European Research Letter

Social Science Information Research

David Ellis Department of Information Studies, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, England.

Social science information research has two different

aspects: (1) That where the focus of the information re- searcher’s attention is that of a particular social sci-

ence community, whether researchers, practitioners or policy makers, and whatever the substantive area

concerned. (2) That where information problems, or issues con- nected with the generation, communication and uti- lization of information are examined by means of perspectives and methods characteristic of the social sciences.

This is an important distinction and both aspects deserve consideration, though the two are not mutually exclusive. Research which focusses on information problems of a particular area of social research, practice or policy will normally employ perspectives and methods drawn from

the social sciences. Much of the research carried out in Europe in this area

has been done in the United Kingdom and this is re- flected in the proportion of United Kingdom based stud- ies reported in the literature. However, an attempt has been made to cover other relevant European work, par- ticularly that relating to the second of the two aspects where there has recently been a marked increase in the degree of interest shown by European researchers.

There are excellent reviews of research pertaining to the first aspect. Recent articles by Hogeweg-De Hart

[1,2], cover most of the significant work carried out on the characteristics of social science information and its users. Other, less recent, but nevertheless valuable, over- view articles are by Michael Brittain [3] and Stephen Roberts [4]. Both these writers were involved in the major social science information research projects carried out in

the United Kingdom in the late 1960’s and 1970’s. Brit-

Received July 10, 1985

0 1986 by John Wiley & Sons.

tain examines questions of the relationship between in- formation services and the structure of knowledge in the social sciences. Roberts article provides an insight into the history of the policy and funding of social science in- formation research in the United Kingdom.

The most substantial research efforts carried out in the United Kingdom over the period were the Investiga- tion into Information Requirements of the Social Sci- ences project (INFROSS), and the Design of Information Systems in the Social Sciences program (DISISS). The primary concerns of these were respectively, with the in- formation requirements of academic social scientists, and with issues relating to the provision of secondary in- formation services in the social sciences. Summaries of the findings of each of these major studies are available

[5,6] and it is probably advisable to start with these sum- maries before commencing on the many research papers

and reports detailing the results of the projects, which are

too numerous to enumerate here. In addition to these research efforts another research

project particularly worth noting was that undertaken by a team under Professor Don Swift on index language de- sign for a social science subject [7]. This project not only led to the development of a novel approach to indexing, the multi-modal approach, in which a subject was in- dexed from a number of different viewpoints [81-a tech- nique then applied in the construction of the index for

Sociology of Education Abstracts-but also occasioned a debate on the relationship between sociology and infor-

mation science [9,10]. Rather disappointingly there was little follow through

of the INFROSS project or DISISS program in terms of improvements to existing information services, or in terms of the development of new services for the social sciences. Nor has there been any fresh research initiative which might have built on the knowledge and expertise built up in these studies-although individual research- ers involved in the DISISS program continue to be active in social science information research. For example, Brit-

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE. 37(2):86-88; 1986 CCC 0002.8231/86/020086-03$04.00

tain has studied questions relating to the international dissemination and use of social science information

[ 11,121, and Roberts has examined problems concerning

the management and development of library and infor- mation provision in the social sciences [13]. The original multi-modal index developed for Sociology of Education Abstracts has also been abandoned and replaced by a straight through alphabetical index, though this still ap-

pears to retain aspects of the multi-modal approach in the subject analysis employed.

A rather brighter picture is presented by the progress

of research into the information requirements of areas of social practice. The investigation of Information Needs in the Social Services study (INISS) [14,15,16] which in- volved detailed research into the information require- ments of local authority social services departments was followed with a similar study of the information require-

ments of Local Government Information Services (LOGI) [ 17,181. The rigor of the methods employed and the ap- plication of the findings the research to practice through

an action research model of investigation makes these studies of interest to a wider audience than just those in- volved in the particular areas of social practice con- cerned. A related project to these is the Educational Management Information Exchange (EMIE) the objec- tive of which was to develop and test a range of informa-

tion services for education officers and advisers in local authority education departments [ 191.

Interest in the information requirements of areas of social practice continues and with increasing attention being paid to commercial, professional and industrial ap- plications [20,21,22], to the problems and opportunities which developments in information technology raise [23], and to questions of dissemination [24].

Perspectives and approaches from the social sciences

have been applied to a variety of problems of interest to information researchers. In particular, there has been in- creasing interest shown in cognitive aspects of informa- tion studies. Papers presented at a Seminar on the Psy-

chological Aspects of Information Searching held at the Royal School of Librarianship, Copenhagen [25], dealt with the cognitive aspects of a wide range of subjects, in- cluding, psychological aspects of information retrieval, cognitive science and science dynamics, cognitive models and information transfer, cognitive aspects in natural

language and free text searching, psychology and infor- mation search strategy, experimental design of man ma- chine studies, and the design of a computer-aided user

system dialogue. These studies have borrowed heavily from cognitive psychology in terms of concepts and tech- niques. Different in approach and emphasis but similar in examining questions of general interest to information studies from a social science perspective is research which looks at certain issues in the development of the sub-dis- cipline of information retrieval research [26,27].

Finally, the failure to develop effective theoretical frameworks for advancing understanding of problems of

interest to information researchers has often been cited as a reason for the disappointing progress of information

studies to some sort of intellectual maturity or respect- ability [28]. The question of what sort of approach might serve best for achieving better theoretically based expla- nations or understanding has engaged the interest of re- searchers at the Department of Communication Science of the Free University of Berlin in the Federal Republic of Germany, and led to a brief but astringent exchange of views [29,30]. Anyone with an interest in general or theo- retical aspects of information studies should find some-

thing of interest in this debate.

