Citation Analysis of Serials in Graduate-Students’ Thesis: A Functional Tool for Effective Serials Management in University Libraries (Published)
Serials being important to students and researchers as they contain the most current and relevant information that can be used for academic and research purposes needs to be assessed periodically to determine if they are still relevant to the users. This study therefore examines the analysis of serials citations in graduate-students’ theses as a functional tool for effective management of serials in university libraries using theses submitted from 2013 to 2021 in Library and information Science of four government owned universities in eastern region of Nigeria as case in point. The study was meant to provide answers to three research questions which formed the guide while a descriptive survey design was applied with a population of 203 which stood as the total number of masters’ degree theses produced by the four universities within the period under study. The main instruments used in collecting data for this study were the researcher-designed checklists with which 8445 serials citations were collected and analyzed using descriptive statistics of mode, mean and range and data presented in tables, charts and graphs using frequencies and percentile. The outcome of the study revealed that journals with 76% citations were the most cited against conference proceedings/reports with 20% and the least cited being government publications with only .5% citations. It was further established that multi authorship is the most cited authorship pattern in the graduates’ theses whereas the average age of serials cited were within the age bracket of 0 – 18. The conclusion drawn is that with the most cited type(s) of serials, serials titles, ages of serials and preferred authorship pattern known through citations analysis of serials in research reports, the university librarian is better placed as to knowing which serials to select, acquire and how to have them organized for easy accessibility and retrieval by users as well as the amount of money to be earmarked for their acquisitions which invariably will bring about prudent management of the library budget in this period of shrinking budget for academic libraries.The study therefore recommended among other things that for effective application of serials citations analysis as a functional tool for effective serial management, staff of serials unit most partner documentation unit as to ensuring proper citations analysis of serials submitted to the library by every department as this can be used as a guide for the unit to identify the core serials for selections, acquisitions and also as a guide for total serials collections maintenance.
Keywords: Academic Library, Graduate Students, citation analysis, library and information science, serials, serials management, theses, university library