Knowledge Retrieval and Semantic Systems

Abstract Purpose: The advancement of information and communication technologies and the capabilities of modern software have fundamentally expanded the use of various communication media across dimensions of form, time, and space, and have transformed the concepts of literacy, reading, and study. Among the major impacts of these technologies is the change in the nature of information resources from production to application. This study aimed to identify the evaluation criteria of Iranian e-reader software.
Methods: This applied and descriptive research employed a documentary method and the Delphi technique. The statistical population consisted of 30 experts and faculty members. Ten of the most widely used Iranian e-reader applications—identified based on the number of downloads on Google Play—were examined. Data were collected through a two-stage questionnaire. In the first stage, 115 evaluation criteria were presented as items to the Delphi panel. Following expert feedback, 82 criteria were approved and then re-distributed among the panel members in the second round. Data analysis was conducted using principal component analysis and chi-square tests in SPSS version 26.
Findings: The results revealed significant shortcomings across all examined components of Iranian e-reader software. These deficiencies highlight the necessity of developing strategies to enhance features and functionalities, improve accessibility, and foster user engagement and distinctive competencies.
Conclusion: The findings indicate that Iranian e-reader software faces critical challenges in all evaluation criteria. Sustainable improvement requires reliance on standardized evaluation measures. Implementing strategies for capability development, accessibility enhancement, and creating distinctive and engaging features is essential to meet user needs.

Abstract 1. Introduction
It seems that the type of information-seeking behavior of students can be effective in their learning of foreign languages because, according to the researchers' experience, many students believe that the only way to succeed in the English language course is to use the guidebook as the only source of information. Others go further and look for the meaning of words with the help of printed or electronic dictionaries. This is while they leave other useful information sources unused. Several educational factors, such as the lack of information-seeking behavior training by professors and psychological-individual factors such as the type of people's thinking levels and reflective thinking can affect this behavior. Considering that so far no study has been conducted on the simultaneous examination of reflective thinking and information-seeking behavior in the fields of medical sciences in the country, and taking into consideration the relationship between information-seeking behavior and reflective thinking, it is possible that high levels of reflective thinking, which is also problem-oriented, can improve the information-seeking behavior of students of the field of medical sciences. With such an approach, the purpose of this research was to predict information-seeking behavior based on the reflective thinking of medical science students in ESP courses.

Research Question (s)

Considering the theoretical background, three questions are formulated:

What level of information-seeking behavior do medical science students have in ESP courses?
What level of reflective thinking do medical science students have?
Is reflective thinking of medical science students a predictor of their information-seeking behavior in ESP courses?


2. Literature Review

As the researchers investigated, no study was found that directly deals with the relationship between reflective thinking and information-seeking behavior in ESP courses in the field of medical sciences. However, in recent decades, studies have been conducted on reflective thinking and information-seeking behavior inside and outside the country, which are aligned with some of the components of the current research. The results of Hariri and Bagherinejad (2012) showed that there was no significant relationship between critical thinking and voluntary Internet search in the research community. Also, the study by Kerman Saravi, Navabi Rigi and Ebrahimy Tabas (2012) revealed that the average critical thinking ability of first-year, fourth-year nursing students and clinical nurses indicated that critical thinking ability was weak in all three studied groups. Rezaei et al. (2014) showed that the average scores of critical thinking of all students were weak. The research of Ghaebi and Amiri Pari (2015) showed that there is no significant relationship between critical thinking skills and students' information-seeking behavior on the web, and the level of critical thinking of students in colleges is the same, but their information-seeking behavior is different. Kavaroie, Momeni and Haji Zynolabedini (2016) showed that there is a positive and significant relationship between metacognitive strategies and the information-seeking behavior of faculty members. Tahmasebi Limoni and Ghiasi (2013) reported that there is a difference between the critical thinking of faculty members and the search for behavior; there was no significant relationship between their information. The study by Haghparast et al. (2016) again concluded that most graduate students had a score below and equal to the average level, and there was a relationship between some sub-components of critical thinking and information-seeking behavior.

