Visibility of Reference Patterns in the Doctoral Theses

PEARL - A Journal of Library and Information Science

Vol. 5. No.2 April - June 2011 : 59-70

Visibility of Reference Patterns in the Doctoral Theses of Engineering and Technology: A Citation Analysis Study M. Dhanamjaya * V. G. Talawar ** K.R.Mulla *** N. Chowdappa **** ABSTRACT The visibility of reference patterns in Doctoral theses of Engineering and Technology awarded by the various general universities of Karnataka. The study consist of 17151 citations which have appeared in 137 Doctoral dissertations awarded during 1961-2008. Large number of citations ware traced during 1981 to 2000 awarded of doctoral dissertations. The distribution pattern of citation by type of documents i.e. journals are heavily cited (43.54%). It was observed that books fell in the next order (11.74%) followed by conference proceedings, reports, symposia papers representing 28.42 percent of the total which occupy an important place in usage. The average number of citations per thesis was 125.18. It is also noted that majority of citations patterns were traced in civil, mechanical and electrical engineering. Further the characteristics of references cited by the engineers and technologists in their Ph.D theses were studied. The results and discussions with regard to bibliographic form, language, country, subject, authorship pattern and frequencies of citations are presented in different tables and figure with some well known statistical and Bibliometric parameters have been applied for the study.

1. INTRODUCTION An essential part of research papers, particularly in sciences and engineering, is the list of references pointing to previous publications. As per Ziman (1968) "a scientific paper does not stand alone: it is embedded in the literature of the subject1". Narin (1976) and others comment that II A reference is the acknowledgement that one document gives to another: a citation is the acknowledgement that one document receives from another211• According to Martin (1998) II a citation implies a relationship between a part or

the whole of the cited document and a part or the whole of the citing documene". Citation analysis is the area of bibliometrics, which deals with the studies of these relationships. In other words both citations and references are one and the same, which means they are the sign posts after referring the document for his/her research project or paper. The practice of citation has a long history, but the use of the citation for other than their primary purpose seems to be of recent origin. The Engineering and Technology field is fast growing. The new areas of study within this

*Reva Group of Educational Institutions, Kattigenahalli,Yelahanka, Bangalore-560064 ** Department of Studies in LIS, University of Mysore, Manasagangotri, Mysore-570 006 *** Visvesvaraya Technological University,Belgaum **** BMS College of Engineering, Basavanagudi, Bangalore 560 019

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Visibility of Reference Patterns in the Doctoral Theses of Engineering and Technology

field are emerging faster than ever before. The proliferation of literature both in print and electronic form has given quantum jump in engineering and technology literature giving further challenge to librarians to find better avenues to assess the varied user requirements. On the other, the state of Karnataka is marching fast in engineering and technology education and as well in investing for establishment of different industries. Special attention is being given in many engineering colleges and Universities to support research activities of scholars and faculty. Therefore the research and publication output is expected on further increasing trend in these institutions. These developments further attribute the need to assess user requirements and quality documents published in different areas of engineering and technology. Theses and dissertations citations being important sources that reflect researchers usage of variety of documents. Hence is the need for the present study. There are many citation studies available in the literature including several studies have been published in Indian journals on doctoral dissertations4-28• However, there are no studies carried out so far on citation analysis of doctoral dissertations in engineering and technology awarded by the general universities of Karnataka. So an attempt is made to understand about the journal citation analysis of 137 doctoral dissertations of engineering and technology discipline. 2. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY The objectives of the study are: 1. To understand attributes of the sources of information used by researchers in Engineering and Technology. 2.

To study the distribution of cited documents according to the country of their origin and language.

Vol 5, No.2, April- June 2011

3.

To study the chronological distribution of citations.

4.

To study the authorship pattern and collaborative research in Engineering and Technology.

5.

To verify the results with the Broadford's law of scattering.

6.

