CITATION ANALYSIS OF UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH PROJECTS: A CASE STUDY OF THE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES, LANDMARK UNIVERSITY, OMU ARAN, KWARA STATE

Purpose:

The study focused on citation analysis of undergraduate honors project in the College of Agricultural Science, Landmark University, Omu-Aran, Kwara State. Specifically, the study sought to know the average citation counts per programme in the College of Agriculture; investigate the recency of sources cited by students of the College; examine the sources of cited materials by students of the College; find out the information sources mostly cited by the students; and ascertain the highest and lowest citations by programmes in the College.

Design/Methodology:

The study adopted a Bibliometric method and specifically a citation analysis of degree research project submitted by graduates of the College of Agricultural Sciences, Landmark University, Omu-Aran, Kwara State. The study covered the 2015 and 2016 sets of graduates from the College of Agricultural Sciences. Analysis focused on submission of project, citation counts, and average citation counts per programme; sources of cited materials, recency of citation and highest and lower citation by individual project. Findings: It was found that students’ projects submitted from the programmes in the College of Agriculture were very low. This is not peculiar to Landmark University considering the declining nature of enrolment into agricultural programmes in Nigerian universities. Animal Science programme had the highest submissions in 2015 but this dropped in 2016.

Prevalence of the materials cited are books with 5,756 citation counts representing 43.7%. Journals ranked 2ndwith 4,604 citation counts (34.9%). Newspapers were the least cited materials representing 0.1%. The most recent (2016 and above) citations were just 5% while the Not Recent (below year 2000) 28.4%. Book citation surpassed that of journal and internet/electronic resources. Originality/Value: Undergraduate students need proper orientation on general research culture and most especially citation and referencing. This will guide against plagiarism and ensure due credit to sources of research information.