References 1.

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15.

16.

Hogeweg-De Hart, H. P. “Characteristics of Social Science Infor-

mation: a Selective Review of the Literature. Part 1.” So&l Sri-

enre Information Studies. 3:147-164; 1983. Hogeweg-De Hart, H. P. “Characteristics of Social Science Infor-

mation: a Selective Review of the Literature. Part II.” Social Sci- crux Injormation Studies. 4:15-30; 1984.

Brittain, J. M. “information Servicer and the Structures of Knowl- edge in the Social Sciences.” International Sociul Science Jour-

nal. 31:711-728; 1979.

Roberts, S. A. “Developing a Focus for Library and Information

Research in Social Sciences in the United Kingdom.” Education Libraries Bulletin. 24: 1-19: 1981.

Line, M. B. “The Information Uses and Needs of Social Scien-

tists: an Overview of INFROSS.” Aslib Proceedings. 23:412-434;

1971. Bath University. Toword the Improvement of Social Science In- formation Systems: Overview of Research Carried Out 1971- 1975. DISISS Research Report, Series A No. 1. Bath: Bath Uni-

versity, Bath University Library; 1980.

Swift, D. F.; Winn, V. A. and Bramer, D. “A Case Study in In-

dexing and Classification in the Sociology of Education. “(2 Vols.)

Milton Keynes: The Open University; 1973.

Swift, D. F.; Winn, V. and Bramer, D. “A Multi-Modal Ap-

proach to Indexing and Classification.” International Classifica- tion. 4:90-94; 1977.

Swift, D. F.; Winn, V. and Bramer, D. “A Sociological Approach

to the Design of Information Systems.” Journal of the American Societyfor Information Science. 30:215-223; 1919.

Watson, L. E.; Gammage, P.; Grayshon, M. C.; Hockey, S.;

Jones; R. K. and Oldman, D. “Sociology and Information Sci-

ence.” Journal of Librurianship. 5:270-283; 1973.

Brittain, I. M. “The SocialSciences: the Supply and Demand for Documentation and Data. “A Report to UNESCO. London: Ros-

sendale; 1982.

Brittain, J. M. “Internationality of the Social Sciences-lmplica-

tions for Information Transfer.” Journal of the American Society

for Injormation Science. 35:11-18; 1984.

Roberts, S. A. “The Management and Development of Informa-

tion and Library Provision in the Social Sciences.” Journal of

Documentation. 40:94-119; 1984.

Wilson, T. D. and Streatfield, D. R. “Information Needs in Local

Authority Social Services Departments: an Interim Report on

Project INISS.” Journal of Documentation. 33:277-293; 1977.

Wilson, T. D.; Streatfield, D. R. and Mullings, C. “Information

Needs in Local Authority Social Services Departments: a Second

Report on Projects INISS.” Journal of Documentation. 35:120-

136; 1979.

Sheffield University. “Project INISS: Final Report on the Innova- tion Programme 1978-1980. ” Sheffield: Sheffield University, De-

partment of Information Studies; 1980.

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE-March 1986 87

17. Francis, G. M.; Mullings, C. and Wilson, T. D. ‘A Mamulfor the Evaluation of Current Awwrerress Bulletins. ” British Library

Research and Development Report No. 5584. British Library;

1981.

18. Mullings, C.; Francis, G. M. and Wilson, T. D. ‘il Munuui.for the Investigation of Locul Government Z?$ormatiorz Needs. ‘* Brit-

ish Library Research and Development Report No. 5585. British

Library: 1981.

19. Streatfield. D. “Moving Towards the Information User: Some Re- search and Its Implications.” Social Science Information Studies

3:223-240; 1983.

20. Trott, F. “Information for Industry: a Study of the Information

Needs of Small Firms and the Relevance of Public Information

Services.” CRUS News. 20:7; 1984. 21. Clinton, A. “Information Needs of Trade Union Reprcsenta-

tives.” CRUS News. 17:6; 1983.

22. British Library “Znformtrtioa Demand and Supply itt British in- dustry fY77-1983. ” Technical Change Centre: British Library;

1983.

23. Wilson, T. D. “Office Automation and Information Services.” Li-

brary and Information Research Report No. 31. Boston Spa: Brit-

ish Library; 1985

24. Hooper, H. and Renie I. “The Dissemination of Social Services

Research.” Social Services Research. 13:21-48; 1984.

25. Wilson, T. D. (ed.) “Seminar on the Psychological Aspects of In-

formation Searching.” Social Science Znformution Studies, 4:81-

236; 1984. 26. Ellis, D. “The Effectiveness of Information Retrieval Systems: the

Need for Improved Explanatory Frameworks.” Social Science Zn- formation Studies. 4:261-272; 1984.

27. Ellis, D. “Theory and Explanation in Information Retrieval Re-

search.” Journal of Zrrfknc~tiorz Science. 8:25-38; 1984.

28. Roberts, N. “A Search for Information Man.” Social Sciencr Zn- ,formntion Studies. 2:93-104; 1982.

29. Wersig G. and Windel G. “Information Science Needs a Theory

of Information Actions.” Social Scierrce Zrtformution Studies.

511-23; 1985. 30. Ellis, D.; Roberts, N.; Hounsell, D.; Saracevic. T. and Persson,

0. “Comments on Wersig and Windel.” Sock1 Science Znforma-

tion Studies. 5125-32; 1985.

66 JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE-March 1986