A Bibliometric Study of MPhill Theses at The Department of Information Studies, University of Ghana (2000 – 2018)

Authors

Philip Kwaku Kankam, University of GhanaFollow
Earvin Kofi Okyere, University of GhanaFollow
Paulina Awuah, U niversity of GhanaFollow

Document Type

Article

Abstract

It is evident from literature that bibliometric analysis and application of citation indexes have been established as far back as the 18^th century. It is a major tool employed to evaluate the performance and also measure the impact of scientific publications. This study presents a bibliometric analysis of the Master of Philosophy (MPhil) theses accepted at the Department of the Information Studies (DIS) of the University of Ghana for the period between 2000 to 2018. Through the use of the DIS library catalogue, the study retrieved 101 accepted theses and these theses served as the source documents for the study. Bibliometric analysis method was employed to study in detail the bibliographic features of the MPhil thesis. The study revealed that students heavily relied on scientific journal articles for their research. Again, the findings of the study established disparity in students’ research outputs in the two subject fields of the DIS – library and archival studies. The study recommends the need for the DIS to encourage more students to conduct research in the field of archival studies.