Previous Contents Next
Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship
Spring 2018
DOI:10.5062/F4668BF1
[Refereed]

Citation Analysis of Ph.D. Theses at Faculty of Science, University of Ibadan, Nigeria

Malik Oyewale Salami
Computer Craft Department
Government Technical College
Oyo, Nigeria
salamimalik@gmail.com

Wole Michael Olatokun
Professor
Africa Regional Centre for Information Science
University of Ibadan
Ibadan, Nigeria
woleabbeyolatokun@yahoo.co.uk

Abstract

The authors analyzed 21,005 citations from 124 Ph.D. theses submitted to ten departments in the Faculty of Science, University of Ibadan, in Nigeria, during the period 2006 to 2013. The overall analysis of the cited information sources revealed that journals (67.6%) were the most cited sources, followed by books/monographs (13.6%), and conference papers (2.6%). The cited journals were predominantly non-Nigerian journals. This study also analyzed and compared the characteristics and variations of the cited literature across the ten departments. In addition, evaluation of the availability of cited journals in the University Library showed that the library is deficient in providing adequate journals for students' scholarship and research.

Introduction

The University of Ibadan, Nigeria's premier university, was founded in 1948 as the University College Ibadan. The Kenneth Dike Library (KDL), the University's main library, has responsibility for providing information resources in support of its teaching and research mandates. This study analyzed the citations in doctoral theses submitted to the Faculty of Science, during the eight-year period 2006-2013, to address the following specific questions:

This study identifies the literature needs of doctoral students and the core list of journals in the University of Ibadan's science disciplines. In addition, the outcome of the study, in line with other methods mentioned by Haycock (2004), such as interlibrary loan studies, cost-per-use, review of core lists, circulation and shelving data, among others, will provide supporting documentation that will aid librarians in Nigerian university libraries in making collection development decisions.

Literature Review

One of the earliest citation studies was carried out by Gross and Gross (1927), who analyzed citations of scientific papers from the Journal of the American Chemical Society to develop a core list of journals for library collections. The development of the Science Citation Index (SCI) by Eugene Garfield and the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) decades later provided powerful database tools that are frequently used in the studies of scholarly communication systems and in research evaluation.

Zipp (1996) used theses and dissertations to demonstrate how students' research interests reflected that of their faculty advisors, which could be used to develop core lists of journals for local users. Williams and Fletcher (2006) adopted citation analysis to investigate the materials used by graduate students at Mississippi State University in multiple engineering disciplines to identify faculty research interests and to guide library collection development. Eckel (2009) studied citations in engineering and applied sciences master's theses and Ph.D. dissertations at Western Michigan University and hypothesized that an increase in graduate student research competence between the master's and doctoral levels can be seen in their use of scholarly sources.

Gao et al. (2009) analyzed 10,222 citations in 56 Ph.D. theses in Library and Information Science, Biology, Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, and Stomatology at Wuhan University in China. The study revealed that the 20 most frequently cited journals across all departments at the institution were predominantly in the English language, and suggested that the university library should acquire periodicals published in English so that limited funds would be spent wisely.

Kumar and Dora's (2011) citation analysis applied Bradford's law to the list of ranked journals analyzed from the 6,462 citations from 49 doctoral dissertations at Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, from 2004 to 2009. The study helped to identify the needs of the Ph.D. students and their pattern of utilization of journals in the library.

Fransen (2012) used citations in engineering and computer science dissertations and theses that were submitted over a three-year period at the University of Minnesota to determine what new graduate students needed to know about the literature in their fields in order to provide more effective instruction and service to graduate students. The author found that the literature type differs between engineering researchers and computer scientists: Aerospace Engineering & Mechanics (AEM) and Electrical & Computer Engineering (ECE) students cited mostly journals, while conference papers were most cited in Computer Science. The study also revealed that computer scientists cited more literature from non-science disciplines than students in AEM and ECE.

