevance is assessed from a users perspective and to the development of a framework for exploring relevance. Observing relevance judgements in the context of the multidimensional and dynamic nature of the research process exposed how the informants views of topic at the heart of any judgement of relevance evolve during the course of searching and research practices. Results are discussed in five broad substantive themes: (1) relevance dimensions in context; (2)interaction of relevance criteria; (3) role of intuition on judgements of relevance; (4) the impact of the academics work context on decisions about relevance; and (5) the use of information found throughout search and research activities. The results offer a fuller understanding of the contrast between searcher and system depictions of documents and document representations. The thesis also argues that nuances of relevance judgements made during a search relate to the creation of boundaries for a search as well as for the scholarly research project as a whole.
