Abstract

The present study aims to identify the most significant roles of the invisible web in improving academic research and the main obstacles and challenges facing the use of the invisible web in improving academic research from the perspective of academics in Saudi universities. The descriptive analytical approach was utilized in this study. It covered all faculty members in Saudi universities. It applied a 20-paragraph questionnaire to a randomly selected sample of 168 academics. It concluded that the participants agreed on the role of the invisible web in improving academic research, with an arithmetic means of 3.91. They also agreed on the obstacles of using invisible web for the improvement of academic research, with an arithmetic means of 4.107. The study provides ideas that would develop the use of the invisible web in higher education institutions in Saudi Arabia, in particular, and the Arab countries, in general. Furthermore, it is hoped that such results may provide decision-makers, educational designers and programmers with solutions for the development of research engines and academic databases in Arabic.

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