DOCTORAL DISSERTATIONS OF MAHATMA GANDHI UNIVERSITY A STUDY OF THE REFERENCES CITED UNNIKRISHNAN S* & ANNU GEORGE** *Assistant Librarian Sr. Sc. **Assistant Librarian Sel.Gr. University Library Mahatma Gandhi University Kottayam, Kerala- 686 560
SCOPE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY Even though literature cited is not considered as one of the prime criteria for assessing the thesis; there exists a relationship between each other. Usually, a Researcher analyses the data that he has collected either from his experiments in the laboratory or from the field study, with the existing literature. If there is no data collected either from the field or from the lab, as in the case of theoretical studies, the Researcher depends solely on the published literature. The same is the case with studies in the field of languages where there is no field or lab work. In these cases, the quality of the thesis depends directly on the literature collected and analysed by the Researcher.
OBJECTIVES To find out the different information sources cited in theses. To find out whether primary or secondary sources are cited more. To compare the usage of books and journal articles. To find out the standard of information sources cited To ascertain the currency of literature cited.
LIMITATIONS As the study has been done within a very short duration, only random samples of the PhD theses have been taken. Only 16 samples are taken for this study. Also, the study has been confined to the types of information sources referred and its year of publication only.
HYPOTHESES Research scholars in Social Sciences and Humanities depend heavily on secondary sources such as books rather than primary sources such as journal articles and the case is vice-versa in the case of Research scholars in Science. Newspapers and popular magazines are also cited in Social Science and Humanities theses. Even though Government publications are highly significant as reference sources, the same are poorly cited in Social Science theses. The number of current literature used as citations in Science subjects are rather high compared to those in Social Sciences.
METHODOLOGY The Ph.D theses of M G University has been taken as the object for the study. A total of 16 samples are selected at random. Out of the 16 theses, 8 theses are selected from Science subjects and 8 from Social Sciences and Humanities. The references are counted and their mean value under each category is calculated.
1 TYPES OF INFORMATION SOURCES REFERRED
Table 1.1 Number of references cited Subject Total number of References cited Science 227 Social Sciences 155 KLA National Seminar, 14-16 July 2011,
Table 1.2 Primary sources Vs. Secondary sources Subject Total Ref used Sources Percentage Primary Secondary Primary Secondary Science 227 161 66 71 29 Social Science 155 37 118 24 76 KLA National Seminar, 14-16 July 2011,
Table 1.3 Major references sources Subject Total Ref used Sources Percentage Journals Books Others Journals Books Others Science 227 160 48 19 70 21 9 Social Sc 155 30 95 30 19.5 61 19.5 KLA National Seminar, 14-16 July 2011,
Figure 1.1 Science: Major references sources used KLA National Seminar, 14-16 July 2011,
Figure 1.2 Social Sciences: Major references sources used KLA National Seminar, 14-16 July 2011,
Table 1.4 Use of newspaper as reference source Subject No. of total Ref No. of news papers cited % of total reference Science 227 0 0 Social Sciences 155 4 2.5 KLA National Seminar, 14-16 July 2011,
Table 1.5 Use of URLs as reference source Subject Total ref. used No. of URLS used % of total reference Science 227 0 0 Social Sciences 155 4 2.5 KLA National Seminar, 14-16 July 2011,
Use of Government Publications as reference source Research Scholars in Science subjects have not referred Government publications. Its usage by Social Science scholars is also negligible (0.8% of the total reference), even though the data obtained from Government publications is very significant.
2 ANALYSIS OF YEAR OF PUBLICATION OF REFERENCE SOURCES
Table 2.1 Currency of reference sources used % of total reference used Subject Total Current year 1-2 yrs back 3-5 yrs back 6-15 yrs back Above15 yrs back Science 227 0.7 4.9 8.1 38.9 47.4 Social Sciences 155 0.6 4.7 12.3 44.9 37.5
Figure 2.1 Currency of reference sources used
FINDINGS 1. Research Scholars in Science subjects have referred more literature than their counterparts in social science. 2. Research scholars in the field of Science depend more on primary sources such as journal articles while Social Science Research Scholars are heavily dependent on secondary sources such as Books. 3. There exist no criteria regarding the type of information sources that can be used in a PhD thesis.
FINDINGS (Contd ) 4. Even Newspapers are used as reference sources. References from popular magazines are also provided in a few theses in Social Science 5. URLs are given as reference. Date of download and full bibliographical details are not provided. 6. Usage of Government publications by Social Science scholars is negligible. 7. Researchers from both Science and Social Science are not trying to go through latest publications in their field and to incorporate the latest trends in their works.
TENABILITY OF THE HYPOTHESES 1. Research scholars in Social Sciences and Humanities depends heavily on secondary sources such as books rather than primary sources such as journal articles and the case is vice-versa in the case of Research scholars in Science. This hypothesis is PROVED (Findings: 2)
TENABILITY OF THE HYPOTHESES (contd..) 2. Even Newspapers and popular magazines are cited in Social Science and Humanities theses. This hypothesis is PROVED (Findings: 4)
TENABILITY OF THE HYPOTHESES (contd..) 3. Even though Government publications are highly significant as reference sources, the same are poorly cited in Social Science theses. This hypothesis is PROVED (Findings: 6)
TENABILITY OF THE HYPOTHESES (contd..) 4. The number of current literature used as citations in Science subjects are rather high compared to those in Social Sciences. This hypothesis is DISPROVED (Findings: 7)
Some general observations made 1. Many Research scholars are providing some of their citations even without referring the original document. Actually these types of citations have to be rendered with the words Cited In. Some Researchers are unaware of this type of references. To resolve this problem, instructions have to be given by UGC or the University to provide the photocopy of the concerned page(s) of the original source from which the quotation or a particular point has been extracted by the Research scholar, along with the theses providing the same serial number as given to the works cited. This has to be provided as a separate file.
Some general observations made (Contd..) 2. There is no uniformity in providing the references. The Research scholar is confused and unable to differentiate between References and Bibliography.
SUGGESTIONS 1.Orientation has to be given especially to Research Scholars in Social Science and Humanities regarding the following- The difference between references and bibliographies The different types of information sources The relative importance of primary sources in research The difference between books and journals and the relative importance of journal articles over books in the preparation of theses. How standard/peer reviewed journals can be identified How bibliographies, bibliographies of bibliographies, secondary journals and databases can be effectively used for literature search. The significance of primary sources such as government publications, patents, standards, reports etc in research.
SUGGESTIONS (contd...) 2. UGC or some other higher body should frame certain criteria so as to: Decide the information sources that can and cannot be used as reference in the theses. Curb the use of URLs. If it is used, date of down load of the articles should be given. Only those documents which have an author, source and year of publication should be used as reference. This bibliographic details should also be given in addition to the URL Instruct the Evaluators to make sure that sufficient number of latest works is included in the theses as citations. To include Library and Information Science as a paper of the course work.
SUGGESTIONS (contd...) 3.Help desk can be started at least in University Libraries so as to help the Research Scholars in their needs related to literature search, preparation of bibliographies etc.
CONCLUSION It is observed from the study that some Research scholars, especially from Social science and Humanities, are not aware of the different information sources and their relative importance in research. Every research scholar should be aware of the importance and relevance of the current developments in their field and for the same he should go through the latest publications.
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