Dr Sophie Rutter

BA (SOAS, London), MSc (91直播), PhD (91直播), SFHEA

Information School

Senior Lecturer in Information Management

Sophie Rutter
Sophie Rutter
Profile picture of Sophie Rutter
s.rutter@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 2659

Full contact details

Dr Sophie Rutter
Information School
Room C223
The Wave
2 Whitham Road
91直播
S10 2AH
Profile

I joined the Information School at 91直播 in March 2019. I am currently researching hand hygiene at work for both office workers and those who work on the move. I am also working on a project that aims to create an agenda for embedding equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in usability testing. Previously as a research fellow in communication design at the University of Leeds (2018-2019), I worked with children on a co-design project to transform school toilets and motivate hand hygiene.

My PhD (91直播, 2017) focused on children鈥檚 use of search technologies and the influence of the school environment.  I continue to be interested in using naturalistic methods with children and other user groups.

Prior to academia, I worked in industry for several years as the web and communications manager for the Port of London Authority (2001-2006), a project manager for Futura Interactive (2000-2001), and as an online publication coordinator for Donovan Data Systems (1993-1999).

University Responsibilities

  • Deputy Programme Coordinator for MSc Information Management
  • Module Coordinator for INF6060 Information Retrieval: Search Engines and Digital Libraries
Research interests

I am the principal investigator on the project. This project currently has two strands.  Strand one, in collaboration with the University of Leeds and Savortex (an SME specialising in hand hygiene technology), aims to understand how organisations and their employees perceive hand hygiene within the workplace. Strand two investigates the everyday experiences of  mobile workers' access to facilities as part of their work.

I am the principal investigator on the project. This project aims to create an agenda that embeds EDI in usability testing.

I am also interested in how the environment influences the way people interact with information, what techniques people use to search for information, and how information use can be evaluated in different environments. My research so far has been broadly focused on school children, workplace settings, search interfaces and health communication.

I am interested in supervising PhD projects in the following areas

  • Hand hygiene and more broadly health communication
  • Information seeking behaviour 
  • Human Computer Interaction (HCI) studies 
  • Inclusive user research
Publications

Journal articles

  • Greyson D, Lundy M, Rutter S & Walugembe D (2024) . Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 61(1), 758-761. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Rutter S, Zamani E, McKenna-Aspell J & Wang Y (2024) . International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 188. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Rutter S, Madden A & White L (2023) . BMC Public Health. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Stones C, Ai W, Rutter S & Madden A (2023) . Health Environments Research & Design Journal. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Madden AD, Rutter S, Stones C & Ai W (2022) . International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(15). RIS download Bibtex download
  • Rutter S, Stones C, Wood J, Macduff C & Gomez-Escalada M (2020) . International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(7). RIS download Bibtex download
  • Stones CM, Stark J, Rutter S & Macduff C (2020) . Visual Communication. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Rutter S, Toms E & Clough P (2019) . Journal of Documentation, 75(6), 1370-1395. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Cox AM, Pinfield S & Rutter S (2019) . Library Hi Tech, 37(3), 418-435. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Cox A, Pinfield S & Rutter S (2019) . Portal: Libraries and the Academy, 19(3), 485-509. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Rutter S, Macduff C, Stones C & Gomez-Escalada M (2019) . International Journal of Environmental Health Research. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Cox AM, Pinfield S & Rutter S (2019) . Library Management, 40(5), 313-326. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Rutter S, Blinzler V, Ye C, Wilson ML & Twidale MD (2019) . Information Processing & Management, 56(3), 919-938. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Rutter S, Stones C & MacDuff C (2019) . Health Communication. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Rutter S, Clough PD & Toms E (2019) Using classroom talk to understand children鈥檚 search processes for tasks with different goals. Information Research, 24(1). RIS download Bibtex download
  • Rutter S, Clough PD & Toms E (2018) . Journal of Documentation. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Wakeling S, Rutter S, Birdi B & Pinfield S (2018) . Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 50(2), 168-185. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Rutter S, Ford N & Clough P (2015) How do children reformulate their search queries?. INFORMATION RESEARCH-AN INTERNATIONAL ELECTRONIC JOURNAL, 20(1). RIS download Bibtex download
  • Rutter S & Needham C () Where can care workers go to the toilet? The right to working conditions that 鈥渞espect health, safety and dignity鈥. Perspectives in Public Health. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Rutter S, Sanger S, Madden A, Sukaina E & Stones C () Office workers鈥 views on the uses, concerns and acceptance of hand hygiene data collected from smart sanitisers: an exploratory qualitative interview study. JMIR Formative Research. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Stones C, Ai W, Rutter S & Madden A () . Design for Health, 1-19. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Rutter S, Bonne M, Stones C & Macduff C () Using FaceReader to explore the potential for harnessing emotional reactions to motivate hand hygiene. Journal of Infection Prevention. RIS download Bibtex download