To find out the distribution of citation by geographical location and language 3. METHODOLOGY The study confined to the branches of engineering and technology. It covers to all general universities (Bangalore, Mysore, Mangalore, Karnatak, Gulbarga and Kuvempu) in Karnataka for the award of doctoral degrees. The data has been gathered based on the various sources as on 2008 there are 330 theses were submitted for the award of Ph.D degree. The investigators an attempt has been made to collect as many as theses from the general universities of Karnataka for this study. With this information in hand there are 17151 references appended in 137 theses. The details of the citations appended in each thesis have been recorded by using computers with the help of pre-designed Excel sheet. The structure of the subject, its growth, distribution of documents by geographical, language author's characteristics etc, have been examined in line of the objectives of the study. Finally, data interpretation and findings have been recorded with conclusion. 4. DATA ANALYSIS 4.1 University-wise distribution of Ph.D theses and citations An attempt has been made to collect the university wise distribution of Ph.D theses and citations for the study. University wise Ph.D theses submitted in the field of engineering and technology is presented in Table 1. 60

Dhanamjaya, Talawar, .Mulla, Chowdappa

Table 1 : University wise Ph.D citations collected 26 5

114.3 126.35 93.6 citation Name of sThese Bangalor Kuvemp Mangalor Average sTotal lrJ7 137 87 137 2286 11149 17151 2.73 21.67 14.59 Kamatak 1617 7%0 70 82 63 5Oi4 157.71 13475 45.98 6.44 eof 8.75 ve 12perCumu citations CmnuIali Percenta 17151 3716 13435 100.00 13.33 123.86 21.89 125.18 3.64 137 1104 10681 geof 717151 46.41 5.10 9.43 %0 theses rJ7 Percenlag v468 SI. Gul1:mga 05 20of 30 Universit lative Nil 63 . Mvsore

thesis

citations

The Table clearly shows that Bangalore University has produced highest number of Ph.D theses in the engineering field by scoring 63(45.98%) of theses followed by 30(21.89%) theses in Mysore University, 20(14.59%) in Mangalore University, 12(8.75%) in Karnatak University, 7(5.10%)in Gulbarga University and 5(3.64%) in Kuvempu University. This clearly shows that Bangalore, Mysore and Mangalore universities together produced 113 representing 82.48 percent of the total Ph.D theses in the field of engineering and technology. Each thesis with an average citation of 125.18 4.2 Chronological wise distribution of citations Total 17151 citations were cited in 137 theses by the research scholars in their respective research output are arranged in an increasing chronological order the tabulated data was presented in the Table 2. All these citations are grouped into 13 sequences for the purpose of easy presentation. Table 2: Chronological wise distribution of citations

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&~~0 -- ~~ .. -... -" c~ ~ 23 11 12 06 47 "' ~1948 -"~C.1890 -59 -86 8183 215 17151 1626 1780 2014 83 08 70 350 432 392 214 0.15 25 1940-1950 45 62 1951-1960 3.22 100.00 199121.47 7.25 1822 2000 121 52 0.50 1911-1920 1931-1940 20 0.70 01 258 85 244 370 162 395 255 320 3960 283 348 132 1402 294 0.20 1901-1910 438 546 13.24 1971-1980 1981-1990 18.87 961 06 66 1891-1900 131 2796 1468 10 125 1244 3682 412 f-< 553 410 "0 c.~ 506 192 102 325501237467 45 274 2271 3237 324 451 382 128 260 194 35 1961-1970 1.50 23.09 20018.17 1505 2008 306 11 1921-1930 1.07 '"c E.~ .. ~ 0 3e5~ 10

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Table 2 reveals that the comprehensive information on the complete citations of various forms of documents cited in theses were collected for the study. Documents published as old as in 1890 have been cited. Majority of the cited documents have been published from 1981 onwards. All forms of documents put together, between 1981-90 the total cited documents are 3960 (23.09%),between 1991--2000the total cited documents are 3682 (21.47%),between 2001-2008 the total cited documents are 1402 (8.17%).These put together 9044 and they account for 52.73 percent of the total citations. The documents published in the past two decades cited are more than 50 percent. The Table also shows that 8.17 percent of citations are current literature and these are published during 2001-2008. 21.47 percent citations were published during 1991-2000, 23.09 percent citations are published between 19811990, 18.87percent citations are published during 1971-1980. These three group of citations represent 63.43 percent of total citations cited by the researchers in the field of engineering and technology. Further Table clearly indicates that the citations belong to the remaining groups represent in earlier period i.e. before 1970's on decreasing in number. In other words, the relative importance of literature is directly dependent on its recency. The literature that is most significant from the engineers and technologists point of view belong to the 1970's, 1980's, 1990's and in 2001-2008. 4.3 Subject wise distribution of citations In the case of domain wise distribution of citations trend, the details of the citation analysis was analyzed and presented in Table 3.

PEARL- AJournal of Library and Information Science

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Visibility of Reference Patterns in the Doctoral Theses of Engineering and Technology

Table 3: Subject wise distribution of citation 111 75

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