Use and relevance of Web 2.0 resources for researchers

One of the features of the growth of Web 2.0 resources and services in recent years has been the rapid development of a range of web based tools designed to allow researchers to generate, modify, share and redistribute information in innovative ways. There has been much discussion about the benefits of using such resources, often accompanied by an assumption, particularly from outside the academic research community, that most researchers will eventually use these tools, if they are not already doing so. However, it is not yet clear whether, why, or to what extent, researchers actually do use them. This work set out to examine the extent to which researchers use Web 2.0 tools and resources. It also set out to identify the factors that influence adoption in order to determine whether these resources are changing researchers’ behaviours.