citation analysis of doctoral theses in botany: a … · a citation analysis of 75 doctoral theses...

International Journal of Library and Information Studies ISSN: 2231-4911

Vol.2(3), Jul-Sep, 2012

CITATION ANALYSIS OF DOCTORAL THESES IN BOTANY: A NORTH

BENGAL UNIVERSITY CASE STUDY

Dr. Md. Ziaur Rahman Librarian

Ananda Chandra College, Jalpaiguri, West Bengal, India E-mail: [email protected]

Dr. Udayan Bhattacharya

Associate Professor Department of Library and Information Science,

Jadavpur University,Kolkata-32, West Bengal, India E-mail: [email protected]

ABSTRACT

A Citation analysis of 75 Doctoral theses in botany, submitted to the North Bengal University, Darjeeling, during 1987 to 2007 has been carried out to trace the development of scientific research. The 75 botany PhDs theses contain 13,542 bibliographic references, with an average number per thesis comes at a range of 180.56. The year wise productivity of theses, supervising pattern, authorship pattern and the rate of collaboration are studied. The study of the citations is carried out with a view to ascertaining what types of documents are the most frequently used in the research process. The study indicates authorship trend was towards team works rather than a work in isolation. Single author contributions, even though shown a decreasing tendency, are still on stage. Chronological variation in the various characteristics of the cited literature was also examined. It is observed that most of the publications cited are articles in journals; the number of references to other kinds of documents such as books/ monographs, patents, conference proceedings, reports, and other theses is small; and references like official publications, press articles and Internet documents are rare. Among the citations from journal literature, majority are from foreign journals though the journals of Indian origin have also extensively used by the North Bengal University science researchers. Journals published in India, USA, and United Kingdom occupies premier positions while journals from other countries are also cited. The most frequently cited journals were also studied in this discipline under study. The most frequently cited journal titles were the Phytopathology, Indian Phytopathology and Physiological and Molecular Plant Pathology. The findings from this study could serve as a collection development, a model that libraries could use to identify the primary sources, budget planning, to guide collection maintenance and user services design in libraries.] Keywords: Citation Analysis, Botany, Productivity of Supervisors, Authorship Collaboration, Authorship Pattern, Core Journals.


Vol.2(3), Jul-Sep, 2012

INTRODUCTION: Citation is the best available indicator of the use of a publication. The term citation refers to the full bibliographic description of a referred material, which is used or is relevant to a particular research work. A systematic study of citation in a discipline provides a criterion for measuring the degree of interaction among researchers. Bibliometrics is a set of methods used to study or measure texts & information. Citation analysis & content analysis are commonly used bibliometric methods. Bibliometric is an emerging thrust area of research in the field of library & information science. It involves the quantitative evaluation of publications of all micro, macro communications through mathematical & statistical calculation. Bibliometrics study can be applied to any discipline to find out its trends and growth of literature. Its application in library management, designing of information system, understanding the information needs of managers, formulation of management policies & strategies in the area of management studies are well documented. Citation is mathematical analysis of references or citation appended at the end of each scientific communication as an essential part of it. The author(s) of a paper customarily presents a bibliography or references as authentic source of information. Citation analysis is for understanding subject relationships, author effectiveness, and publication. Citation analysis is also a way to understand users. Citation studies offer reliability, relevance, and reasonable speed. Citation studies of dissertations provide valuable information for the most important, higher profile programs of an institution. Since these programs are likely to be major selling points for the university, as well as primary earners of grants, providing the necessary resources to support them is a high priority for any academic library. Theses/Dissertations clearly indicate the needs of doctoral students, and also indicate the research specialties of the faculty and departments as a whole. With exceptions for new (or defunct) programs, current and historic data is readily available in an institution’s dissertations, though significant processing is required. SCOPE OF THE STUDY: The present study attempts on the pattern of information use by researchers in the field of botany. Under the study a focus has been given at deriving qualitative and quantitative analysis based on the citations collected from the end of the chapters of doctoral theses submitted in sciences at North Bengal University, Darjeeling from 1987---2007. OBJECTIVES: The investigation aims at establishing the following objectives

