According to prior studies, female researchers in Austria exhibit a very high level of childlessness and, consequentially, a low mean number of children. Following up on these studies, we analyse childlessness intentions of young female researchers and compare them to those of other highly educated women in other occupations. We examine factors that are related to female researchers' intent to stay childless. The analysis is based on a survey of 196 female researchers between the ages of 25 and 45 (with the majority being between age 25 and 34). Results indicate that few young, childless researchers plan a life without children: Only 7% intend to stay childless and most of them want to have two children (66%). Their intentions are strikingly close to those of their highly educated peers in other occupations. We discuss three factors that play a role for childlessness intentions of female researchers: work-related conditions (employment uncertainty and work-family reconciliation), personal career orientation, and partnership context.

Resumo: Na descrição hierárquica do conhecimento biológico, o ser vivo é considerado como ponto central nas relações engendradas pelos seguintes níveis: ambiente externo (ecológico/evolutivo), organismo e ambiente interno (genético/ molecular). O organismo compreendido como nível focal da discussão biológica pode ressaltar a autonomia da Biologia em relação às outras áreas do conhecimento científico. No contexto do ensino, assume-se que as discussões epistemológicas do conhecimento biológico podem promover uma compreensão mais integrada dos fenômenos biológicos. Assim, organizou-se um grupo de pesquisa com graduandos de um curso de Ciências Biológicas para discutir conceitos centrais do conhecimento biológico, entre eles, o conceito de organismo. Esta pesquisa teve como objetivos: 1) Elaborar uma caracterização do conceito de organismo, partindo de uma abordagem hierárquica, integrando as discussões advindas da Filosofia da Biologia contemporânea referentes aos conceitos de auto-organização, autonomia agencial, propriedades emergentes e níveis hierárquicos; 2) Analisar como o conceito de organismo se impõe frente às explicações de vida presentes na literatura contemporânea da Filosofia da Biologia; 3) Utilizar a discussão teórica relativa ao conceito de organismo como fundamentação de um grupo de "Pesquisas em Epistemologia da Biologia", verificando as contribuições desse aporte teórico para a formação de alunos de Licenciatura em Ciências Biológicas na área de Epistemologia da Biologia e Ensino de Ciências; 4) Analisar as discussões e produções escritas ocorridas no desenvolvimento do grupo de "Pesquisas em Epistemologia da Biologia" que abordaram o conceito de organismo, com a finalidade de verificar se uma abordagem hierárquica tendo o organismo como nível focal contribui para uma visão integrada do conhecimento biológico pelos... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: In the hierarchical of biological knowledge, the living being could be considered as central point in the relations produced by three levels: external environment (ecological/evolution), organism and environment intern (genetic/molecular). The comprehension of the organism as a focal level in the biological debate can underline the autonomy of Biology among the other areas of the scientific knowledge. In the education context it is assumed that the epistemological discussions of the biological knowledge can promote an integrated understanding of the biological phenomena. Thus, a research group consisting of Biological Sciences undergraduates was organized to debate central concepts of the biological knowledge in which the discussions of the organism concept are included. This research aimed to: 1) develop a characterization of the concept of organism from a hierarchical approach by integrating the resulting discussions from contemporary philosophy of biology that are related to the concepts of self-organization, autonomy agents, emergent properties and hierarchical levels; 2) to analyze how the concept of organism is placed in front of the explications of life in the contemporary literature of philosophy of biology; 3) to use the theoretical discussion on the concept of organism as fundamentation for a group of "Studies in Epistemology of Biology," noting the help of this theoretical contribution to the Biological Sciences students training in the Biology and Epistemology in Science Teaching; 4) to analyze discussions and written productions that occurred in the development of the 'Research in Epistemology of Biology's group which addressed the concept the organism in order to verify if a hierarchical approach in which the organism is the focal level contributes to an integrated view of biological knowledge for biology students. On the basis of the theoretical referential... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Orientador: Ana Maria de Andrade Caldeira / Coorientador: Charbel Niño El-Hani / Banca: Fernando Bastos / Banca: Maurício de Carvalho Ramos / Banca: Luzia Marta Bellini / Banca: Marcelo Carbone Carneiro / Doutor

