Beyond Google: How do students conduct academic research?

The results suggest students may not be as reliant on public Internet sites as previous research has reported, and students in this study used a hybrid approach for conducting course-related research.

Abstract

This paper reports findings from an exploratory study about how students majoring in humanities and social sciences use the Internet and library resources for research. Using student discussion groups, content analysis, and a student survey, our results suggest students may not be as reliant on public Internet sites as previous research has reported. Instead, students in our study used a hybrid approach for conducting course-related research. A majority of students leveraged both online and offline sources to overcome challenges with finding, selecting, and evaluating resources and gauging professors' expectations for quality research.