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Principal component analysis to obtain reduced indicators of measurement in information search

Abstract:

The purpose of the research was to verify the applicability of principal component analysis to measure information search competence. A correlational-descriptive quantitative study was conducted based on the eight indicators of information search competence contained in the IL-HUMASS questionnaire, all of which were included in a survey applied to 300 students attending the first four academic levels of Health Sciences majors at the Technical University of Manabí. Data processing with the statistical software SPSS yielded three principal components: the first one comprised four indicators related to advanced search in databases using terms from the specialty, the second grouped two indicators concerning the use of automated catalogs and printed sources of information, and the third included two indicators regarding electronic sources of information (primary and informal). Eventual ANOVA testing of these components revealed statistically significant differences in each component for the various majors. Post-hoc analysis with the least significant difference method facilitated identification of the statistically different groups in each component. Conclusions point to the feasibility of using this multivariant technique to conduct similar studies with many variables and a large number of samples.