Authorship collaboration pattern among academic librarians in federal universities in South-West, Nigeria

Abstract

This study examined authorship collaboration pattern among academic librarians in federal universities in South-West Nigeria. Survey research design was adopted for the study with a population of two hundred and thirty-three respondents. One hundred and fifty (150) academic librarians were randomly selected with 25 respondents from each of the six federal universities in South-West, Nigeria. Out of the 150 copies of the questionnaire distributed, one hundred and nine (109) copies were found usable for the study. A response rate of 90.8% was recorded. Five research questions were raised. Data collected were analysed using frequency counts and percentages. Some of the major findings revealed that academic librarians work together to promote growth and cordial relationship among themselves and also contribute to the conception of data, project designing, collecting and analysing data, among others. It was also discovered that knowledge sharing skills and techniques, transfer of knowledge, cross fertilisation of ideas are the benefits of authorship collaboration. Inadequate funds, lack of effective communication, different opinions among authors were pointed out as some of the challenges confronting authorship collaboration. From the findings, it was concluded that authorship collaboration promotes growth and cordial relationships among academic librarians. Policy formulation and implementation was therefore recommended to guide relationships among authors among others.