3.Methodology

The present research method was a survey type in terms of the practical purpose. The statistical population of the research consists of 377 students of Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences and the Faculty of Medical Sciences of Islamic Azad University of Kermanshah, who have completed or were in the process of completing the ESP course. The data collection tool was done by using two questionnaires, including reflective thinking (Kember et al.,2000). The questionnaire has 16 items and 4 components, which include normal action, including four items, comprehension component with four items, reflection component with four items and critical thinking component with four items. This scale can assess reflective thinking in an ESP course. The second information-seeking behavior questionnaire was developed by the researchers. The researcher-made information-seeking behavior questionnaire with 16 items was general, which examines how people behave when searching for information in ESP courses. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used to determine the reliability of the questionnaires. The results of this test for the reflective thinking questionnaire were 0.864, and the information-seeking behavior questionnaire was 0.623. Data analysis was done using the sign test, and multiple regression using SPSS 23 software.

4. Results

The first question of the research inquired the level of information-seeking behavior of the ESP students. The results of the sign test showed that the average information-seeking behavior in general was 2.64. Comparing the score of information-seeking behavior with the average index (3) shows its significance. The z-score of the information-seeking behavior variable is equal to -144.18, which, according to its significance level (sig.= 0.000), indicates that the difference between the averages is statistically significant. Therefore, the first hypothesis of the study was accepted.
The second research question explored the level of reflective thinking of the ESP students. The results of the sign test showed that the average level of reflective thinking in general was 2.84. Comparing the reflective thinking level score with the average index (3) shows its significance. The z-score of the information-seeking behavior variable is equal to -5.585, which, according to its significance level (sig.= 0.000), indicates that the difference between the averages is statistically significant. Therefore, the second hypothesis was accepted.
The third research question investigated whether the reflective thinking of medical science students predicts their information-seeking behavior in ESP courses. The results of the multiple regression test showed that the obtained R-value is equal to 0.561. The R2 coefficient shows that this variable was able to explain approximately 31% of the variance of information-seeking behavior. The standardized beta coefficient indicates that the habit variable (β=-0.246), understanding variable (β=0.283), reflection variable (β=0.262), and critical reflection variable (β=0.136) explain the changes related to information seeking behavior by 0.24, 0.28, 0.26, and 0.13 percentage respectively. In addition, the results of the correlation coefficients showed that the habit variable as a predictor variable explains 7.07%, understanding 1.41%, reflection 1.18%, and critical reflection 2.25% of the variance of information5.
 

5. Conclusion

The results of the present study indicated that ESP students have a low level of reflective thinking and also the findings showed that reflective thinking is able to predict students' information seeking skill in ESP courses. It is very important to pay attention to high levels of thinking in medical students. This importance in the ESP course is double due to the necessity of learning foreign languages for these students. Furthermore, the information-seeking behavior of ESP students will be beneficial if they use reflective thinking more. Accordingly, it seems essential that policymakers and curriculum planners pay special attention to the further promotion of critical thinking and its role in ESP students' information-seeking behavior in ESP courses

Abstract Introduction
In recent years, the development and digitization of various government sectors and the necessity for smartening processes have garnered significant attention. These transformations have led to the evolution of smart government as a subsequent step to e-government, mobile government, or open government. One of the components that holds great importance in smart government is the utilization of modern metadata standards. Data management standards in smart government are deemed essential to ensure stability, interoperability, and security within digital government systems and services. One of these standards is the Government Information Locator Service (GILS), the applicability of which in smart government has been examined.
Research Question(s)
In this research, the following questions were considered:
- What are the main components of smart government?
- What elements and layers do the Government Information Locator Service (GILS) have?
- What is the applicability of the Government Information Locator Service (GILS) in smart government?

