Citation Analysis of Information Management Graduates’ MPhil and PhD Theses in University of the Punjab, Lahore-Pakistan

This study aims to explore the citation patterns of information management graduates' MPhil and Ph.D. theses submitted at the University of the Punjab, Lahore-Pakistan. It examined their core cited information sources in terms of gender, class, year-wise distribution of citations, the average number of citations, and authorship patterns in their citations. It identified the list of core cited information sources with several citations used by research graduates. Citation analysis technique was used to determine the core cited information sources in 71 theses (60 MPhil and 11 Ph.D.) submitted to the Institute of Information Management (IIM), University of the Punjab (PU), Lahore, during the period of one decade 2008-2017. All 7013 identified references were examined and categorized in journals, books and books chapters, web-pages, theses, conference proceedings, reports, and newspapers. Findings showed that both male and female MPhil/Ph.D. graduates frequently consulted and cited periodical literature i.e. journals (58.71%) followed by books and book chapters (20.72%). On an average MPhil graduates cited 80.85 sources and Ph.D. graduates cited 196.55 sources in writing up their theses. The authorship pattern of the citations showed the highest number of citations from single-authored work. Data revealed that information behavior was the favorite area among research graduates. Bradford's law of dispersion was applied to determine the list of most-cited journals and books. This study would be helpful for information professionals to understand the information needs of their patrons and to make informed decisions for building demand-driven collections. The findings of the study may apply to other LIS schools in the developing world with similar contexts.