Table 1

Common information-seeking tasks of field testers.

• Learn a field for the first time

• keep up with advances in one's own field

• find specific items of information (facts)

• browse, keep up with science in general

• find information in a different field relevant to one's own, or related to a collaboration

• prepare a paper, grant proposal or review article

• follow-up on an unexpected finding

• assess an hypothesis or new idea

Smalheiser et al. Journal of Biomedical Discovery and Collaboration 2006 1:8   doi:10.1186/1747-5333-1-8