Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.
Researchers of Tomorrow (RoT) was a three-year study, sponsored by the British Library (BL) and the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC). The study was carried out by Education for Change, with The Research Partnership. The study tracked a cohort of 70 young 'Generation Y' doctoral students (the children of the 'Baby Boomers'), defined in this study as those born between 1982 and 1994. The students were based at UK colleges and universities. The study used quantitative context-setting surveys and qualitative research to examine the students' information-seeking behaviour, analysing their habits in online and physical research environments and assessing their usage of library and information sources on- and off-line. The study aimed to establish a benchmark for research behaviour against which subsequent generations of scholars can be measured. Its ultimate aim is to provide guidance to academic institutions, libraries and information specialists on how best to meet the research needs of Generation Y scholars and their immediate successors. The main focus areas of the study were:mapping emerging research behaviour trends across the main subject disciplinesinvestigating how doctoral scholars, in particular those from Generation Y, seek information both on- and off-linemeasuring the relative use of digital resources and physical resources (including research spaces)understanding how Generation Y students search for and use digital content for research, and if and how they use emergent technologies to do so.Further information on the project may be found on the Education for Change Exploration for Change: Researchers of Tomorrow and the JISC Mapping the needs of a generation webpage. The UK Data Archive holds data from the three context-setting surveys spanning 2009-2011, but does not currently hold any qualitative materials from the study.
Main Topics:
Across the three years, the surveys covered: personal characteristics; doctoral training; training in and techniques used for finding information and research resources; research, technology and information seeking support; institutional research support; the research process; social media; openness and sharing in research; details regarding doctorate; funding.
Volunteer sample
Self-completion
Online web-based survey.