1. To study the year wise break up of theses in botany submitted to North Bengal University during 1987-2007.

2. To study the supervising pattern in botany. 3. To study the productivity of supervisor in the selected discipline.


Vol.2(3), Jul-Sep, 2012

4. An analysis of the recorded citations to determine the average number of citations in botany.

5. To study the rate of collaborative research by analyzing the authorship pattern of the citations.

6. To study the pattern of contributing authors. 7. To determine the use of different types of documents like books, periodicals, journals

articles, conference proceedings, reports, online, etc. 8. To observe the chronological distribution of citations to determine the productive years of

used publications. 9. To study the country wise distribution of cited journals to find out the country of origin

of the published journals 10. To compile a rank list of core journals in botany

METHODOLOGY The research design adopted was a descriptive study. The doctoral theses which are the products of research activity have been examined for the present study. Seventy Five doctoral theses accepted between 1987-2007 by North Bengal University in Botany form the sample for the study. Bibliographic details (names of authors, supervisors, the category of the item, publication details, age of the item as on the year of the thesis etc) of all the references appended to the 75 theses were collected in a predefined data sheet i.e., Microsoft Access. The total number of citations appended to these documents is 13,542. Necessary information has been recorded, analyzed and tabulated for making observations.

1. Year Wise Break up of Theses Table-1

Sl No Year Botany 1 1987 2 2 1988 2 3 1989 3 4 1990 2 5 1991 2 6 1992 4 7 1993 0 8 1994 0 9 1995 2 10 1996 5 11 1997 2 12 1998 4 13 1999 4 14 2000 5 15 2001 6 16 2002 8 17 2003 4


Vol.2(3), Jul-Sep, 2012

Sl No Year Botany 18 2004 4 19 2005 5 20 2006 9 21 2007 2 Total 75

Year wise break up of theses in botany Table 1 shows the year wise break up of theses in botany submitted to the respective department of North Bengal University from 1987-2007. In all of total 75 theses have been submitted in the selected subject. It is clear from the above table that maximum number (nine) of the theses submitted in the year of 2006, followed by the year 2002 (eight), and 2001 (six numbers). It is interesting to note that not even a single PhD was awarded in botany in 1993 and 1994. 2. Supervising Pattern of Theses Table 2 reflects the supervising pattern of theses as below:

Table - 2

Number of Supervisor No of Theses Percentage Single Supervisor 61 81.34 Double Supervisor 14 18.66 Total 75 100

Supervising Pattern in Botany The table shows the supervise pattern in botany. The table reveals that 81.34% scholars have a single supervisor while almost 19 % scholars have double supervisors. 3. Productivity of Supervisor: Botany Table 3 shows the most productive supervisors in the creation of PhD theses.

Table – 3 Sl No Name of Supervisors No of Theses

Rank

1 P K Basu 16 1 2 B N Chakraborty 16 2 3 Usha Chakraborty 11 3 4 A P Das 10 4 5 P K Sarkar 4 5 6 Jyoti Prasad Tamang 4 5 7 Aniruddha Saha 3 6 9 Eklabya Sharma 3 7 10 S K Chatterjee 2 7


Vol.2(3), Jul-Sep, 2012

11 Ranadhir Chakraborty 2 7 12 A Bhattacharje 2 7 13 K B Dutta 2 8 14 A K Chowdhury 1 8 15 Arnab Sen 1 8 16 Ashis Kumar Nanda 1 8 17 B K Chatterjee 1 8 18 Dilip De Saarkar 1 8 19 G Gurusubramanian 1 8 20 P K Mitra 1 8 21 Paramita MS 1 8 22 R B Bhujel 1 8 23 R C Sundriyal 1 8 24 Rabindra Chettri 1 8 25 Subir Bera A P Das 1 8 26 Sunirmal Chanda 1 8

Productivity of Supervisors in Botany The table shows that Dr. B N Chakraborty and Dr. P K Basu, has supervised highest number of PhDs in Botany, with 16, followed by Dr. Usha Chakraborty, who has supervised 11 scholars. The third place is occupied by Dr. A P Das who has supervised 10 scholars and so on. 4. Average of Citations The table represents the average citations per theses in botany. A total of 13,542 citations were analyzed for the study. It is observed that theses in botany have an average of 180.56.