Conference proceedings papers

  • Madden A, Rutter S & White L (2022) . Information Science Trends 2022: Untold Stories RIS download Bibtex download
  • McKenna-Aspell J, Wang Y, Rutter S & Zamani E (2022) . Information Science Trends 2022: Untold Stories RIS download Bibtex download
  • Figueiredo V, Meyers EM, Bilal D, Rutter S & Magee RM (2021) . Wiley RIS download Bibtex download
  • Hopfgartner F, Harvey M, Rutter S, Mazumdar S, Cameron D, Checco A, Bentley C, Zhang Z & Clough P (2021) . Information Science Trends - ASIS&T European Chapter Series, 9 June 2021 - 11 June 2021. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Rutter S, Blinzler V, Ye C, Twidale MB & Wilson ML (2017) Complex search task: How to make a phone safe for a child. CEUR Workshop Proceedings, Vol. 1798 (pp 34-36) RIS download Bibtex download
  • Rutter S (2014) . Proceedings of the 5th Information Interaction in Context Symposium on - IIiX '14, 26 August 2014 - 30 August 2014. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Hall M, Villa R, Rutter SA, Bell D, Clough P & Toms E (2013) Shefleld submission to the CHiC interactive task: Exploring digital cultural heritage. CEUR Workshop Proceedings, Vol. 1179 RIS download Bibtex download
  • Villa R, Clough P, Hall M & Rutter S (2013) Search or browse? Casual information access to a cultural heritage collection. CEUR Workshop Proceedings, Vol. 1033 (pp 19-22) RIS download Bibtex download
  • Harvey M, Fallatah K & Rutter S () Health information post-encountering behaviours on social media platforms. Information Research. Aalborg, Denmark, 26 August 2024 - 26 August 2024. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Batool SH, Bullard J, Campbell-Meier J, Fourie I, Jimenez A & Rutter S () Global perspectives on inclusive curricula: places, practices and pedagogy. 2023 ASIS&T Annual Meeting. London, UK, 27 October 2023 - 27 October 2023. RIS download Bibtex download

Reports

  • Pinfield S, Cox A & Rutter S (2017) Mapping the future of academic libraries: A report for SCONUL RIS download Bibtex download
  • Birdi B, Pinfield S, Wakeling S & Rutter S (2015) Investigating interlending: a scoping study of resource discovery, sharing and cooperation RIS download Bibtex download

Preprints

  • Rutter S, Sanger S, Madden AD, Ehdeed S & Stones C (2023) , JMIR Publications Inc.. RIS download Bibtex download
  • McKenna-Aspell J, Rutter S, Wang Y & Zamani ED () . RIS download Bibtex download
Research group

I am a member of the Information Retrieval research group.

Current PhD students

Fahad ALenezi

Khalid Fallatah

Juan Manuel Becerril del Toro

Grants

 Embedding Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in Usability Testing

Research England QR-Policy Support Funding

Principal Investigator

拢5,014

1 Jan 2022

3 months

Hand hygiene for mobile workers: developing and disseminating evidence-based policy to support covid recovery

Research England Covid Recovery Fund and Research England QR-Policy Support Funding

Principal Investigator

拢35,608

1 Jan 2022

7 months

Workplace smart sanitiser guidance: dissemination and impact

ESRC HEIF / IAA

Principal Investigator

拢9,272

19 Jul 2021

12 months

 Smart sanitisation: Development and evaluation of a smart hand sanitiser system for use in the office environment

Innovate UK

Principal Investigator

拢109,060

1 Dec 2020

15 months

 Awarded 拢109,060 from Innovate UK as part of a 拢570,562 funded project in collaboration with Savortex (SME) and University of Leeds. The project is to develop and evaluate a smart (IoT) hand sanitiser system for use in the office environment.

Teaching activities

INF6060 - Information Retrieval

INF6031 - Public and Youth Library Services

INF6031 - Public and Youth Library Services DL

INF6060 - Information Retrieval: Search Engines and Digital Libraries 

INF6000/6555 - Dissertation 

INF6430 - User-Centred Design and Human-Computer Interaction

Professional activities and memberships

Membership of professional bodies

  • Senior Fellow of the HEA

Committee and advisory group membership

  • Chair (2022-2023) / Past Chair (2023-2024), ASIS&T European Chapter
  • Advisory board member,  123

Journal and conference reviewing

  • Journal of Documentation
  • CHI (Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems)
  • Health care
  • Environmental Health Insights
  • iFutures
  • International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
  • Journal of Information Management
  • Library and Information Research
  • Online Information Review
  • Pakistan Journal of Information Management & Libraries

Invited presentations

  • Rutter, S. (2021). Communicating and evaluating health messages during a pandemic. Keynote. Information Science Trends - ASIS&T European Chapter Series.
  • Rutter, S. (2021). Trialling a novel evaluation method to pre-test hand hygiene messages. Cap Gemini.