Gohain and Saikia (2014) studied the citations from 30 Ph.D. theses in the Department of Chemical Sciences during 2008-2012 at Tezpur University, Assam, in India to investigate authorship patterns of the citations, type and form of literature cited, and compiled a ranked list of core journals in chemical sciences. Findings showed that journals were the most frequent sources of information used by researchers in chemical sciences.

In the Nigerian context, several studies have been undertaken on citation analysis of students' undergraduate projects, master's dissertations, and doctoral theses to assist librarians in identifying students' research interests and information needs and provide guidance in selection of journal titles for local library collection development. Okiy (2003) conducted a citation analysis on 70 postgraduate dissertations in education written at Delta State University from 1992 to 2002 to determine the extent to which their library collection met postgraduate students' research needs. This study showed that the postgraduate students' citations of textbooks and journals were 60.3% and 24.5%, respectively.

Nikko and Adetoro (2007) evaluated Covenant University's library collection by analyzing the citations of 724 bachelor degree research projects from 16 academic programs in the colleges of Business and Social Sciences, Human Development, and Science and Technology. The study found that more than half of the 14,655 total citations were to textbooks (53.3%), followed by journals (25.1%), and internet resources (7.7%).

Similarly, Olatokun and Makinde's (2009) citation analysis identified citation patterns of doctoral students in the Department of Animal Science, University of Ibadan, between 2000 and 2007, and identified core journals. This study also indicated that journals accounted for nearly 60% of total citations, followed by books (18.09%) and Internet resources (0.34%). Fasae (2012) found similar results in an analysis of 4,227 citations from 52 master's and 16 doctoral theses in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension, Federal University of Technology Akure. Interestingly, seven Nigerian journals were among the 20 most cited journals.

Iroaganachi et al. (2014) collected 80,097 citations from 2,044 undergraduate projects written by social science students between 2009 and 2013. Findings from their study showed that the bulk of materials consulted and cited were books (69.4%), followed by journals (16%), Internet resources (8%).

Recently, Anyaegbu (2016) analyzed over 33,440 citations from 570 law undergraduate students' research projects from four southeastern universities: Anambra State University, Enugu State University of Technology, Nnamdi Azikiwe University and University of Nigeria Nsukka. This study revealed that law students heavily cited law reports, textbooks, and statutes, which constituted 95% of the citations in contrast to journals (1.82%).

The findings from previous studies confirmed that citation analysis is a well-known evaluation technique for identifying citation patterns, identifying core journals in various fields, characterizing information sources, research patterns, research group cooperation, and national research profiles (Shama et al. 2000; Fransen 2012; Iroaganachi et al. 2014). This study will also provide guidance on making collection decisions as well as a basis for conversations with faculty (Haycock 2004; Gao et al. 2009; Kumar & Dora 2011).

Methods

The authors collated a list of 150 doctoral students who graduated from the Faculty of Science from 2006-2013. Out of the 150 copies of theses requested from the library for analysis, 124 were available from the university library; others were yet to be submitted to the library by the institution's Postgraduate School. The breakdown of the theses in each department is shown in Table 1.

Table 1: Summary of theses and citations from departments

Majors Number of theses Number of total citations Median number of citations Highest number of citations Lowest number of citations

Archaeology and Anthropology

3

407

163.0

178

66

Botany and Microbiology

22

4214

187.5

348

84

Chemistry

36

7087

196.5

349

55

Computer Science

3

329

134.0

143

52

Geography

4

1240

273.5

517

176

Geology

12

1584

117.5

192

56

Mathematics

3

303

99.0

122

82

Physics

9

564

62.0

119

40

Statistics

17

1387

67.0

135

55

Zoology

15

3890

252.0

435

146

Total

124

21,005

    

Data extracted from the theses were tabulated in MS Excel: theses' author-name, departments, year of graduation, with each of the theses assigned a unique identifier. Other worksheets were used to capture all citations in each of the theses. Each of the worksheets captured the format of cited works: journal, book/monograph, conference paper, web site, thesis/dissertation, government document, technical report and standard, and other publications (Williams & Fletcher 2006; Olatokun & Makinde 2009). Other types of publications included magazines, newspapers, manuals, software, audio/video tapes, handbooks, patents, product literature, unpublished materials, e-mails, letters, symposia, workshops, term papers and unclassified sources. If the cited reference was to a journal, the journal name was recorded and further classified as local (i.e., published in Nigeria) or foreign, as determined by its title or subsequent investigation.

