Abstract

This study aims to explore information seeking behavior of natural scientists when they are writing a research proposal for applying to funding. It focuses on understanding their information needs and information seeking behavior, and factors influencing the behavior. Based on the conceptual framework of task-based information seeking, qualitative research methods including in-depth interviews and diary study are used. The results reveal that a variety of communicative subtasks take place in the process of research proposal writing. Also, the scientists tend to need information related funding opportunities and to research design, and access sources including human resources, documents, online databases and websites to meet their information needs. Finally, the study shows that the scientists’ information seeking behavior when writing a proposal is influenced by personal, task-related, and sociocultural factors. This study will be helpful to design effective information services and strategies to assist science scholars applying to research funding.