Communication and information-seeking behavior of PhD students in physicists and astronomy

As a part of a wider doctoral research, this paper deals with the communication and information-seeking behavior of research (PhD) students in physics and astronomy. Based on a qualitative case study of PhD students in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at University College London, this study seeks to derive behavioral patterns in information-seeking activities of PhD students. The study aims to investigate the intradisciplinary differences in information-seeking activities of physicists and astronomers. The findings show the high reliance of PhD students in physics and astronomy on electronic journals and their low use of libraries. The findings reveal differences in the information-seeking patterns of students who conduct theoretical research and those of whom are involved in experimental research. The research highlights the need for the study of small subject communities within academic disciplines instead of studying users in a broad subject area such as physics as one single domain.