Design and evaluation of a mobile application for educational purposes and facilitating scientific literature search for students and researchers

Abstract

Background

One of the needs of students and researchers is access to databases and up-to-date knowledge. Given the lack of knowledge of students in using databases and various limitations (lack of access, economic, sanctions, internet, etc.), and the spread of mobile phone use, this study aimed to design and evaluate a mobile application for offline searching of articles and journals in the field of medical sciences.

Methods

In this study, First, a checklist of important items was prepared using a review of the literature and was given to 24 experts (Medical library and information sciences, Health information management) and 16 students for validation. Based on this, scientific articles from the universities of medical sciences in Isfahan, Kashan, Shahrekord, and Yazd were collected from Web of Science, Scopus, and PubMed databases, and the application was designed. Finally, the usability of the application was evaluated using the QUIS questionnaire.

Results

According to the participants, a total of 14 items for articles(Article Title, Author Full Name, Abstract, Keywords, Publication Date, Volume, Issue, Start Page, End Page, Type, Journal Name, etc.), 16 items for journals(Journal Title, ISSN, Subject Categories, Publisher/Holder, etc.), and 10 items for technical capabilities (search of Title, abstract, keyword, etc.)were considered necessary. The overall results of the usability evaluation were reported as “good” in all groups of faculty (7.57) ,students(6.94) and librarians (6.8) ,. Only librarians at TehranUniversity of Medical Sciences rated the application as “average” in the “Terminology and System Information” Sect. (6 ± 1.77).

Conclusions

The mobile application improves the education and access of researchers to articles and journals. Given the advantages of the application, its use leads to greater satisfaction among users.