Information seeking behavior: factors that affect the behavior of Greek astronomers

Abstract

What factors could affect the information seeking behavior of people despite of their being occupied in the same domain? This study aspires to shed some light on this question by examining, describing and exploring three aspects of information seeking behaviour of astronomers in Greece. The distinctive characteristic of this research is that an intradisciplinary approach has been adopted and the astronomers were grouped in various categories according to their respective characteristics such as, academic status, subfield-research area, and affiliated institution, all being regarded as factors that can affect behaviour. The analysis of the results revealed that although some similarities exist, there are significant variations in the behaviour of these different categories of our participants, e.g. among scholars with different academic status or research area, and the sources used or their tendency to submit papers in eprint archives.