For the purpose of library collection assessment, the list of available and subscribed journals in the KDL was compiled as a table in a database. The list of all journals cited in the dissertations was compiled as another table in the same database. The database enabled cross-matching the two tables to determine the cited journals that were available in the university library.

Results

Distribution of Cited Materials

Table 2 summarizes the overall citations across the departments in the Faculty of Science, revealing a substantial emphasis on citations from journal literature (67.6%), followed by books/monographs (13.6%), conference papers (2.6%), government documents (0.1%), technical reports and standards (1.5%), web resources (1.4%), thesis/dissertations (1.7%) and other publications (11.4%).

Table 2: Frequency of cited materials

Majors Journal Book/ Monograph Conference Paper Government Document Technical Report & Standard Web Site Thesis & Dissertation Other Publications

Archaeology and Anthropology
n = 407

144
35.4%

163
40.0%

2
0.5%

2
0.5%

4
1.0%

0
0.0%

27
6.6%

65
16.0%

Botany and Microbiology
n = 4214

3064
72.7%

430
10.2%

93
2.2%

1
0.0%

41
1.0%

71
1.7%

45
1.1%

469
11.1%

Chemistry
n = 7087

5206
73.5%

927
13.1%

127
1.8%

5
0.1%

86
1.2%

114
1.6%

48
0.7%

574
8.1%

Computer Science
n = 329

101
30.7%

44
13.4%

60
18.2%

0
0.0%

14
4.3%

19
5.8%

13
4.0%

78
23.7%

Geography
n = 1240

696
56.1%

165
13.3%

60
4.8%

6
0.5%

29
2.3%

11
0.9%

22
1.8%

251
20.2%

Geology
n = 1584

958
60.5%

279
17.6%

87
5.5%

2
0.1%

39
2.5%

26
1.6%

36
2.3%

157
9.9%

Mathematics
n = 303

168
56.1%

85
28.1%

3
1.0%

0
0.0%

0
0.0%

0
0.0%

4
1.3%

43
14.2%

Physics
n = 564

314
55.7%

95
16.8%

19
3.4%

2
0.4%

11
2.0%

14
2.5%

24
4.3%

85
15.1%

Statistics
n = 1387

846
61.0%

273
19.7%

41
3.0%

1
0.1%

17
1.2%

14
1.0%

25
1.8%

170
12.3%

Zoology
n = 3890

2708
69.6%

400
10.3%

60
1.5%

4
0.1%

77
2.0%

28
0.7%

106
2.7%

507
13.0%

Total

14,205

2,861

552

23

318

297

350

2,399

Journal Citation Distribution

Table 3 presents the top five most cited journals in each of the ten departments in the Faculty of Science.

Table 3: Top 5 ranked journals by Department

Department Rank Journal Title % Citations

Archaeology and Anthropology
 (n = 144)

1

West African Journal of Archaeology

34.0

2

American Antiquity

6.9

3

The African Archaeological Review

4.9

4

Journal of Anthropology and Archaeology

4.2

4

Journal of Archeology

4.2

5

World Archaeology

3.5

Botany and Microbiology
 (n = 3,064)

1

Applied and Environmental Microbiology

7.4

2

Phytopathology

2.3

3

Journal of Clinical Microbiology

2.0

4

Applied Microbiology

1.8

5

Plant Diseases

1.5

Chemistry 
 (n = 5,206)

