This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on https://www.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.
Today, academic social network sites' role in improving the quality of education and how investigators conduct their research has become more critical.
This study aimed to investigate Iranian health researchers' requirements for academic social network sites from a low-income country perspective.
This qualitative study with a phenomenological approach was done in 2020. In this study, 23 researchers in the health system were selected by purposive sampling. Semistructured interviews were used to collect data. Data were analyzed by MaxQDA-10 software and the content analysis method.
We identified 2 categories of functional and technical characteristics in the study participants' expectations. Functional characteristics included facilitating communication and team activities, managing scientific publications, enhancing the process of conducting research, being informative, and sharing and trading laboratory materials and equipment. Technical characteristics of an academic social network include user management capabilities, high security and privacy, being user-friendly, and other technical features.
Health researchers emphasized 2 functional and technical characteristics required to meet academic social network sites' expectations.
Nonacademic social networking sites such as Facebook are prevalent, and researchers can use them. However, studies show challenges and restrictions for academic users on these sites [
Ijad Madisch, one of the creators of Research Gate, acknowledges that ASNS promotes transparency in the research process and ultimately leads to the strengthening of scientific research [
Every ASNSs is customized for one or more specific purposes; for example, Research Gate is primarily for contacting colleagues and counseling. Mendeley offers the opportunity to receive new articles [
Along with researchers from other countries, Iranian health researchers use different ASNSs to conduct their research activities [
ASNSs are created professionally and with a specific purpose, and each of them has its particular users [
This qualitative study to identify Iranian researchers' expectations from ASNS was done in 2020. This article is excerpted from a doctoral dissertation entitled “Designing and Implementing a Social Network for Laboratory Researchers in Health” [
The study environment was a research center affiliated with medical colleges. Research managers, faculty members, postdoctoral researchers, and PhD students participated in this study. The inclusion criteria were the membership in 2 or more academic social networks and updating their user profile on academic social networks at least once a month. Participants were selected by the purposive sampling method. Individuals with good information and who provided their information appropriately were chosen as participants in this method [
We attempted to have a diversity of age, employment status, work experience, degree, and job position in our study sample.
Semistructured interviews in the Persian language have been done conveniently for participants. The interview questions were developed by using literature reviews and expert opinions and comprised of five questions. The interviewee was initially asked to introduce themselves and explain their recent research activities. In the second question, the researcher was asked which academic social networks they use and why; and which features are interesting to them.
The next question was about the advantages and disadvantages of these social networks. In that question, participants were asked to compare 2 or more academic social networks they have used. The fourth question asked how academic social networks could accelerate the research process and improve their quality, and the final question queried which features would be considered if the researcher were to design an ASNS.
We used S-recorder software (version 20.1.186.12; Samsung) to record the interviews alongside note-taking. Each interview lasted between 30 and 42 minutes.
The respondents' answers were immediately typed, summarized, and reviewed several times by listening to and reading the primary information.
Conventional content-method and MaxQDA-10 software (version 10; VERBI) were used for data analysis. The conventional content method is very useful for identifying, analyzing, and reporting the patterns (themes) in qualitative studies [
Following informed consent procedures, the research participants are provided with a brief verbal explanation of the study and told that they could leave the study at any time. The participant code and their job were used to report their statements to keep the information confidential. The ethics committee at Tabriz University of Medical Sciences approved this study (IR.TBZEDMED.REC.1398.184).
Study participants included 7 research managers, 6 faculty members, 4 postdoctoral researchers, and 6 PhD students. Based on the interviews, the researchers' expectations from the ASNSs were divided into 2 general categories: the system's functional and technical characteristics (
Health researchers' expectations for academic social network sites.
Functional characteristics included facilitating communication and team activities, managing scientific publications, enhancing the process of conducting research, being informative, and sharing and trading laboratory materials and equipment. Functional characteristics have 5 main themes and 29 subthemes. Based on the number of repetitions of the subtheme in the interviews, health researchers' most important expectation from ASNSs was to contact other researchers. Finding help to solve research problems, contacting other researchers, and introducing the activities of selected researchers are essential ASNS expectations for PhD students (
According to the participants' scientific rank, the four columns of
Functional expectations of health researchers from academic social network sites.