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:31:40Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2009-03-27Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:42:08Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 meglhioratti_fa_dr_bauru.pdf: 1366175 bytes, checksum: 66b9292b49a98bb952a24879d6ea05f7 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Na descrição hierárquica do conhecimento biológico, o ser vivo é considerado como ponto central nas relações engendradas pelos seguintes níveis: ambiente externo (ecológico/evolutivo), organismo e ambiente interno (genético/ molecular). O organismo compreendido como nível focal da discussão biológica pode ressaltar a autonomia da Biologia em relação às outras áreas do conhecimento científico. No contexto do ensino, assume-se que as discussões epistemológicas do conhecimento biológico podem promover uma compreensão mais integrada dos fenômenos biológicos. Assim, organizou-se um grupo de pesquisa com graduandos de um curso de Ciências Biológicas para discutir conceitos centrais do conhecimento biológico, entre eles, o conceito de organismo. Esta pesquisa teve como objetivos: 1) Elaborar uma caracterização do conceito de organismo, partindo de uma abordagem hierárquica, integrando as discussões advindas da Filosofia da Biologia contemporânea referentes aos conceitos de auto-organização, autonomia agencial, propriedades emergentes e níveis hierárquicos; 2) Analisar como o conceito de organismo se impõe frente às explicações de vida presentes na literatura contemporânea da Filosofia da Biologia; 3) Utilizar a discussão teórica relativa ao conceito de organismo como fundamentação de um grupo de “Pesquisas em Epistemologia da Biologia”, verificando as contribuições desse aporte teórico para a formação de alunos de Licenciatura em Ciências Biológicas na área de Epistemologia da Biologia e Ensino de Ciências; 4) Analisar as discussões e produções escritas ocorridas no desenvolvimento do grupo de “Pesquisas em Epistemologia da Biologia” que abordaram o conceito de organismo, com a finalidade de verificar se uma abordagem hierárquica tendo o organismo como nível focal contribui para uma visão integrada do conhecimento biológico pelos... / In the hierarchical of biological knowledge, the living being could be considered as central point in the relations produced by three levels: external environment (ecological/evolution), organism and environment intern (genetic/molecular). The comprehension of the organism as a focal level in the biological debate can underline the autonomy of Biology among the other areas of the scientific knowledge. In the education context it is assumed that the epistemological discussions of the biological knowledge can promote an integrated understanding of the biological phenomena. Thus, a research group consisting of Biological Sciences undergraduates was organized to debate central concepts of the biological knowledge in which the discussions of the organism concept are included. This research aimed to: 1) develop a characterization of the concept of organism from a hierarchical approach by integrating the resulting discussions from contemporary philosophy of biology that are related to the concepts of self-organization, autonomy agents, emergent properties and hierarchical levels; 2) to analyze how the concept of organism is placed in front of the explications of life in the contemporary literature of philosophy of biology; 3) to use the theoretical discussion on the concept of organism as fundamentation for a group of Studies in Epistemology of Biology, noting the help of this theoretical contribution to the Biological Sciences students training in the Biology and Epistemology in Science Teaching; 4) to analyze discussions and written productions that occurred in the development of the ‘Research in Epistemology of Biology’s group which addressed the concept the organism in order to verify if a hierarchical approach in which the organism is the focal level contributes to an integrated view of biological knowledge for biology students. On the basis of the theoretical referential... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

abstract: There is a documented gap between research-based recommendations produced by university-based scholars in the field of education in the United States and the evidence that U.S. politicians' use when deciding which educational policies to implement or amend. This is a problem because university-based education scholars produce vast quantities of research each year, some of which could, and more importantly should, be useful to politicians in their decision-making processes and yet, politicians continue to make policy decisions about education without the benefit of much of the knowledge that has been gained through scholarly research. I refer to the small fraction of university-based education scholars who are demonstrably successful at getting scholarly research into the hands of politicians to be used for decision-making purposes as "university-based bipartisan scholarship brokers". They are distinct from other university-based education scholars in that they engage with politicians from both political parties around research and, as such, are able to use scholarly research to influence the education policymaking process. The problem that this dissertation addresses is the lack of use, by U.S. politicians, of scholarly research produced by United States university-based