1

Organic Geochemistry

2.7

2

Phytochemistry

2.4

2

Journal of the American Chemical Society

2.4

3

Journal of Biological Chemistry

2.1

3

Journal of the Chemical Society

2.1

4

Starch/Starke

1.9

5

Journal of Chemical Physics

1.8

Computer Science
(n = 101)

1

IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering

22.8

2

Journal of Systems and Software

8.9

3

IEEE Software

7.9

4

Communications of the ACM

6.9

5

ACM SIGSoft Engineering Notes

4.0

Geography
(n = 696)

1

Atmospheric Environment

6.0

2

Soil Science Society of America Journal

5.5

3

Biogeochemistry

3.2

4

Forest and Ecological Management

3.0

5

Journal of Ecology

2.9

Geology
(n = 958)

1

American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin

7.8

2

Journal of Mining and Geology

5.8

3

Environmental Geology

3.1

4

Journal of Geophysics

2.7

5

Bulletin Geological Survey Nigeria

2.6

Mathematics
(n = 168)

1

Journal of Functional Analysis

9.5

2

Journal of Differential Equations

6.0

3

Journal of Mathematics Analysis and Applications

4.8

4

SIAM Journal of Numerical Analysis

4.2

5

Stochastic Analysis and Applications

3.6

Physics
 (n = 314)

1

Journal of Geophysical Research

7.6

2

Geophysics

7.3

3

Physical Reviews

6.1

4

Physics of Fluids

3.5

5

Journal of Environmental Radioactivity

3.2

5

Health Physics

3.2

5

Reviews of Modern Physics

3.2

Statistics
(n = 846)

1

Journal of the American Statistical Association

12.3

2

Biometrika

7.9

3

Econometrica

6.5

4

Journal of the Royal Statistical Society

5.4

5

Biometrics

5.3

Zoology
(n = 2,708)

1

American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

4.0

2

Aquaculture

3.0

3

Journal of Fisheries Biology

2.6

4

Hydrobiologia

2.4

5

Annals of Tropical Medicine and Parasitology

2.1

5

Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

2.1

There were two journals that were overwhelmingly cited within their respective departments compared to the other top ranked journals. The West African Journal of Archaeology and IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering accounted for 34% and 22.8% of total citations, respectively. Next was Journal of the American Statistical Association (12.3%), followed by Journal of Functional Analysis (9.5%), then Journal of Systems and Software (8.9%).

Journal Publications from Nigerian Sources and Non-Nigerian Sources

Table 4 summarizes the national origin of cited journals. The department citing the most local (Nigerian-based) journals was Archaeology and Anthropology, at 14%. The departments of Computer Science and Mathematics recorded no citations of Nigerian-based journals.

Table 4: Number of cited journals from Nigerian sources and non-Nigerian sources

Majors Foreign journals Local journals Unidentified Region

Archaeology and Anthropology, n = 43

37 (86.0%)

6 (14.0%)

0 (0.0%)

Botany and Microbiology, n = 779

735 (94.4%)

22 (2.8%)

22 (2.8%)

Chemistry, n = 1187

1150 (96.9%)

12 (1.0%)

25 (2.1%)

Computer Science, n = 42

41 (97.6%)

0 (0.0%)

1 (2.4%)

Geography, n = 236

225 (95.3%)

6 (2.5%)

5 (2.1%)

Geology, n = 310

280 (90.3%)

18 (5.8%)

12 (3.9%)

Mathematics, n = 86

85 (98.8%)

0 (0.0%)

1 (1.2%)

Physics, n = 113

109 (96.5%)

3 (2.7%)

1 (0.9%)

Statistics, n = 191

183 (95.8%)

5 (2.6%)

3 (1.6%)

Zoology, n = 690

639 (92.6%)

31 (4.5%)

20 (2.9%)

