Bibliometrics analysis of publication output in library and information science research in Nigerian universities 2000-2014

Abstract

National Development globally is dependent on the quality of research in a given country and the role of library in sustainable national development cannot be over emphasized. Bibliometrics is a tool that is commonly used around the world in evaluation of research. This paper used bibliometrics to examine patterns of publication output in library and information science (LIS) research in Nigerian universities from 2000-2014 in terms of total publication output and trend in LIS research, most productive universities and authors, most cited universities and authors, journals use in publication, and comparison of most productive Nigerian authors with their South African counterparts. The Web of Science was used as indexing/citation database in the study. The findings of the study revealed increasing trend in annual publication output in LIS research in Nigerian universities which indicates that there is progress in the development of LIS research in Nigeria. It was found that, typically and on the average, each most productive South African author has a publication output that doubles that of his/her Nigerian counterpart. In view of this, the paper concluded that, Nigerian authors are not globally competitive in global LIS research. Based on the findings of this study, it is recommended that there should be increased funding of Nigerian university libraries towards enhance access to information to support sustainable LIS research and national development.

Keywords: bibliometric analysis, citation analysis, evaluation of research, library and information science research, publication output, Nigerian universities