Research Article:
The Power of Sharing Information

• Learn about ideas, trends, and information in areas other than their own.
• See whether their findings are consistent with other people's findings.
• Get a broader perspective on the research problem they are studying.
• Think of new ways to approach the research problem they are studying.
• Think of new questions to investigate.
• Refine or expand their interpretations of their data (i.e., improve their explanations for the results they are seeing).
• Understand how their research problem and their research findings fit into the "big picture."

Information sharing has many benefits. It is most beneficial, though, when it is done thoughtfully and purposefully. Consider these two examples:

Example 1. A researcher is studying how construction of a new road near a waterway might affect the waterway ecosystem. He talks about his research project with a radio talk-show host and with callers to the talk show. He gets ideas and opinions from the talk-show host and callers. Some of the callers criticize the idea of constructing a road near the waterway, saying that a lake near them became polluted and dangerous to swim in when an industrial complex was built on its shores.

Example 2. Another researcher studying the same issue thinks through what she wants to learn about the waterway, the waterway ecosystem, and the effects of road construction and traffic. She posts a note on the Internet describing her research, what questions she is trying to answer, what tools she is using to answer the question, and what types of data she is collecting. She also searches the Internet for people who have researched similar questions in other areas using similar tools and data types. She corresponds with several researchers to learn about their results and conclusions, and she compares her results with theirs. She also receives a variety of other feedback and opinions from additional people interested in her research project.

In both examples, the researchers share information and benefit from the input of others. Although the first researcher collects interesting opinions and anecdotes, he has no guarantee that the information he receives is relevant to his own research problem. The situation brought up by the callers (about the lake becoming polluted by an industrial complex) may be nothing like from his own situation. In contrast, the second researcher, by establishing a framework for systematically sharing and collecting relevant information, is taking better advantage of all the information available. She collects data and conclusions that she can meaningfully compare with her own to add to her understanding of the research problem. This helps her make a more meaningful and reliable judgment about the question she is investigating.

The computer age has made many types of information from many different sources readily available. Randomly collecting bits and pieces of this information is not very useful to researchers, however. To share information meaningfully, researchers need to make sure the data they share and collect are relevant and comparable. To do this, they establish a protocol, or generally agreed framework, for sharing information. This typically involves establishing criteria for the types of information they will share and collect, collecting the information, and then analyzing it (comparing other people's data with their own). After doing this, they are better able to make statements about their findings-to draw meaningful conclusions.

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Gene Carl Feldman (gene@seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov) (301) 286-9428
Todd Carlo Viola, JASON Foundation for Education (todd@jason.org)
Revised: 30 Oct 1995