Table 4 No of Theses Total Citations Average 75 13,542 180.56

5. Form Wise Distribution of Citations It deals with the distribution of citations by types of reference materials used by botany scholars. The importance of any form of publication lies in its representation of a particular information need. The various form of documents as sources of information carriers are enormous and popular too. The form wise distribution refers to the wide variety of information sources. The botany scholars pertaining to their research requirements conduct their studies using sources of primary as well as secondary nature. The existing study attempts to explore the various forms of documents preferably consulted by researchers for their information access. TYPE OF DOCUMENTS CITED: This is a way of classifying publications that disseminate knowledge. It is important to know the type of documents used and consulted by users, for these data can be applied to determine their

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Vol.2(3), Jul-Sep, 2012

7. Degree of Author Collaboration (Single vs. Multiple Authors) The extent of collaboration in research can be measured with the help of multi - authored papers. To determine the degree of collaboration in quantitative terms, the formula given by Subramanayam has been used. The formula is as Nm C = --------------Nm + Ns Where C= Degree of Collaboration in a discipline Nm = Number of Multi authored papers Ns = Number of single authored papers

Table - 7 Author Publications Percentage Single 4817 35.57 Multiple 8725 64.43

Single Vs Multi Authored Works in Botany 8725 C = ------------- = 0.644 8725+4817 The rate of collaboration is 0.644 in Botany. This clearly indicates the degree of prevalence of multi authored publications in botany. 8. Citation Analysis and Interpretation: Time Dispersion This study aims at investigating the time dispersion of citations in botany. The term time dispersion expresses the year of publication of the documents in use. The documents when treated into blocks of decades reveal the most productive decade and the obsolescence rate of literature. With the explosion of literature and multi-dimensional growth of the universe of knowledge has simultaneously stimulated the use and obsolescence of published materials. The faster the rate of recent publications higher is the obsolescence rate. It also differs from discipline to discipline. Thus it becomes essential to study the citations to determine the documents utility depending upon the time factor.

Table - 8 Sl. No.

Year No. of Citation Cumulative Citations

Percentage Cumulative Frequency

1 2000-2007 697 697 5.15 5.15 2 1990-1999 5354 6051 39.54 44.69 3 1980-1989 4229 10280 31.22 75.91


Vol.2(3), Jul-Sep, 2012

4 1970-1979 1854 12134 13.69 89.6 5 1960-1969 876 13010 6.47 96.07 6 1950-1959 322 13332 2.38 98.45 7 Before

1950s 210 13542 1.55 100

Total 13542 13542 100 Chronological Distribution of Citation in Botany A total of 13,542 citations were analyzed for determining the age of utility of the publications in Botany. This clearly indicates that the years 1990-1999 (44.69%) is the most productive decade followed by 1980-1989 (31.22%) is at second position, the years 1970-1979 (13.69 %), the years 2000-2007 (5.15%), the years 1950 – 1959 (2.38%) and before 1950s with only (1.55%).

Figure - 3

9. Country Wise Dispersion of Cited Journals Research work cover published literature from any part of the world. The relevance and importance of the maximum used material can be related to the country producing the largest usable literature. The citation study of the research dissertations can lead to understand the country wise use pattern of researchers in science. The highly cited journals were analyzed according to their country of origin as follows:

Table – 9 (Journals having 30 or more than 30 citation each)

Sl. No. Country No of Journals

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1 India 26 2086 21.13 2 USA 13 1953 19.79

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Vol.2(3), Jul-Sep, 2012

reprint dissemination, reputation of the authors and so on. Therefore, the present study is to judge the variable and productive journals, cited in botany dissertations as follows: Table reflects the ranked list of core journals of Botany theses as below:

Ranked List of Cited Journals in Botany Table - 10

Sl.No. Name of Journals No of

Citations % Accum.

Citations (%)

Rank

1 Phytopathology 547 5.54 5.54 1 2 Indian Phytopathology 398 4.04 9.58 2

3 Physiological and Molecular Plant Pathology

318 3.22 12.8 3

4 Annual Review Phytopathology 269 2.73 15.53 4 5 Indian Journal of Experimental Biology 210 2.13 17.66 5 6 Plant Pathology 199 2.02 19.68 6 7 Phytochemistry 189 1.91 21.59 7 8 Plant Biology 148 1.50 23.09 8 7 Science 137 1.39 24.48 9 9 Journal of plant biology 127 1.29 25.77 10