education scholars as input in education policy decisions. The way in which this problem is explored is through studying university-based bipartisan scholarship brokers. I focused on three areas for exploration: the methods university-based bipartisan scholarship brokers use to successfully get U.S. politicians to consider scholarly research as an input in their decision-making processes around education policy, how these scholars are different than the majority of university-based education policy scholars, and how they conceive of the education policy-setting agenda. What I uncovered in this dissertation is that university-based bipartisan scholarship brokers are a complete sub-group of university-based education scholars. They work above the rigorous promotion and tenure requirements of their home universities in order to use scholarly research to help serve the research needs of politicians. Their engagement is distinct among university-based education scholars and through this dissertation their perspective is presented in participants' own authentic language. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 2013

abstract: ABSTRACT The teaching of formulaic sequences (FSs) to improve speech fluency is a time honored tradition in the field of English as a Second Language (ESL). However, recent research seems to indicate that certain discourse markers, specifically transition and personal stance markers, are more useful than other FSs. This study is an attempt to partially replicate (on a very small scale) one of these studies to see if the findings are similar when the standardized test materials are from the Test Of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) rather than the International English Language Testing System (IELTS). The hope is that teacher researchers could have access to readily available, standardized assessment materials with which to create their own research studies consisting of a standardized pretest and posttest. Four students of various levels in an Intensive English Program (IEP) were given a practice listening and speaking exam utilizing TOEFL preparation materials found online. The results were analyzed to see if there was a noticeable correlation between the use of the specified discourse markers on the speech portion of the test and the performance of the students on the listening portion of the test. The findings show some discrepancy between the two studies' results. It appears possible to have a high perceived fluency rate and still have a lower overall speaking fluency when taking into account listening comprehension and various other measures. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. English 2014

Diversos comportamentos inadequados apresentados na literatura acerca da Ética na pesquisa, tais como fraude e plágio, são encontrados no processo de preparação e publicação de trabalhos científicos. Esses comportamentos podem ser originados, em grande parte, pela pressão que as instituições acadêmicas fazem sobre pesquisadores para a elevação da produção científica ou a que o próprio pesquisador se impõe para obter maior posto ou remuneração, conseguir ou manter seu status de aceitação pela comunidade científica, ou ainda, porque não percebem a natureza questionável dos seus atos. Alheios a esses acontecimentos, geralmente, os pesquisadores de Contabilidade têm desenvolvido seus estudos sem qualquer reflexão às questões éticas que envolvem o processo da pesquisa contábil. O propósito geral deste estudo foi examinar o posicionamento dos pesquisadores em Contabilidade em relação à má conduta na pesquisa científica, identificando a frequência de sua ocorrência e a intensidade dos fatores que influenciam a má conduta. A importância desse estudo poderá ser verificada quando se espera que os debates sobre ética na pesquisa sejam fomentados e sirvam de base para o desenvolvimento de estratégias que possam reduzir a má conduta na pesquisa. Usando a abordagem de método misto sequencial explicativo proposto por Creswell (2008), investigou-se a ocorrência de má conduta na pesquisa e os fatores que a ocasionam por meio de um survey aplicado a 85 pesquisadores presentes no Congresso USP de Controladoria e Contabilidade de 2009 seguido por entrevistas semiestruturadas aplicadas a oito pesquisadores experientes e de reconhecida competência. O perfil geral dos participantes do estudo foi constituído por 61,1% de mestres, mestrandos e doutorandos em Contabilidade, sendo que 67% desses tinham até nove anos de envolvimento com pesquisa. Oitententa e oito por cento de todos os participantes eram professores universitários, mas apenas 19% do total da amostra estavam vinculados a um programa stricto sensu e, entre esses, 81,2% tinham maior vinculação com instituições públicas e os demais, 18,8%, com instituições privadas. Dos professores não vinculados a um programa stricto sensu (69%), 67,2% estavam vinculados a instituições públicas e 32,8% a instituições privadas. Na perspectiva desses participantes os resultados da análise do survey revelaram que há evidências de envolvimento de pesquisadores em Contabilidade com práticas inapropriadas, mas que a frequência com que essas ocorrem é pequena, ou seja, tiveram ocorrência rara ou ocasional. Dentre as dezessete más condutas avaliadas quanto