Trends and Citation Behaviour of Computer Science Researchers in Federal University of Technology, Minna: A 2015-2017 Citation Analysis

Abstract

Citation analysis is a very important concept in the research ecosystem. It is an approach used in measuring the importance of research outputs by counting the instances in which an author, or research output has been cited by other works. The study mapped out cited references in computer science theses submitted to the university library, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Nigeria. 30 copies of master’s theses organised and available in the library. These theses were between 2015 and 2017. The theses bibliographic details were extracted to determine the research trends and citation behavior of computer science researchers. Using tables, frequency counts and percentages, the results were presented. The study revealed that researchers mostly prefer journal articles than books and conference proceedings. The study also found that Algorithms was the most researched area for computer science in Federal University of Technology Minna, Nigeria, while the least researched areas are System Design and Management Information System. It is recommended that researchers be provided with the most preferred type of publication and scholars encouraged to explore other areas of computer science which has not been extensively researched.