| The Internet and related network technologies are changing the ways in which scholars seek information, communicate with each other, conduct research, and distribute research results. There is a growing need to evaluate the impact and understand how scholars use the Internet and what factors affect their use.; This research examines the use of Internet-based electronic resources (e-sources) by scholars and identifies factors affecting the use. It focuses particularly on how scholars use, cite, and evaluate e-sources during the research process. This dissertation also explores the problems scholars encounter and concerns they have when using e-sources for research. The following approaches were used to collect data for the investigation: (a) a longitudinal analysis of e-source citations in eight LIS journals from 1991 (when e-source citations began to appear in these journals) to 1998 (when the most recent annual citation data were available for this study), (b) a survey of 201 authors with papers to be published in the eight journals, and (c) a survey of editors of the eight journals.; The longitudinal analysis of e-source citations shows that there has been a notable increase in the number and proportion of authors who cite e-sources in their research papers over the past eight years, although at the time of this study, e-sources were still cited much less frequently than print sources. This result provides empirical evidence that e-sources are increasingly used among scholars. Complementing the citation data, the results from the author survey show that e-sources are becoming an important component in scholars' research and are serving a wide range of purposes and functions. The number of access points and self-perceived overall ability to use the Internet are identified as the two significant variables affecting frequency of e-source use. Scholars with more access points to e-sources or with a higher self-perceived overall ability to use the Internet tend to use e-sources more frequently. The results of this study also suggest that a limited number of criteria can be implemented in practice for scholars to evaluate electronic sources and systems. When citing e-sources, scholars consider some factors that are unique to e-sources in addition to the factors they consider for print sources. While the advantages of e-sources promote citing, some drawbacks of e-sources at this stage serve as a barrier. The survey of editors reveals a lack of clearly stated editorial policies regarding citing e-sources. The major problems and concerns reported by scholars regarding using e-sources are summarized. The theoretical implications and practical applications of the findings are discussed. |
