Factors influencing the importance of criteria for judging answer quality on academic social Q&A platforms

Purpose: With the growth in popularity of academic social networking sites, evaluating the quality of the academic information they contain has become increasingly important. Users' evaluations of this are based on predefined criteria, with external factors affecting how important these are seen to be. As few studies on these influences exist, this research explores the factors affecting the importance of criteria used for judging high-quality answers on academic social Q&A sites. Design/methodology/approach: Scholars who had recommended answers on ResearchGate Q&A were asked to complete a questionnaire survey to rate the importance of various criteria for evaluating the quality of these answers. Statistical analysis methods were used to analyze the data from 215 questionnaires to establish the influence of scholars' demographic characteristics, the question types, the discipline and the combination of these factors on the importance of each evaluation criterion. Findings: Particular disciplines and academic positions had a significant impact on the importance ratings of the criteria of relevance, completeness and credibility. Also, some combinations of factors had a significant impact: for example, older scholars tended to view verifiability as more important to the quality of answers to information-seeking questions than to discussion-seeking questions within the LIS and Art disciplines. Originality/value: This research can help academic social Q&A platforms recommend high-quality answers based on different influencing factors, in order to meet the needs of scholars more effectively.