Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Click here to sign up for SAGE Journal Email Alerts today!

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Journal of Information Science
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Web of Science (1)
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Montesi, M.
Right arrow Articles by Urdiciain, B. G.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Abstracts: problems classified from the user perspective

Michela Montesi

University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Blanca Gil Urdiciain

Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain

Background: most of the recent research into abstracts conducted by the information science (IS) community has had little practical implication in terms of improvement and quality. A possible explanation of this is the lack of connection with the real problems that the poor quality of abstracts may pose in the 'real' context of researchers accessing information.

Purpose: the types of problem abstracts may pose for potential users have been studied, and then classified and compared with current IS research into the quality of abstracts.

Method: 62 interviews were held with researchers from six European universities to ascertain the opinions of potential users. These participants commented on a set of database abstracts in the areas of Education and Agriculture.

Results: the participants pointed out different types of problem which were classified under the following headings: terminology, over-condensation, lack and excess of information, expectations and coherence, structure, register and layout.

Conclusion: the problems described were at variance with those commonly dealt with in the literature on the subject, thus suggesting new areas of research.

Key Words: abstract quality • abstract comprehensibility • terminology • agriculture databases • education databases • user evaluation

Journal of Information Science, Vol. 31, No. 6, 515-526 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/0165551505057014
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?