Assessing the quality and credibility of scholarly information resources: an investigation into information behaviours of university faculty members

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims at assessing faculty members' information searching patterns and the process of determining their information sources' quality and credibility. Design/methodology/approach This study administered an online survey through email invitation to secure data from 987 (55%) faculty members of both public and private universities of Bangladesh. The data were analysed using various descriptive statistics, and parametric and non-parametric tests such as Mann–Whitney, Kruskal–Wallis, and one-way ANOVA tests, to see the significant differences according to demographic characteristics at a 0.05 level of significance. Findings This study's outcomes affirm that most participants use Google Scholar and ResearchGate when searching/seeking information. Furthermore, for authenticating the credibility and quality of information, most faculty members tried to identify the information source and applied personal knowledge regarding information authentication. The statistical test results also found significant differences among faculty members' demographic characteristics (gender, age, experience and area of specialization) using the various source types. No significant differences were observed for determining information credibility in terms of faculty members’ demographic characteristics. Research limitations/implications As a limitation, this study only includes public and private universities in Bangladesh. This research could be more comprehensive if faculty members from other countries had participated in the survey. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to approach this significant but less addressed area to understand faculty member's behaviour in terms of determining the quality and credibility of information resources in Bangladesh.