Bandung, 2025 — Students and lecturers from the Library and Information Science Study Program, Faculty of Communication Sciences, Padjadjaran University, namely Yonna Ananda, Edwin Rizal, and Asep Saeful Rohman, mapped the development of research on information needs published in Scopus during the period 2014–2024. This study used a bibliometric approach with the help of VOSviewer software.
This study analyzed 3,941 English-language articles. The results show that the number of publications continued to increase until it peaked in 2021, then declined thereafter. This decline is thought to be related to a shift in research focus and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. The journal Library Philosophy and Practice was recorded as the one that published the most articles on this topic, confirming its role in global academic discourse.
The study found that research on information needs often focused on information-seeking behavior, information literacy, and decision-making. Keyword analysis with VOSviewer revealed strong links between information needs, technology, and human behavior. Meanwhile, co-authorship analysis demonstrated active collaborations among researchers from different countries and institutions.
Researchers concluded that information needs are a multidimensional topic relevant to various fields of science. However, there is still room for new research, for example in the fields of health information literacy, tourism, and the information needs of specific groups such as people with autism and farmers. This research also supports the achievement of SDG 4 (Quality Education) and SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure) by promoting information literacy and strengthening research collaboration.
Full article available at: http://media.unpad.ac.id/files/publikasi/2025/rpm_20250204111836_9901.pdf
Writer: Ridha Amalia, Nadziva Shaqeena Firdaus, Shelpi Nur Awaliyah
