Bibliometric Analysis of MBA Dissertations Submitted at the Open University of Tanzania Library from 2008-2011

Abstract

This paper examined the citation pattern used by MBA students at the Open University of Tanzania. References from a sample of one hundred MBA dissertations from the period of 2008-2011 were examined. Specifically, the paper examined the type of sources cited, age of the cited sources, authorship pattern, geographical location, and language of cited materials .Each MBA dissertation was manually analysed and citations were extracted from the references. The data derived were analysed by using MS Excel and n 16.0. Findings reveal that MBA students preferred books to other types of resources with personal communication being the least cited source. It was also revealed that most of the cited materials were between 2000 and 2009 which means that they were current sources. Most of the cited sources emanated from the USA. Single authored sources were most cited and there was an average of fifty citations per dissertation. 99.5% of the cited sources were in English. The study recommends that, since the libraries are moving from manual to electronic libraries, library users should be encouraged to also go electronically. Therefore libraries should equip library users with information literacy skills so as to cope with the fast changing information technologies. Tanzanian authors should write learning materials in Kiswahili if we are to embark on using Kiswahili as a medium of instruction.

Keywords: Citation, Bibliometric, Dissertations, Business Administration, Theses, Open University, MBA, Information Seeking Behavior, Library.