A conceptual framework for motivation factors influencing researchers' use of academic web profiles
| Date | 21 March 2023 |
| Pages | 1285-1305 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-07-2022-0149 |
| Published date | 21 March 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Records management & preservation,Document management,Classification & cataloguing,Information behaviour & retrieval,Collection building & management,Scholarly communications/publishing,Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information management,Information & communications technology,Internet |
| Author | Iris Brun Galili,Mette Skov |
A conceptual framework for
motivation factors influencing
researchers’use of academic
web profiles
Iris Brun Galili
Health Communication, Health Administrative Centre, Aarhus University,
Aarhus, Denmark, and
Mette Skov
Department of Communication and Psychology, Aalborg University,
Aalborg, Denmark
Abstract
Purpose–This article providesinsight into researchers’use of academic web profiles and an understanding of
how the influencing factors highlighted in the literature interact with each other, affecting researchers’
motivation to use web profiles.
Design/methodology/approach –Based on motivation theory and literature related to the use of online
profile platforms and academic web profiles, the authors present a conceptual framework for motivation
factors influencing researchers’use of academic web profiles. The authors use qualitative interviews with
researchers to explore and enrich the conceptual framework.
Findings –The conceptual framework of researchers’motivation space shows the relationships and
influences between internal and external motivation in connection to three main categories (Identity and
professional goals, Organisation and guidelines, Platforms and technology) and 12 more specific aspects of
motivation that all play a role in choices regarding academic online profiles and platforms. Personality also
plays an important role in itself –and not always in support of professional goals or workplace guidelines.
Originality/value –The studyshows that a holistic perspective is necessary to understand the high degree of
complexity in terms of researchers’motivation to use academic online profiles, and the presented conceptual
framework can be used to understand and activate motivation factors.
Keywords Motivation theory, Academic web profiles, Researcher, Academic social networking sites,
Research management system, Workplace motivation
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
A strong online presence is considered important by many academics as a channel to
disseminate research publications and other achievements, connect with peers and for
general outreach (Cheek and Øby, 2019;Greifeneder et al., 2018;Mas-Bleda and Aguillo, 2013).
A central element in researchers’online presence is the academic web profile, which is a
ubiquitous genre of scholarly life (Hyland, 2011) that allows researchers “to display
information both about themselves and their publications to various audiences online”
(Francke, 2022, pp. 192–193). The academic web profile can help researchers promote
themselves and their work and serve as an information source for various stakeholders such
as students, research funding agencies, professionals, journalists and policymakers (Francke,
2022). Researchers can choose from various channels when presenting themselves online:
web profiles on institutional websites (universities, research groups, etc.), academic social
networking sites (e.g. Academia.edu or ResearchGate) or general social networking sites
(e.g. Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn). In order to understand the role of the university-
provided profile page, this study will also focus on the broader landscape of online profile
Researchers’
use of
academic web
profiles
1285
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0022-0418.htm
Received 7 July 2022
Revised 16 February 2023
Accepted 19 February 2023
Journal of Documentation
Vol. 79 No. 5, 2023
pp. 1285-1305
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0022-0418
DOI 10.1108/JD-07-2022-0149
pages available to researchers as tools to present themselves and their academic interests and
achievements. In this perspective, the academic web profile is therefore not tied to one specific
online platform. Rather, it is the researcher’s online presentation of their professional
affiliation, research area and output on the platform(s) of their choice.
Several studies have investigated how researchers use a selection of online platforms, and
whichrequirements andmetrics are used to measureresearchers and theircommunicationwith
the outside world (e.g. Cheek and Øby, 2019;Greifeneder et al., 2018;Kjellberg et al., 2016;
Muscanell and Utz, 2017;Marshall, 2015;Zhang and Li, 2020;Sugimoto et al.,2017). Lee et al.
(2023) point out how previous studies of research information management systems (RIMS)
have been conducted with non-institutional systems, such as ResearchGate, Academia.edu,
Mendeley,ORCID and GoogleScholar. Therefore, a gapexists when it comesto focussing on the
context of workplace-related researcher web profiles andhow this context affects researchers’
motivation to add content to university-provided profile pages in RIMS. RIMS such as
Sympletic’s Elemen ts and Elsevier’s Pure, which are used by universities worldwide, offer
“vibrant researcher profiles”[1] as well as management of research data. But in reality,
university-provided researcher profile pages often lack content (Mas-Bleda and Aguillo, 2013).
In orderto understand whythat is and what mightmotivate researchersto more activelyutilise
the profilepages provided by the university, we study the university-provided profilepages in
relationto other online profileplatformsavailable to researchers in orderto uncover the context
in which theseprofile pages exist.
The literature points to a number of factors relating to researchers’use of social
networking sites and academic web profiles that may influence how and how much they are
utilised. We divide these factors into three categories of influences:
(1) Identity and professional goals
(2) Organisation and guidelines
(3) Platforms and technology.
The categories are elaborated in a subsequent section. Each category contains several
influencing factors, and in the literature, one or a few of these factors are often highlighted in
order to explain the use of academic web profiles or choice of platforms. However, we argue
that it is analytically more useful to consider the factors combined, thereby gaining a more
nuanced picture of the university-provided profile page in context of academic web profiles in
a broader sense, seen from a researcher’s perspective.
The study thereby aims to provide insight into the landscape of academic web profiles and
an increased understanding of how the influencing factors highlighted in the literature
interact with each other and affect researchers’motivation to use university-provided as well
as other web profiles. Based on the literature, we present a conceptual framework of
researchers’motivation, and based on a small-scale empirical survey, we then propose an
elaboration of that framework. Further testing on a larger scale will be necessary in order to
evaluate the validity of the framework.
Motivation mechanisms
As a foundation for an initial understanding of workplace motivation, we turn to Frederick
Herzberg’s motivation-hygiene theory, which was first published in the 1950s. These
motivation mechanisms form an important foundation for understanding how the different
types of influencing factors presented in the literature affect researchers’motivation for using
online profile pages. In the present study, we base our understanding of Herzberg’s theory on
Sachau (2007). Sachau does not revise Herzberg’s theory, but critically discusses and clarifies
misinterpretations of the theory.
JD
79,5
1286
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