10 Indian journal of Botany 123 1.25 27.06 11 11 Canadian Journal of Botany 117 1.19 28.31 12 12 Fitoterapia 114 1.15 29.46 13 13 Journal of Biological Chemistry 107 1.08 30.54 14 14 Annals of Applied Biology 106 1.07 31.61 15 15 Science and Culture 105 1.06 32.67 16 16 European Journal of Biochemistry 99 1.00 33.67 17 17 Plant Physiology 98 0.99 34.66 18 18 Journal of Indian Botanical Society 93 0.94 35.6 19 19 Current Science 91 0.92 36.52 20 20 American Journal of Botany 88 0.89 37.41 21 21 Nature 83 0.84 38.25 22 22 Journal of Molecular Biology 81 0.82 39.07 23 23 Journal of Bacteriology 80 0.81 39.88 24 24 Applied and Environment Microbiology 78 0.79 40.67 25 25 Plant Science 75 0.76 41.43 26 26 The Plant Cell 74 0.75 42.18 27 27 Canadian Journal of Botany 73 0.74 42.92 28 28 Journal of Ecology 69 0.70 43.62 28 29 Journal of Applied Bacteriology 69 0.70 44.32 28 30 Australian Journal of Plant Psychology 68 0.68 45 29 31 Pesticides 67 0.67 45.67 30 32 Trans British Mycology Society 66 0.66 46.33 31 33 Indian Journal of Dairy Science 65 0.65 46.98 32 34 Japanese Journal of Ecology 63 0.63 47.61 33


Vol.2(3), Jul-Sep, 2012

Sl.No. Name of Journals No of Citations

% Accum.

Citations (%)

Rank

35 Indian Journal of Pharmacology 63 0.63 48.24 33

36 New Zealand Journal of Agricultural Research

63 0.63 48.87 33

37 Indian Journal of Forestry 62 0.62 49.49 34 38 Indian Journal Mycol. Plant Pathology 62 0.62 50.11 34 39 Plant Journal 59 0.60 50.71 35 40 Botanical Survey of India 59 0.60 51.31 35 41 Indian Journal of Forestry 58 0.59 51.9 36 42 Journal of Environmental Biology 55 0.56 52.46 37 43 Canadian Journal of Plant Pathology 53 0.55 53.01 38 44 Pharmaceutical Biology 52 0.53 53.54 39 45 Journal of Bacteriology 51 0.52 54.06 40

46 Proceedings Indian Phytopathological Society

48 0.49 54.55 41

47 Annals of Phytopathology Japan Society 45 0.46 55.01 42 48 Canadian Journal Microbiology 43 0.44 55.45 43 49 Bulletin of Botanical Society of Bengal 42 0.43 55.88 44 50 Journal of Bombay Nat. Hist. Society 42 0.43 56.31 44 51 Indian Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences 41 0.42 56.73 45 52 Grana 41 0.42 57.15 45 54 Folia Microbiology 41 0.42 57.57 45 55 Indian Journal of Agriculture Science 40 0.41 57.98 46 56 Canadian Journal of Forest Research 39 0.40 58.38 47 57 Indian Journal of Plant Pathology 39 0.40 58.78 47 59 Acta Botanica Indica 38 0.39 59.17 47

60 Indian Journal of Biochemistry and Biophysics

36 0.37 59.54 48

62 Bangladesh Journal of Agricultural Research 31 0.32 59.86 49

63 Indian Journal of Mycol. Research 30 0.30 60.16 50

64 Others journals having less than 30 citations

3941 39.94 100 51

Total 9868 100 Ranked list of Core Journals The ranked list of most productive journals as appeared in the source theses is presented in table 38. It is clearly evident from analysis that Phytopathology tops the list with highest contribution of 547(5.54%) citations. Indian Phytopathology is in the second position by accounting 398 (4.04%) citations. While Physiological and Molecular Plant Pathology, occupies the third position with 318 (3.22%)