Literature Review

Many studies have been conducted regarding GILS, each examining various aspects of this standard. Notable works include those by Kalantari and Shahpari (2016); Karimi Isfahani and Khani (2022); Torabzadeh and Poureisa (2022); Irhamni et al. (2015); Pasek (2017); Guo et al. (2017); Battista et al. (2017); Kaplan and Gunter (2020); and Andrews and Duhon (2021). For instance, in their research, Torabzadeh and Poureisa (2022) examined the role of the National Information Exchange Model in smart government. Likewise, Anders and Duhon 2021) focused on the integration of location-based public information services with new data from the U.S. government in their study.

Methodology

This research is applied in nature and was conducted using qualitative content analysis. The statistical population of this study consisted of the components of smart government and the elements of location-based public information services. For gathering the necessary data, both documentary and observational methods were utilized. In the documentary method, relevant research and documents were reviewed to identify the components of smart government. By consulting reliable citation and information databases such as Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar, ScienceDirect, the Iranian Scientific Journals database (Magiran), and searching for keywords like smart government, government modernization, smart government components, innovation, digitization, smart city, and others, combined with Boolean operators, relevant studies were identified. Initially, 178 articles were identified. After filtering the identified research, removing duplicates, and applying inclusion and exclusion criteria (such as the relevance of the article's subject, eliminating non-research sources, reviewing article abstracts, etc.), suitable sources for extracting the components of smart government were identified, resulting in 43 articles being analyzed. In the observational phase, by examining various sections and components of GILS, the main and detailed elements of this standard were identified. Subsequently, using a checklist tool, the alignment between the elements of GILS and the components of smart government was established.

Results

The findings of this research showed that the main components of the smart government are grouped into 18 axes with 75 partial components. To create a smart government, components such as information technology, cyber security, transparency and access, digital identity, privacy and data security, interoperability, ethical and legal considerations, appropriate policy, technical infrastructure, and digital empowerment have been proposed. The elements used in the GILS standard are placed in eight general categories, which are: simple description elements, subject description elements, URIs, resource formats and technical features, administrative details, administrative metadata, source/reference, and access/copyright conditions. Each of these categories consists of several main and sub-elements. Also, the findings of the research revealed that the Government Information Locator Service can be used in the development of a smart government in various dimensions. One of the strengths of this standard, which increases its functionality in the smart government, is the use of appropriate descriptive and management metadata to access government data. Determining and describing the required metadata (such as the title, creator, format, data type, etc.), using metadata, storing metadata, managing and maintaining metadata, and determining access and permissions are among the most important applications of the Government Information Locator Service in the smart government. Since registering appropriate metadata and facilitating access to information needed by citizens is one of the main components of a smart government, the government information service finder can play a significant role in data management and identification of related data and their protection.

Discussion

The findings of this research indicated that GILS has a high functionality in data management, and metadata management, employing uniform methods for metadata registration, enabling access to necessary data, maintaining privacy and data security, as well as ensuring data transparency. On the other hand, the research findings revealed that GILS, by increasing transparency and facilitating easier access to government information, can enhance the communication between the government and citizens and build public trust in smart systems. The GILS standard plays a significant role in improving access to government data. Furthermore, the findings of this study highlighted that privacy is a crucial aspect of GILS; one of the objectives of this standard is to protect individuals' privacy and safeguard personal information. Under this standard, governments are required to provide access to public and governmental information while paying special attention to individuals' privacy. Authentication is another vital factor in GILS. It involves verifying the identity and credentials of an individual or organization seeking access to government data or information. This is crucial because ensuring that the individual or organization in question is authorized to access government information holds high importance.

Conclusion

Overall, it can be stated that the structuring of government processes through the use of metadata standards can facilitate and expedite the development of smart government. The findings of this research indicated that providing efficient technological infrastructure and establishing appropriate information systems for government communications and service delivery to citizens, as well as developing security systems to protect sensitive governmental data and information, are among the essential requirements of a smart government. This is because a smart government needs a strong digital infrastructure to support online service delivery, data management, and communication with citizens. Another component of a smart government is transparency and access to information. To this end, creating systems to enhance transparency and ensure easy access to government information for citizens and the media, along with providing online services, plays a significant role in smart governance.