Digital technologies in the research process: Lessons from the digital research community in the UK

This paper reports on a qualitative study of the employment of digital tools, resources and services by social researchers in the UK and has a twofold aim. First, it presents the employment of digital means of research work from the stage of designing the research through to data collection and dissemination of the research results. Second, it assesses the complexity and multiplicity of digital tools, resources and services used in research as well as the complexity and range of such usage, also providing explanations as to why researchers in different disciplines use in different ways and for different purposes digital technologies of various ranges and degrees of complexity. The paper concludes that there are certain commonalities and differences in researchers' practices with digital technologies and that such practices are largely driven by researchers' expertise combined with associated disciplinary traditions and etiquette.