Awareness and Use of Government Information in Digital Form by Social Science Researchers

Abstract

Governments generate various types of information in different formats. To facilitate transparency and accountability, governments across countries make information available to citizens. Social science researchers use this information for studying different social and economic issues. The present study analyses the level of awareness among social science researchers regarding the perceived information quality, accessibility and relevance to their research. The digital documents are preferred more than the print and other formats in which government information is available. The purpose for which they use government information available in digital form has been studied along with the frequency of use of different kinds of government information. The study observes that social science researchers rank most government information as high quality and relevant to their research besides using frequently. Although there is no gender difference observed with respect to the use of government information, there is a significant difference between researchers in the domain of economics and other social science researchers so far as access to statistical information is concerned.