Theme and subthemes | Description | PhD student (n=6) | Postdoctoral researcher (n=4) | Faculty member (n=6) | Research manager (n=7) | All (n=23) | |
|
|||||||
|
Question and answer | Health researchers need to receive advice from experts through ASNS to solve their problems. | 3 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 9 |
|
Introducing professors and experts in the special field | Health researchers would like to get acquainted with the best professors and experts in their research field using ASNS. | 2 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 8 |
|
Finding friends and colleagues | ASNS must allow its users to be notified of their colleagues' membership in the social network based on their email or phone contact list. | 4 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 11 |
|
Introducing peer researchers with the same background | ASNS should introduce researchers with similar research backgrounds to each other based on information entered by users. | 1 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 9 |
|
Share information, knowledge, and experiences | The sharing of knowledge and experiences of researchers by the ASNS is critical and considered a requirement for the ASNS’s success. | 0 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 10 |
|
Exchange opinions individually and in groups | Dissemination of health researchers' in-network opinions and posts to individuals and groups will improve the quality of research. | 0 | 0 | 5 | 3 | 8 |
|
Online meetings and session | Although there are several specialized software for online meetings, it seems that the integration and access to more features, such as online meetings, can increase researchers' desire to use ASNSs. | 3 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 11 |
|
Disseminating the information by sending posts | Health researchers tended to publish their advertisements, comments, requests, and requirements by sending a post. | 3 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 12 |
|
|||||||
|
Scientometrics | Researchers like to use this ASNS to monitor their citations. | 2 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 14 |
|
Altmetrics | This network feature shows how many times a document has been downloaded or read, And this can show how important and practical it is. | 2 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 14 |
|
Drawing of researchers' network | Showing researcher followers and followers has many advantages for other users. This allows them to get to know another person working in a common field. | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 6 |
|
Publish and receive articles | The possibility of publishing and receiving articles is one of the essential parts of ASNS based on health researchers' views. | 3 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 15 |
|
Find the best journals for the manuscripts | The ASNS can introduce appropriate journals to users based on user profile data. | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
|
|||||||
|
Projects management of research | In some cases, health researchers have several responsibilities other than research, including education, patient care, and executive activities. Therefore, providing services via ASNS to manage research projects is very helpful. | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 6 |
|
Find help to solve research problems | Various challenges, such as financial, administrative, property rights, laws, and access to protocols, are treated by health researchers during the research stage. As a facilitator, ASNS can play an essential role in solving these problems. | 5 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 15 |
|
Providing educational materials | Given that the research is based on innovations and problem solving, new research techniques and methods can be made available to researchers through the ASNS. | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 7 |
|
Electronic and reminder calendar (digital Secretary) | Time management is one of the basic principles of research success; ASNS can play an essential role in managing researchers' time by providing tools such as electronic calendars and reminders. | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
|
Contact other researchers | Creating different communication platforms by the network and facilitating communication between researchers promotes cooperation. | 5 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 17 |
|
|||||||
|
Introducing people with special skills | When a researcher needs an expert with unique skills, the ASNS should support them with search tools. | 4 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 10 |
|
Introducing special research services | Researchers have different knowledge and skills. Sometimes they need laboratory services that are not available in their work environment. The research manager can inform you about the services available in a laboratory and share them with other researchers using an ASNS. | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 5 |
|
Introducing job or collaboration opportunities | Health researchers can use ASNS to find jobs or collaboration opportunities in research projects. | 1 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 8 |
|
Introducing study opportunities | Providing study opportunities on ASNS and creating transparency can lead to a better selection of candidates. | 0 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 9 |
|
Introducing ongoing or completed similar projects | Searching for similar research projects and preventing duplicate works can provide good opportunities for collaboration between researchers. |
0 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 9 |
|
Introducing the activities of selected researchers | The following possibility of the researcher's activities allows users to obtain information about the latest scientific achievements. | 5 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 14 |
|
Introducing scientific and research events | Health researchers can use ASNSs to find out the news related to scientific and research events. | 1 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 13 |
|
|||||||
|
Facilitate to exchange or sale of research products | Researchers can share, exchange, or sell their research products on ASNSs. | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 10 |
|
Facilitate to sharing of laboratory equipment | By creating the necessary content for sharing laboratory equipment, the ASNS can increase this laboratory equipment's efficiency and provide the opportunity for cooperation between research centers. | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 16 |
|
Facilitate to sale and exchange of laboratory materials | In addition to reducing research costs, the exchange of laboratory materials among researchers accelerates research processes. | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 15 |
Technical expectations of health researchers from academic social network sites.
