Assessing Research Impact Through Citation Analysis: A Study Of Lis Doctoral Theses Submitted To Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi

Abstract

  This study carries out a comprehensive citation analysis of doctoral theses uploaded on Shodhganga, the academic repository in Library and information Science of Banaras Hindu University. The study covers 20 doctoral theses uploaded on Shodhganga until February 2022. It shows a significant increase in the upload of doctoral theses between 2009 and 2019 which marks a peak in academic production during this period. The aim of this study is to investigate citation patterns, cited document types, trends in authorship, half-life of journals citations and the application of Bradford’s Law of Scattering to assess the distribution of citations in doctoral theses in Library and Information Science. This study uses a mixed methods approach, involving both qualitative and quantitative analysis, to understand citation trends and research output in LIS at this university. The doctoral thesis received a total of 5,085 citations, with results indicating that journal articles are the most cited sources, followed by book, reflecting researchers’ preference for peer-reviewed literature.