In this study, pathfinder network analysis has been carried out to identify subject domains of documents which cited articles in the ASIST Proceedings. This represents how articles in the ASIST Proceedings are flowed and used in what subjects areas. For this analysis, 240 documents were selected through a search of the Scopus database. The complete linkage clustering method was used to draw out 16 clusters from 240 documents. Through MDS and pathfinder network analysis, knowledge networks of clusters have been produced. As a result, articles in the ASIST Proceedings relating to knowledge management, bibliometrics, information retrieval and digital libraries have been cited actively by other publications. The most frequent citation flow type of ASIST proceedings was citation from proceedings(ASIST) to reviews(ARIST), via journals, and the most popular subject areas related to documents were bibliometrics.
In this study, we investigated the information users' needs and information seeking behavior in the field of science and technology. We found that the science and technology researchers most frequently needed information while conducting the research & development related tasks and drafting research papers. The researchers attributed the main sources of research ideas to be the communication among colleagues and the literature review. The researchers's most preferred information sources were digital libraries, web search engines, and academic information portal. In conclusion, the science and technology researchers regarded the online use of electronic materials as the primary source of information. We hope that this investigation reported herein to be the foundation for developing user-centered information services for the science and technology discipline.