Theme and subthemes | Description | PhD student (n=6) | Postdoctoral researcher (n=4) | Faculty member (n=6) | Research manager (n=7) | All (n=23) | |
|
|||||||
|
Profile management | Creating a user profile is the main feature of academic social networks. | 5 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 19 |
|
Share different types of files | Due to the production of knowledge in various formats by health researchers and the communication between them, sharing files in different formats is one of the essential features of the ASNS. | 4 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 16 |
|
Automatic in all functions | The automation of ASNS in different functions, such as informing and introducing colleagues, is one of these networks' main strategies to attract researchers. | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 7 |
|
Feedbacks management | Posting comments on the ASNS about the researcher's activities in various forms such as text, confirm, and like can improve the researcher's activities. However, the user must manage the type and content of this feedback. | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
|
|||||||
|
Privacy protection | The most critical concern for health researchers in using ASNS is to protect their privacy. | 2 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 16 |
|
High security | Health researchers have become more sensitive to academic and social networks' security. | 2 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 16 |
|
Dedicated environment | ASNS' environment should be dedicated to researchers. | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 4 |
|
Reliable environment | Researchers need a reliable social media environment to share scientific discussions and share their social media views. | 0 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 7 |
|
|||||||
|
Understandable | The use of abstract and incomprehensible words in ASNS makes the social network unacceptable for researchers. | 2 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 11 |
|
Simplicity | Researchers should simply be able to use ASNS. | 2 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 7 |
|
Entertaining | The art of embedding gamification in the academic social network makes researchers more inclined to use this in their daily activities. | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 |
|
Attractive | Observance of clarity and transparency, visual appeal, color selection, and visuals are criteria for making the ASNS more attractive. | 3 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 11 |
|
Customization feature | ASNS does not have wholly fixed characteristics, but a number of its features should be changeable based on the choice and needs of the researcher. | 1 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 11 |
|
|||||||
|
Use of cloud store | Today, cloud storage has become an essential requirement for researchers. | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
|
Run on different platforms (responsive) | In the design process of a social network, all pages must be visible on all devices with similar content, design, and performance. | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 16 |
|
Lack of error, non-accessibility, and downtime | The high rate of unavailability of the ASNS can reduce its users. | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
|
Comprehensive | The comprehensiveness and non-allocation of the site to a group of researchers lead to researchers' rapid growth. | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
|
Multilingualism | The multilingual aspect of ASNSs, in addition to understanding, can make a social network more trustworthy and more inclusive. | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 8 |
|
Connect with other social networks | Communicating and retrieving information from other academic social networks, in addition to saving time, can make social networks more attractive. | 1 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 13 |
|
Regular update | In addition to updating security and information technology, ASNS should create new academic social network functions. | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 7 |
The technical features are related to the social network's design, language, and the databases and infrastructure used to implement the social network. Based on the views of the study, participants' technical features consist of 4 main themes and 20 subthemes. However, the most important subtheme based on participant study views was profile management, but their concerns about security and privacy were considerable (
This study aimed to identify Iranian health researchers' expectations for ASNS from the perspective of a low-income country.
One of the most important expectations of ASNSs was to create a platform for communication and to strengthen researchers' team activities. In line with this study's results, Salahshour [
Another functional expectation from ASNSs was the management of publication researchers' work. In line with the results of this study, several studies confirm that publishing management is an essential duty of ASNSs [
The researchers' third functional feature involved in the study was to help facilitate research and solve research projects by ASNSs. In a prior study, 56 percent of researchers said their goal for being a member of an ASNS was to improve research quality and learning [
Being informative is an essential expectation for ASNSs. Researchers believe, given their interest, an ASNS should automatically inform them of study opportunities, suitable jobs, and cooperation suggestions. Findings from Dermentzi [
The fifth practical feature considered by Iranian health researchers participating in the study was the possibility of facilitating the sharing and trading of laboratory materials and equipment amongst researchers. Bonaiuti [
This study aimed to identify the expectations of health researchers from ASNSs. These expectations were divided into functional and technical characteristics. Functional characteristics were related to different research processes, and researchers used these features to increase the speed and quality of their research. In this category, they expected ASNSs to facilitate communication and inform them about various research fields. Moreover, some researchers expected ASNSs to enhance the process of conducting research and help in sharing and trading laboratory materials and equipment. Managing scientific publications is a functional characteristic that includes improving and managing scientometrics and altmetrics, introducing related journals, publishing the researcher's work, raising awareness regarding the scientific ranking of other researchers, and presenting a cooperative network.
Participants' expectations of ASNSs regarding technical characteristics included user management capabilities, high security and privacy, user-friendly, and other technical features. In addition to not meeting the user's expectations of ASNS, it is abandoned by researchers in some cases due to the lack of attention by programmers to users' opinions in the design of ASNS.
academic social network site
Thanks to the Vice-Chancellor for Research and Technology of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. All participants in this study are also sincerely appreciated.
RF, MD, and SA contributed to the study design. MD and RF completed the data collection. MK, SA, and MD conducted the data analysis. RF, SA, and BM supervised the study. MK, MD, and BM were involved in the manuscript writing. All authors contributed critical revisions for important intellectual content.
None declared.