What Are They Talking About? Exploring Doctoral Student Interactions in Unstructured Environments

Doctoral students face a lack of information early in their programs, creating an information need that may be addressed through peer interaction. While prior studies have looked at this interaction in structured environments, much less is known about unstructured ones. This paper reports on a study that explored peer interaction and information seeking and sharing of doctoral students in unstructured environments. Based on twenty semi‐structured interviews with social sciences and humanities students, it was found that information on academic, administrative, personal, social, and tips and tricks is exchanged among peers. The study underscores the importance of having access to unstructured environments (e.g., shared workspace) to satisfy the information needs of doctoral students.