às suas ocorrências, \'Um autor divide o crédito do trabalho com colega que não contribui para fazê-lo, em troca de participação em trabalho em que também não vai contribuir\' e \'Um autor, para aumentar a credibilidade de seu artigo, amplia a seção de referências com citações de fontes que não leu, mas que viu citadas em outros artigos\' são, nessa ordem, os comportamentos mais frequentes. Os resultados também forneceram evidências que quanto maior o tempo de envolvimento com a pesquisa maior a frequência que os pesquisadores mostram crer e conhecer a ocorrência de má conduta, mas isso foi verdade apenas para \'Um professor se esforça para impedir que o trabalho de um pesquisador seja publicado\' que teve uma relação positiva e significante com o tempo de envolvimento na pesquisa. Os pesquisadores participantes do survey e os entrevistados creem que a necessidade de publicação é o fator mais importante para influenciar a má conduta na pesquisa. Para os pesquisadores experientes entrevistados a necessidade de publicação está associada à Capes e ao sistema de avaliação imposto por ela. Educação foi considerado um importante meio para desencorajar má conduta na pesquisa tanto para participantes do survey quanto para os pesquisadores experientes entrevistados. Ainda para esses últimos, é possível inferir-se que o atual estágio da qualidade da pesquisa contábil no Brasil é, em parte, reflexo das más condutas avaliadas neste estudo. / Diverse inadequate behaviors presented by the literature about Ethics in research, such as fraud and plagiarism, are found in the preparation and publishing process of scientific works. These behaviors may be mostly originated by the academic institutions\' pressure over researchers to raise scientific production or by the pressure researchers impose themselves to obtain a higher position or revenue, to get or to keep their scientific community acceptance status, or even because they do not realize the questionable nature of their actions. Aside from these happenings, generally, Accountancy researchers have developed their studies not pondering about the ethical issues that concern the accounting research. The present work\'s general purpose was to examine Accountancy researchers\' attitude related to scientific research misconduct, identifying its frequency of occurrence and its influential factors intensity. This study importance may be verified when it is expected that debates about ethics in research are stimulated and used as the basis for developing strategies which may reduce the research misconduct. From the mixed-methods sequential explanatory design proposed by Creswell (2008), the research misconduct occurrence and the factors that caused it were investigated by a survey applied to eighty five researchers attending USP\'s 2009 Controllership and Accountancy Congress, followed by semi-structured interviews taken from eight experienced and well-recognized competence researchers. The participants\' general profile in this study was constituted by Accounting graduate students, Masters, and Doctors (61,1%). A share of 67% from this number has been involved in research up to nine years. Eighty eight per cent of all participants were professors, although only 19% from the total were linked to a stricto sensu program and, among them, 81, 2 % were more connected to public institutions; the remaining ones, 18,8%, to private institutions. From the professors not connected to a stricto sensu program (69%), 67,2% were linked to public institutions and 32,8% to private ones. In these participants\' perspective, the survey result analysis revealed that there are evidences of Accountancy researchers\' involvement in inappropriate practices, in spite of its low occurrence frequency: they were considered rare or occasional. From the seventeen misconducts assessed by their occurrence, \"[A]n author shares a work\'s credit with a colleague that does not contribute to do it in exchange of participation in a work which he or she will not contribute as well\", and \"[A]n author, to increase his or her article\'s credibility, expands its reference sections citing unread resources observed in other articles\" are, in this order, the most frequent behaviors. The results also provide evidence that when the involvement with research is longer, the frequency that researchers show belief in and know about the occurrence of misconduct is higher, although it was true only for \"[A] professor struggles to impede a researcher\'s work to be published\", which had a positive and considerable relation with the time of involvement with research. The survey\'s participant researchers and the interviewees believe that the need of publication is the most important factor to influence a research\'s misconduct. To the experienced researchers interviewed, the need of publication is associated to Capes (Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel) and to the evaluation system imposed by it. Education was considered an important means to discourage misconduct in research both by the participants and by the experienced researchers interviewed. Thus, from the latter, it is possible to infer that the current stage of the Accountancy research quality in Brazil is partly a reflex from the misconducts assessed by this study.

