Influence of gender, academic disciplines on research productivity of lecturers in two universities in south-west Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated research productivity of lecturers in two universities in South-west Nigeria. The study employed the descriptive survey method and administered 193 copies of the questionnaire to lecturers in the two universities. Out of these, 161 were retrieved but only 154 were properly filled and used for the analysis giving a response rate of 79.8%. Descriptive statistics involving frequency, percentages, mean, standard deviation and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), and T-test were used to analyse the data for the study.

Findings show that research productivity of the surveyed lecturers is generally low, however, research output is high in Journals articles, Conference papers, Seminars, Chapters in books, and Workshop papers; the surveyed lecturers published more locally than internationally. There is a significant difference in the research productivity of the lecturers based on academic disciplines; and there is no significant difference in the research productivity of lecturers based on gender.

It is recommended that lecturers should be given research trainings, creation of more conducive environment for research in all the departments less teaching load/administrative duties. Adequate research grants should be instituted and given to faculty members. Funds and up-to-date professional journal should be made available for the lecturers. All academic disciplines and departments should be encouraged and given the right environment to conduct and publish the findings of their research so as to remove the difference in research productivity based on academic disciplines and adequate mentoring programmes should be instituted to encourage younger faculty members.

Keywords: Influence of Gender, Academic Discipline and Research Productivity