The use of one-on-one interviews in library and information science: A scoping review

Abstract

Individual interviews are not commonly used in library and information science (LIS). A content analysis of research papers published between 2015 and 2020 in seven journals yielded 323 articles applying interviews. Selected papers, extracted from the Scopus database, were examined qualitatively and quantitatively to find the description of the type of interview, the use of additional research methods, the number of interviewees and the topics of the studies. Interviews appeared in 11% of the research papers, confirming previous studies. They are often combined with other methods, in particular surveys and observations. Half of the interviews were conducted with up to 15 participants. Individual interviews were used most frequently in studies of information behaviour (19% of the papers), librarians, information retrieval and web search. This study contributes to better understanding interviews as a LIS research method and may facilitate the planning of research projects.