O presente trabalho toma como objeto o processo de escrita do texto acadêmico. Analisa os efeitos do trabalho de escrita conceito elaborado por Riolfi (2003) que ocorrem quando aquele que redige um texto se permite um processo de mão dupla: a) por um lado, permite que tanto a linguagem quanto os saberes já inscritos na cultura ressoem em seu corpo e; b) por outro, consegue distanciar-se o suficiente deste lugar de caixa de ressonância de modo a poder circunscrever um lugar enunciativo desde onde buscar respostas para questões que lhe sejam caras. Mobilizando o conceito de pulsão (FREUD, 1915, 1920; LACAN, 1964), uma vez que desejei vincular o ato de escrever com as maneiras por meio das quais preferencialmente cada pessoa obtém suas satisfações ao longo de sua existência, selecionei duas informantes com trajetória muito similar e economia pulsional bastante diversa. Como resultado da análise dos dois dossiês, que reúnem todos os rascunhos das dissertações das duas mestrandas, foi possível pontuar duas facetas pedagógicas diferentes envolvidas no percurso de construção do texto acadêmico: aprender a escrever e aprender ao escrever. Aprender a escrever foi a expressão utilizada para recobrir as operações necessárias para incluir o outro na escrita, considerando os efeitos de sentido potencialmente suscitados pelo texto. Trata-se, portanto, de uma mudança na economia da pulsão oral. Aprender ao escrever, por sua vez, consiste na possibilidade de utilizar a escrita como dispositivo de ensino para aprender uma teoria até o ponto de oferecê-la subjetivada ao leitor. Trata-se, portanto, de uma mudança na economia da pulsão anal. No processo de tessitura da dissertação das duas informantes, também analisei as intervenções realizadas pelo orientador, as quais permitiram a ocorrência de deslocamentos da relação do aluno com o saber no percurso de formação. Sendo assim, o estudo mostrou que a escrita é um poderoso dispositivo de ensino e sublimação. Quem decide enfrentar este processo jamais sairá ileso das ações que a linguagem exercerá no seu corpo. Concluí, portanto, que a condição necessária, por parte de um pesquisador, para escrever e ser formado é pautar suas ações na responsabilização (HANS JONAS, 2006). / This work deals with the academic writing process. It analyzes the effects of the Writing Work a concept elaborated by Riolfi (2003). According to her, this process occurs when the one who writes an academic text allows himself to go into a two-way process: a) on one hand allows either the language or the knowledge that is already inscribed in culture to resound in its body and; b) on the other hand, is able to be distant enough from this place of resonance box in order to circumscribe an enunciative place, since the location one can look for answers to the questions that are important to him/her. Using the concept of pulsion (FREUD, 1915, 1920; LACAN, 1964), as I aimed to link the writing act with the ways through each person mainly gets his/her satisfactions lifelong, Ive chosen two Masters degree students whose trajectory was very similar, but with the pulsional economy widely different. As a result of the two dossiers analysis, which put together all the drafts of the informants dissertations, it was possible to demonstrate two different pedagogical facets involved in the academic writing process: learning how to write and learning while writing. Learning how to write was the expression used in order to cover the necessary operations to include another person in the writing task, considering the meaning effects potentially raised by the text itself. It is, therefore, a change in the oral pulsion economy. Learning while writing is the possibility of using writing as a teaching device to learn a theory until it can be available on a subjective way to the reader. It is, therefore, a change in the anal pulsion economy. Observing the dissertation writing process of the two informants, I also analyzed the interventions made by the adviser, which provided some displacement of the student relationship with knowledge during the development journey. In such case, this study has shown that writing is a powerful device for teaching and sublimation. The one who decides to face this process will never be unharmed of the actions which language is going to perform in his/her body. I concluded, therefore, that the necessary condition in the researchers rule, in order to write and be graduated is guiding his/ her actions through responsibleness. (HANS JONAS, 2006).

