The Use of the Internet by Master's Students as an Information Source for Scientific Research and the Achieved Intellectual and Scientific Gratifications

Abstract

This study aimed to explore the use of the internet by master's students as a source of information for scientific
research. It examined the use of electronic research sources and information available online, investigated the
motivations behind such use, and identified the advantages and disadvantages of the internet as an information
source for scientific research. Additionally, the study sought to understand the most significant intellectual and
scientific gratifications achieved through this usage. The study employed the media survey method, which aligns
with the descriptive nature of the research and is best suited to answer its questions. Field data were collected
through a questionnaire distributed to a purposive random sample of master's students enrolled in the College
of Arts at King Faisal University, comprising 135 participants. The study reached several findings, the most
notable of which are: E-books and electronic references rank first among the electronic sources of information
on the internet used by master's students for scientific research- Google is the most frequently used search engine
by master's students to find information for their research-The motivations for using the internet as an
information source in scientific research align with the intellectual and scientific gratifications achieved