Table 5: Number of subscribed and available cited journals in KDL

Majors Available in KDL Not available in KDL

Archaeology and Anthropology, n = 43

4 (9.3%)

39 (90.7%)

Botany and Microbiology, n = 779

18 (2.3%)

761 (97.7%)

Chemistry, n = 1187

14 (1.2%)

1173 (98.8%)

Computer Science, n = 42

1 (2.4%)

41 (97.6%)

Geography, n = 236

6 (2.5%)

230 (97.5%)

Geology, n = 310

5 (1.6%)

305 (98.4%)

Mathematics, n = 86

2 (2.3%)

84 (97.7%)

Physics, n = 113

4 (3.5%)

109 (96.5%)

Statistics, n = 191

6 (3.1%)

185 (96.9%)

Zoology, n = 690

19 (2.8%)

671 (97.2%)

Discussion

Beyond journals and monographs, citations to other types of sources were relatively few across all the analyzed theses in the ten departments. The dominance of journal citations conforms to the findings of previous studies (Williams & Fletcher 2006; Olatokun & Makinde 2009; Donatus 2010; Ezema & Asogwa 2012). In contrast, a few studies found that books are the most cited reference as in the case of Archaeology and Anthropology departments (Nikko & Adetoro 2007; Iroaganachi et al. 2014). Other types of cited materials display reasonable degree of variation in their citations patterns. Computer Science students cited conference papers more frequently than journal articles, as reported by Fransen (2012). Citations to web sites were limited, except in Computer Science where they accounted for 5.8%. This corroborates other research studies that web resources have somewhat low impact on formal scholarly communication. (Zhang 2007; Iroaganachi et  al. 2014).

The findings show that none of the lists of the top five journal titles in each department reached the 50% threshold of total journal citations in their respective disciplines. This was also demonstrated in the studies of Ezema & Asogwa (2012) and Gohain & Saikia (2014), which found that none of the top ranked journals reached 10% of total citations. In contrast, Gooden (2001) and Boney Rowell (2012) found that top ranked journal titles did account for half of the journal citations.

Doctoral students across the departments under study often turn to foreign journals as sources of information and knowledge for their research activities, with little or no consultation of Nigerian journals. The ratio of citations to foreign journals to local journals was 37 to 1, confirming the impact of foreign journals on local scientific researchers.

This study also confirmed that the Kenneth Dike Library does not subscribe to the majority of cited journals, demonstrating that the Faculty of Science and science doctoral students are heavily dependent on information sources other than those available at the University Library, and revealing a deficiency in providing adequate science materials. The library falls short in its core function of providing quality collections for research students. There is clearly a need for cooperation between librarians in the KDL and the faculties to better identify students' information needs and strive to satisfy them through better services and enhanced library collection development.

Conclusions

Citation analysis of doctoral theses can play a role in the assessment and development of the library's collection. The findings corroborated previous studies on the validity of citation analysis. Nevertheless, sole dependence on citation data may not reflect detailed information on collection use, and it should be combined with other indicators to substantiate and consolidate evaluation measures. This study will give preliminary understanding of student needs and could aid librarians in determining the resources of interest to specific departments, and provide useful information that will help in developing materials allocation formulas.

References

Anyaegbu, M.I. 2016. Analysis of citation in undergraduate law projects in Faculties of Law libraries in Anambra and Enugu States of Nigeria. Library Philosophy and Practice [Internet]. Paper 1439. Available from http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libphilprac/1439

Boney Rowell, K. 2012. Citation analysis of journal and format preferences from master's projects at the University of Southern Mississippi's School of Library and Information Science from 2004-2005. SLIS Connecting. 1(1). Available from http://aquila.usm.edu/slisconnecting/vol1/iss1/9

Donatus, S. 2010. Citation Analysis of Doctoral Theses in the School of Sciences, Federal University of Technology, Akure 1989. 2009 Africa Regional Centre for Information Science, University of Ibadan, Nigeria.