Vol.2(3), Jul-Sep, 2012

citations and so on. It is interesting to note that high status of multi-disciplinary journals like Phytochemistry, Science, Science and Culture, Current Science, Nature, etc are also in the core journal list of Botany literature. FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION The present study is an approach to the analysis of information used by the University scientific community on the basis of the PhD theses defended in the Department of Botany at the North Bengal University from 1987 to 2007 to trace the development of scientific research. The results provided useful insight into the information base of University scientific production in this respective discipline. A total of 75 PhD theses in botany were read in those years which contain 13,542 bibliographic references, with an average number per thesis comes at a range of 180.56. Authorship is an important facet of scientific research. A detailed analysis of the authorship of Citations reveals that research is, now a day a team works rather than a work in isolation. Therefore in a large majority of scientific publications in botany find more than one names in the author statement. Collaborative authorship is often considered to be indicative of authenticity of the contents of the document. Scientists choose to engage in collaboration for a variety of reasons, such as access to equipment, finance, expert guidance and information support. The study reveals that team research is on the increase in botany. Single author contributions, even though shows a decreasing tendency, is still on stage. This may be due to the fact that the scientists undertake research projects which do not require team work. According to the distribution by document type most of the publications cited are articles in journals; the number of references to other kinds of documents such as books, conference proceedings, and other theses is small; and references like official publications, press articles and Internet documents are rare. The high percentage of citations of journal articles confirms the important role played by scientific journals in the process of Scientific Communication. The paucity of citations of other types of documents such as monographs, theses, Internet papers and reference tools like encyclopedia, subject dictionaries etc. may be both due to the difficulty in accessing such literature and to the fact that as these sources are least concern in science research. The journals are the most intensely cited by PhD thesis authors which reflect the use of information contained primarily in periodicals. This appears to be due to the fact that in this disciplines, periodical literature tends to be the most current and up-to-date and the information is accessible through a variety of channels. As a result, scholars are very interested in reviewing periodical material and the libraries have stressed the need to develop those collections in the respective disciplines. The preference of learned foreign journals as the major medium of science communication is a well established fact. Most probably the lack of indigenous literature on local problems may be the reason that prompts the scholars to depend more on foreign sources for their background study of the topic. But the present study revealed that the papers from periodical of Indian origin have greatly used by the North Bengal University botany researchers. The high preference towards Indian publications leads to the conclusion that either these learned journals are readily available or the researchers are very much inclined to Indian publications. Researchers in botany


Vol.2(3), Jul-Sep, 2012

at North Bengal University paid less attention to the bulk of the literature available in foreign sources, may be due to unavailability of the international publications, limited budgets or else. The chronological distribution of the cited items reveals that publications of before 1950s are still continue to be cited in the theses on sciences. The availability of age old basic documents in sciences which have considerable relevance even in the modern era is evident from the citation practice in theses. In designing a collection development strategy for the North Bengal University library, care should be taken to make sure that the top most frequently cited journals in each discipline (listed in Tables 10) are readily available in order to introduce students at an early stage in their research to the outstanding publications in the field. While this study and its findings are specific to North Bengal University, the citation analysis methodology that was employed would be applicable in other settings as well, for it provides a model that libraries could use to identify the primary sources used in research. In addition, the results from a study of this type may be used in budget planning so that limited funds are used effectively and disciplines requiring more periodicals in foreign publications, receive additional allocations. Since the doctoral theses had been accepted in the normal academic order, their references would meet at least the minimal requirements of scientific quality. There observed a lack of standard for arranging the references in the PhD dissertations selected for this study. In order to have a better visibility of the cited works a uniform standard is expected to be adopted. The concern authority may adopt a standard of its own or the Indian Standard for this purpose may be adopted. REFERENCES:

1. Scales, P. A. “Citation analysis as indicators of the use of serials a comprise of ranked title lists produced by citation counting and on use date”. Journal of Documentation, 3. 2 (1976): 17-25.

2. Uzun, A. “Library and information Science research in developing countries and Eastern European countries: a brief bibliometric perspective”. The International Information & Library Review, 34. 1 (2002): 21-33.

3. Krishna,K.M., and Kumar, S. “Authorship Trend in agriculture Research: A Bibliometric Analysis”. SRELS Journal of Information Managemen, 41. 2 (2004): 229-234.

4. Sangam, S L., and Savanur, Kiran. “DR. N. Rudraiah Bibliometric Study”. SRELS Journal of Information Management, 43. 2 ( 2006): 185-199.

5. Parvathamma, N., and Devendra, S. Gobbur. “Mapping of Plastic Literature(1998-2002): A Bibliometric Study”. SRELS Journal of Information Management, 44. 4 (2007): 415-420.

6. Martinez, E. I. C., and Marzal, M. A. “Analysis of information use in agricultural science Ph D theses at Central University of Venezuela (1986-2002)”. Library Review, 57. 2 (2008): 123-137.

7. Nandi, Amitava., and Bandopadhyay, Amit Kumar. “Contribution in Physics Research: An Analytical Study with special reference to the University of Burdwan, West Bengal”. IASLIC Bulletin, 54. 3 (2009): 131-146.

8. Garg, K. C., et al., “Scientometric profile of genetics and heredity research in India”. Annals of Library and Information Studies, 57 2010): 196- 206.

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citation analysis of doctoral theses in botany: a … · a citation analysis of 75 doctoral theses...

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