Submitted by Fabio Sobreira Campos da Costa (fabio.sobreira@ufpe.br) on 2016-08-04T13:39:16Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) Dissertação 3.pdf: 2039878 bytes, checksum: df82cd19b9f43736fd390b56b791e7e7 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-04T13:39:16Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) Dissertação 3.pdf: 2039878 bytes, checksum: df82cd19b9f43736fd390b56b791e7e7 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-02-25 / FACEPE / Trata das relações entre pesquisadores especializados e os critérios de seleção de fontes de informações na internet. Objetiva em propor critérios atualizados para a avaliação e seleção de fontes de informações na internet para pesquisadores especializados na área de saúde. Para tanto, se delineiam os seguintes objetivos específicos: I) identificar, a partir de revisão bibliográfica, critérios de avaliação de fontes de informação disponíveis na internet voltados a pesquisadores; II) elaborar critérios de avaliação de fontes de informação baseados em literatura científica internacional; III) validar os critérios propostos a partir de questionários aplicados a pesquisadores do Instituto de Comunicação e Tecnologia em Saúde (ICICT) da Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz). A pesquisa é caracterizada como exploratória e metodológica, uma vez, que objetiva construir um percurso metodológico evidenciando critérios para avaliação da qualidade das fontes de informação para pesquisadores especializados. Como resultado constata-se que, os pesquisadores da saúde desconhecem critérios específicos para a avaliação de fontes e utilizam de suas experiências para avaliar informações recuperadas. / Deals with the relationship between expert researchers and the criteria for selection of information sources on the Internet. It aims to propose updated criteria for evaluation and selection of information sources on the Internet to specialized researchers in healthcare. Therefore, this dissertation has the following specific goals: I) identify, from literature review, information sources evaluation criteria available on the Internet aimed at researchers; II) develop criteria for evaluation of information sources based on international scientific literature; III) validate the criteria proposed from questionnaires given to researchers from the Institute of Communication and Technology in Health (ICICT) of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz). The research is characterized as exploratory and methodological, its goal was to build a methodological approach showing criteria for evaluation the quality of information sources for specialized researchers. As a result, it was observed that health researchers don‟t know specific criteria for assessing sources and use their experiences to evaluate information retrieved.

Context: Academic researchers publish their results of new and advanced scientific knowledge (often in close collaboration with industry) in academic journals and conferences. However, it is not know to what extent this information reaches the practitioners. So far this has not been investigated. This information will help researchers in the dissemination process of their research findings. Objectives: In this study we investigate which types of knowledge dissemination forums exist in software engineering, how frequent and aware they are to software practitioners and how useful they find it in improving their professional activities. Methods: We conducted a survey of software practitioners posted on LinkedIn, Yahoo, Facebook, Google+, Meetup and Google groups. The survey contained demographics information, seven types of forums for obtaining scientific knowledge and how important respondents felt these forums improve their professional activities. Results: The results of the survey indicate that Book Publishers, Blogs, Video Tutorial and Social Media are considerable forums of sharing new and advance scientific knowledge for software practitioners. Whilst, IT magazines, scientific journals and meetings are suggested to be less considered forums in gaining new and advanced scientific knowledge. Conclusions: We conclude that academic researchers could improve the exposure of their research findings by presenting their results not only in journals and meetings. But also in new forums where they can represent results in the form of videos, blogs or social media. This exposes their research findings to a larger audience of software practitioners. / C/O TALUKDER MAMUN SÄRLAGATAN 13B 214 48, MALMO. Phone: 0733499525

The present study investigates the information gathering behaviour of the academic researchers at Sultan Qaboos University in the Sultanate of Oman. It endeavours to explore researchers' awareness and attitudes towards information sources and services. Research methods for this study were designed from the user-centred perspective with triangulation approach. Hence, data was collected by the use of semistructured interviews as the main instrument with journal study and observation as supplementary tools. The information was collected from the members of the research community in their capacity as users of information. The study investigates the information needs and information gathering habits of the research community and attempts to identify the problems experienced by researchers in accessing and using information. It also seeks to explore the national policy for planning and provision of information. Finally the study examines the performance of the various information services in the context of user needs and the status of the institution library information service provision. The research concludes that present information environment at Sultan Qaboos University is inadequate to meet the information needs of the research community. It was found that the major causes for the situation was the lack of clear information policies, inadequate funding, ineffective partnership between top management and academic researchers, lack of effective in house training and finally absence of a reliable information technology infrastructure.