Eckel, E.J. 2009. The emerging engineering scholar: a citation analysis of theses and dissertations at Western Michigan University. Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship. Winter. DOI: 10.5062/F4HD7SKP

Ezema, I.J. and Asogwa, B.E. 2012. Analysis of cited information sources in Nigerian agricultural research with emphasis on animal health and production. International Journal of Library and Information Science. 4(1):1-9. Available from: http://www.academicjournals.org/journal/IJLIS/article-abstract/B528C434951

Fasae, J.K. 2012. Citation Analysis of Dissertations and Theses Submitted to the Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension. Federal University of Technology Akure, Nigeria.

Fransen, J. 2012. Literature use in engineering and computer science research: an analysis of works cited in dissertations and theses, Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship.  DOI: 10.5062/F4Q81B1B

Gao, S-J., Yu, W-Z, and Luo, F-P. 2009. Citation analysis of Ph.D. thesis at Wuhan University, China. Library Collections, Acquisitions, & Technical Services. 33: 8-16. DOI: 10.1080/14649055.2009.10766227

Gohain, A. and Saikia M. 2014. Citation analysis of Ph.D theses submitted to the Department of Chemical Sciences, Tezpur University, Assam, Library Philosophy and Practice. [Internet]. [Cited 2017 June 15]. Available from http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libphilprac/1066

Gooden, A.M. 2001. Citation analysis of chemistry doctoral dissertations: an Ohio State University case study, Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship. DOI: 10.5062/F40P0X05

Gross, P.L.K. and Gross, E.M. 1927. College libraries and chemical education. Science. 66:385-389.

Haycock, L. 2004. Citation analysis of education dissertations for collection development, Library Resources & Technical Services. 48(2):102-106. Available from: https://www.journals.ala.org/index.php/lrts/article/view/5418

Iroaganachi, M.A., Itsekor, V. and Osinulu, I. 2014. Citation analysis of social science research: A case study of bachelor degree research project reports of a Nigerian university 2009-2013. Library Philosophy and Practice. [Internet]. [Cited 2017 June 15]. Available from http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libphilprac/1096

Kumar, H.A. and Dora, M. 2011. Citation analysis of doctoral dissertations at IIMA: A review of the local use. Library Collections, Acquisitions, & Technical Services. 35:32-39. DOI: 10.1080/14649055.2011.10766290

Nikko, C. and Adetoro, N. 2007. Pioneer bachelor degree: citation analysis of Covenant University students' research projects, Library Philosophy and Practice. [Internet]. [Cited 2015 Mar 10]. Available from http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1151&context=libphilprac .

Okiy, R.B. 2003. A Citation analysis of education dissertations at the Delta State University, Abraka, Nigeria. Collection Building, 22(4): 158-161. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/01604950310501735

Olatokun, W.M. and Makinde, O. 2009. Citation analysis of doctoral works submitted to the Department of Animal Science, University of Ibadan, Nigeria, Library Philosophy and Practice. [Internet]. [Cited on 2016 Sept 17]. Available from http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/~mbolin/olatokun-makinde.htm

Shama, G., Hellgardrt, K. and Oppenheim, C. 2000. Citation footprint analysis - Part I: UK and US chemical engineering academics. Scientometrics. 49(2): 289-305. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010573220173

Williams, V.K. and Fletcher, C.L. 2006. Materials used by master's students in engineering and implications for collection development: a citation analysis, Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship. DOI: 10.5062/F4PG1PPR

Zhang, L. 2007. Citation analysis for collection development: a study of international relations journal literature, Library Collections, Acquisitions, & Technical Services. 31: 195-207. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lcats.2007.11.001

Zipp, L.S. 1996. Thesis and dissertation citations as indicators of faculty research use of university library journal collections. Library Resources & Technical Services, 40(4): 335-342.

Previous Contents Next

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. W3C 4.0 Checked!