The use of information behaviour research in human-computer interaction

Abstract

Introduction. Information behaviour research is criticised for its lack of applicability in practice. An area that can potentially benefit from information behaviour research is human computer interaction. We investigate the extent to which information behaviour is used (cited) in human computer interaction research. Method. We retrieved 21,720 human computer interaction articles published from 2011 to 2020. Analysis. We searched for information behaviour articles in 880,533 references cited by human computer interaction articles. A random sample of 400 citations was drawn and their citation type was categorised as affirmation, negation, application, perfunctory, and review. Results. Only 0.5 per cent of references in human computer interaction were information behaviour sources. 11.2% (2,432 out of 21,720) of human computer interaction papers cited information behaviour sources. Although the most common citation type was review (45%), a considerable number of citations were of application type (31.3%), and the rest were perfunctory (19%), affirmation (3.9%) and negation (0.7%). Negation and affirmation citations were more likely to occur in the conclusion of articles. Conclusions. The use of information behaviour research in human computer interaction is promising given the amount of application citations. Human computer interaction is an area where information behaviour research can influence practice and convergence and collaboration between the two fields can improve the usability of information behaviour research.