Academic librarians in research competitions: A network analysis of resource provision and collaborative dynamics

Abstract

As an important carrier for cultivating innovative talents and improving the teamwork ability of college students, more and more scholars have paid attention to university research competitions, but most of the previous studies have focused on how the design of scientific research competitions can better improve the effect of talent training, while ignoring what academic resources students are eager to obtain in scientific research competitions from the perspective of students, and what effective support can be provided by instructors such as librarians and professors in scientific research competitions. This study examines how academic librarians’ and professors’ resources and abilities influence scientific research competition collaboration, and explores AI tools’ supporting role. Three scientific research competition cooperation networks involving 40 consultants and 318 students between 2022 and 2024 were analyzed using exponential random graph models (ERGM). We found that students prefer librarians with strong information retrieval skills, literature resources, and library facilities, while valuing professors’ teaching experience, framework guidance, and progress control abilities, while librarians’ research experience, data resources, and professors’ ask disassembly and subject knowledge depth were not the characteristics that were considered in scientific research competition collaboration. Students with complementary competition skills tend to select the same advisors, with disciplinary homophily observed in advisor selection. For AI tools, reading/writing capabilities, code logic, conversational fluency, and translation features were most valued. The difference is that we found that the picture generation capabilities does not play an obvious role in the research competition. The findings demonstrate the distinct roles of librarians and professors in competitions and highlight the importance of skill complementarity in team formation.