Characteristics and Problems of Information Usage in Producing Academic Articles by Humanities Academics and Social Scientists in Thailand

This research aims to study the information characteristics of humanities academics and social scientists in Thailand when producing academic articles and to identify the problems of their information usage. A set of questionnaires was sent to 203 samples who had articles published in six qualified journals indexed in both Thai and foreign databases. The findings showed that the types of information used were mostly books, following by research articles, reviewed articles, book/movie reviews. To produce one article, they used less than 10 books, 10-20 research articles, 10-20 reviewed articles, and less than 10 book/movie reviews. Most of the articles were written in the Thai language. The humanities academics and social scientists spent the longest time searching for research articles. The overall problems of information usage concerning information centers/libraries, humanities academics and social scientists themselves, humanities and social sciences information, and publishers were moderate. However, there were higher levels of problems in these aspects: audio-visual materials, real materials. This paper suggests a new perspective for the in-depth study of information behaviors in particular areas.