Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Abstract
The aim of this study was to examine the publication characteristics and development of the Tanzania Journal of Agricultural Science for 20 years. Bibliometrics analysis was used to establish total number of publications, authorship contribution and the countries contributed to TAJAS for the period of study. The data was collected from the website African Journal Online (AJOL) in order to establish publication characteristics and development of the Tanzania Journal of Agricultural Science for 20 years. Based on the objectives of this study, the bibliometric method was used to examine the articles published in the TAJAS from 1998-2017.The findings show that for the period of 20 years a total of 197 articles were published in the TAJAS from all years with the exceptions of six years; 2004, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2017 which were missing articles. This is contrary to the TAJAS policy which requires the journal to publish two volumes per year. This is very serious matter because inconsistency in the frequency of publication has the implication to the journal reliability and thus author’s choice. Although bibliometric studies of single journals have been performed, bibliometric analysis have not yet been conducted to analyse the literature production of the TAJAS.