Questions or questioners: Factors affecting response quantity on academic social Q&A sites

Abstract

ABSTRACTWith the continuous development of academic social network sites, academic social Q&A platforms have also become a venue for scholars to obtain academic information. This study explores the factors that influence the response quantity for questions on an academic social Q&A platform. Using 130 questions from the library and information services domain on ResearchGate Q&A, we adopt content analysis and multiple linear regression analysis to investigate the relationship between question characteristics and response quantity. We find that, for academic questions, the questioner's authority does not affect response quantity but questions that provide academic resources and contain fewer personal opinions from the questioner tend to attract more answers.