3.8. The use of information systems strategies for academic purposes
Regarding how a search engine is used, we found that only 32.6% use simple keywords, while 39.5% have never
used Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT), 48.4% have never used proximity operators (NEAR), and 44.6% have
never searched similar results. These results explain the fact that 20% of the PhD students felt very little satisfaction
with their search strategies, and 70.2% found difficulties in the use of information systems in general.
In this context, 50% of doctoral students claimed some useful research databases were password restricted, 21%
found difficulties in the formulation of their query, 22.1% found difficulties in filtering relevant information, 23%
claimed ignorance in foreign languages for academic research purposes, and finally 12% found serious difficulties in
using interfaces.