Open AccessExpectations of Health Researchers From Academic Social Network Sites: Qualitative Study
Author(s) -
Mohammad Hadi Dehghani,
Mehdi Kahouei,
Shahin Akhondzadeh,
Bita Mesgarpour,
Reza Ferdousi
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
jmir. journal of medical internet research/journal of medical internet research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.446
H-Index - 142
eISSN - 1439-4456
pISSN - 1438-8871
DOI - 10.2196/24643
Subject(s) - nonprobability sampling , social network (sociolinguistics) , knowledge management , qualitative research , social network analysis , quality (philosophy) , process (computing) , medical education , psychology , computer science , applied psychology , world wide web , social media , sociology , medicine , population , social science , philosophy , demography , epistemology , operating system
Background Today, academic social network sites' role in improving the quality of education and how investigators conduct their research has become more critical. Objective This study aimed to investigate Iranian health researchers' requirements for academic social network sites from a low-income country perspective. Methods 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. Results 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. Conclusions Health researchers emphasized 2 functional and technical characteristics required to meet academic social network sites' expectations.