Citation Analysis of Dissertations at the Department of Information Studies, University of Ghana, Legon.

Abstract

A citation analysis of dissertations accepted by the Department of Information Studies at the University of Ghana, Legon, from 1998 to 2004, was performed with a view to ascertain patterns in the use of different types of information source formats such as books, journals, etc. A total of 67 dissertations generated 2,212 citations. Books and monographs were cited more than journals: 969 or 43.8% of the citations were books and monographs, followed by journal articles (550 or 24.9%), and unpublished materials (4 or 0.2%) being the least cited material. These findings corroborate the work of other authors in the social sciences. The study also found out that information technology and evaluation of service are emerging and most active research areas, whereas reading habits being was relatively an obsolescent and inactive research area.