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Ways to understand this new behaviour can be broken down into three aspects, also referred to as the three M\u2019s \u2013 the modalities (sources and strategies) that people use when asking their questions online, their motivations behind asking these questions and choosing specific services, and the types and quality of the materials (content) generated in such an online Q&amp;A environment. This article will provide a new framework \u2013 three M\u2019s \u2013 based on the synthesis of relevant literature. It will then identify some of the gaps in our knowledge about online Q&amp;A based on this framework. These gaps will be transformed into six research questions, stemming from the three M\u2019s, and addressed by (a) consolidating and synthesizing findings previously reported in the literature, (b) conducting new analyses of data used in prior work, and (c) administering a new study to answer questions unaddressed by the pre-existing and new analyses of prior work.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1177\/0165551514534140","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2014,5,20]],"date-time":"2014-05-20T03:20:19Z","timestamp":1400556019000},"page":"669-687","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/sage-journals-update-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":27,"title":["Modalities, motivations, and materials \u2013 investigating traditional and social online Q&amp;A services"],"prefix":"10.1177","volume":"40","author":[{"given":"Chirag","family":"Shah","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Rutgers University, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Vanessa","family":"Kitzie","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Rutgers University, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Erik","family":"Choi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Rutgers University, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"179","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2014,5,19]]},"reference":[{"key":"bibr1-0165551514534140","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-031-02273-9","volume-title":"Information concepts: From books to cyberspace identities","author":"Marchionini G","year":"2010"},{"key":"bibr2-0165551514534140","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1002\/asi.21562"},{"key":"bibr3-0165551514534140","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Shah C. 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