Consumer health information seeking in social media: a literature review

Objective

The objective of this literature review was to summarise current research regarding how consumers seek health‐related information from social media. Primarily, we hope to reveal characteristics of existing studies investigating the health topics that consumers have discussed in social media, ascertaining the roles social media have played in consumers’ information‐seeking processes and discussing the potential benefits and concerns of accessing consumer health information in social media.

Methods

The Web of Science Core Collection database was searched for existing literature on consumer health information seeking in social media. The search returned 214 articles, of which 21 met the eligibility criteria following review of full‐text documents.

Conclusion

Between 2011 and 2016, twenty‐one studies published explored various topics related to consumer information seeking in social media. These ranged from online discussions on specific diseases (e.g. diabetes) to public health concerns (e.g. pesticide residues). Consumers’ information needs vary depending on the health issues of interest. Benefits of health seeking on social media, in addition to filling a need for health information, include the social and emotional support health consumers gain from peer‐to‐peer interactions. These benefits, however, are tempered by concerns of information quality and authority and lead to decreased consumer engagement.     

我国信息咨询业发展述评

本文简述了我国信息咨询业的发展历程、现状、存在问题，提出了信息咨询业的发展策略。     

Reporting statistical analyses in peer review journal articles

As a regular referee for the Health Information and Libraries Journal, Richard Stephens – Winner of the 2014 Wellcome Trust Science Writing Prize – has been impressed by the science on offer in the Health Information and Libraries Journal. But he has also been struck by how often similar problems with statistical analysis reporting come up during the review process. Acknowledging that statistics can be scary, he advocates that they should be simply viewed as a means of communicating ideas. In this editorial, he provides some straightforward guidelines on reporting statistical analyses in peer review journal articles, highlights pitfalls to avoid and illustrates best practice to aim for.     

我国信息素养教育研究述评

文章在全面考察我国信息素养教育研究状况的基础上,对我国信息素养的定义与内涵、相关评价标准等理论问题的研究与信息素养状况调查等实践项目进行了系统梳理,总结了相关研究成果,指出研究中存在的不足,并对未来的研究进行了展望。     

近五年来数字图书馆信息安全问题研究综述

本文概述了近五年来有关数字图书馆信息安全的研究成果。论文在归纳了数字图书馆信息安全概念、特点、主要危害及原因的基础上，从技术手段、管理手段、法规政策三个方面概述了相关的解决方案。     

科研人员在线社交网络使用行为研究综述

[目的/意义]归纳总结科研人员在线社交网络使用行为研究现状,提出值得关注的问题,为进一步深入研究提供参考。[方法/过程]通过关键词检索和引文追溯两步骤的文献收集方法系统收集国内外相关文献,对文献进行系统阅读、分析,归纳研究主题,并进行论述。[结果/结论]将收集到的63篇文献按照其研究主题,归纳为用于科研目的的在线社交网络功能与分类、科研人员在线社交网络使用的人口统计学特征研究、使用动机研究、内容创建和获取行为研究以及群体行为研究。认为未来深入研究可以从在线社交网络科研过程嵌入机理、基于全局数据的行为规律研究、持续使用机制及信息服务系统改进实证研究4个方面进行。     

Trends of infodemiology studies: a scoping review

Introduction

The health care industry is rich in data and information. Web technologies, such as search engines and social media, have provided an opportunity for the management of user generated data in real time in the form of infodemiology studies. The aim of this study was to investigate infodemiology studies conducted during 2002–2016, and compare them based on developed, developing and in transition countries.

Methods

This scoping review was conducted in 2017 with the help of the PRISMA guidelines. PubMed, Scopus, Science Direct, Web of Knowledge, Google Scholar, Wiley and Springer databases were searched between the years 2002 and 2016. Finally, 56 articles were included in the review and analysed.

Results

The initial infodemiology studies pertain to the quality assessment of the hospital's websites. Most of the studies were on developed countries, based on flu, and published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.

Conclusion

The infodemiology approach provides unmatched opportunities for the management of health data and information generated by the users. Using this potential will provide unique opportunities for the health information need assessment in real time by health librarians and thereby provide evidence based health information to the people.

     

Search is a verb: systematic review searching as invisible labor

Invisible labor is a term used by labor economists to describe work that contributes, and is often even necessary, to the economy but largely goes unrecognized and unpaid. Despite the fact that systematic review searching is a significant task for many librarians and knowledge professionals, the search process can be considered a form of invisible labor because it often goes without recognition. This occurs sometimes through not granting authorship to the librarian who performed the intellectual contribution of search development and sometimes through a devaluing of the search process by the choice of language used to describe the search. By using the term search as a passive verb or noun, authors devalue the real intellectual labor involved in searching, which includes decisions related to search terms and combinations, database selection, and other search parameters. This commentary explores the context of how searching is described through the concept of invisible labor.