Information Resource Preference of Postgraduate Students . at Sokoine University of Agriculture: A Citation Analysis

Abstract

by postgraduate students in the course of their research at Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) in Tanzania. This was achieved through a citation analysis of master dissertations and doctoral theses that were deposited at Sokoine National Agricultural Library between 2002 and 2012. Specifically, the study identified the type and form of information resources cited by postgraduate students, established the obsolescence of the literature cited, and examined the students' preference for e-resources. A total of 118 master degree dissertations and 74 doctoral theses were included in the study. Theses and dissertations were manually examined to extract citations and collect the required data, which were then analyzed using Microsoft Excel. The findings revealed that postgraduate students at SUA prefer journal articles to other resources. E-resources and e-journals in particular were poorly cited in postgraduate students' works. The . findings also revealed that most cited resources were old although many cited e-resources were relatively newer. Based on these findings, it is recommended that universities should sensitize postgraduate students to use quality scholarly e-resources particularly ejournals. Libraries should take steps to overcome factors that constrain effective access and retrieval of e-resources. Emphasis should also be placed to ensure that students adhere to using correct citation methods and equipping instructors with skills to detect incorrect citations. It is important that information literacy courses are incorporated in the universities' curricula.