Analysis of information use in agricultural science PhD theses at Central University of Venezuela

Purpose – To analyze information use in agricultural science PhD theses submitted between 1986 and 2002 in the Faculty of Agronomy, Central University of Venezuela (UCV). Design/methodology/approach – The source of information was the UCV Faculty of Agronomy, Library's database, “Tesis”. The unidimensional production and use indicators analyzed included: scientific production, reference density, self-citations, document contemporaneousness and type of documents cited, reference scattering and accessibility of the journals cited. Findings – The analysis of the data obtained from 4,646 bibliographic references in 42 agricultural science PhD theses provides insight into information use in a Venezuelan agricultural science community. The mean number of references per thesis found was 113?±?21. The number of women earning a PhD in agriculture was observed to grow. The percentage of self-citations varied widely. The half-life was 11 years and the Price's Index 22 per cent. According to the distribution by document type, most of the publications cited were articles in journals, while references to technical standards and internet publications were rare. UCV Faculty of Agronomy PhD students tended to seek information primarily in the Anglo Saxon literature. The Celestino Bonfanti Library periodicals section met a high proportion (92 per cent) of the demand for journals located in the first and second concentration-scattering zones. Originality/value – This is the only paper on the evaluation of PhD theses in Venezuela. The findings will be useful for education planners in Venezuela and other developing countries.Publicad

Some characteristics of early Australian PhD theses

The first PhDs in Australia were awarded in the late 1940s and 1950s. This paper reports on some research being conducted by the authors that involves reviewing early PhD theses from the Universities of Melbourne, Queensland and Sydney. The paper discusses some selected features of the candidates, fields of study and theses. Photographs and facsimiles from a selection of early theses illustrate some peculiarities of the time.<br /

Similarity Index of Doctoral Theses Submitted to Universities in Kerala: An investigation

Plagiarism has grown to such an alarming rate that the academic community finds it difficult to spot an authentic work among the plethora of published literature. Anti-plagiarism softwares have become popular as a solution to overcome this problem. This study aims to describe various aspects of plagiarism, to assess the contribution of PhD theses in ShodhGanga by the universities in Kerala, to identify the subject wise contribution of PhD theses in various universities in Kerala during 2010-17,to find the extend of similarity of content in the PhD theses of the Universities in Kerala and to rank the universities in Kerala with respect to the similarity index. The study is based on 70 PhD theses of three Universities in Kerala viz. University of Kerala, M.G University and University of Calicut selected at random by simple random sample method from the theses available in ShodhGanga. The theses selected were tested by using Urkund, anti-plagiarism software maintained by INFLIBNET. It was found that Science subjects show least similarity index whereas Social Science subjects have the highest similarity rate. Faculty of Arts (26.6%) has a high degree of similarity followed by Humanities (26%) and lowest in Science (16%).Among the Universities University of Calicut occupied the top position with 21 % similarity index in its PhD theses followed by M.G University having 20.4% and the University of Kerala has least with 17.9% of similarity index. The paper points out the importance of user awareness programmes and training programmes on anti-plagiarism for the research guides, research scholars and library staff members

Contribution of agronomy to land management issues - A Comparison of five interdisciplinary PhD theses

An introductory literature review highlights the growing attention within the processes taking place at farming region and landscape scale beside the classical spatial scales at cultivated/experimental plot level. This recent evolution in agronomy finds its origin in newly emerging land management issues. Meanwhile, geography and other disciplines are stressing the need for a greater integration of multifunctional agricultural activities into the decision-making processes at the various levels of land management, such as provinces, municipalities or watersheds. This requires also that studies on farmland management include explicitly the different environmental and social contexts influencing farming activities. In this paper we aim to analyse how recent agronomic oriented research are facing and supporting various land management issues. We have compared five interdisciplinary PhD theses examining their definitions and methods of analysis for: the farming system, the local land management issues at stake, the spatial scale selected for the study, the stakeholders' involvement and the interaction with other disciplines. Common issues which emerged from this comparison are delivery of agro-environmental services, sustainable land management and landscape conservation. Multiple spatial levels were considered, which included at least one administrative unit of policy decision/implementation. Consequently, the explicit (re)definition of some agronomic concepts and methods was needed. Regarding the interdisciplinary framework, the theses have stressed the interactions among agronomy, geography and ecology. All theses aimed at delivering tools for decision-making support, mainly in the form of cartography. Nevertheless the participation of local stakeholders was generally included as a final step; herewith the settings of stakeholders' involvement were various. In conclusion, we discuss how the produced knowledge has enhanced the land management issues in local planning tools. On these bases, we stress finally the issues at stake to strengthen the roles and contributions of agronomic oriented education and research to agricultural land management and development. (Résumé d'auteur

Information use pattern on sub-subjects of Political Science research: a citation analysis

The paper presents citation analysis of PhD theses awarded during the period 1986-2015 in five sub- subjects of Political Science under the University of Burdwan. The study is based on the 7711 citations collected from 56 PhD theses of five specific subjects’ viz. Administration, Indian Politics, Political Sociology, International Relation and Political Thought under Political Science. This paper carefully analyses the bibliographic details of all 56 doctoral theses against different predefined criteria such as bibliographic forms, journal ranking, authorship pattern, authorship collaboration and degree of collaboration. After carefully analyzing all the theses against said criteria mentioned above, results have been presented with statistical tables and graphs. The bibliographic data required for the study have been collected from the research section of The University of Burdwan. In addition, Shodhganga (http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/), has also been consulted. All the references have been analysed using the dBaseIII+ programmes. It was found that, out 56 PhD theses, the maximum contribution was in Public Administration (31 theses). The study confirmed that, Books was found to be most cited materials (51.51%) followed by journal articles with 28.14%. It was also found that, the majority of citations were contributed by single author

Analysis of the Graduate Studies in Different Disciplines Prepared for Music Education in Turkey

This qualitative research is a descriptive study aiming to analyze the graduate studies in different disciplines prepared for music evaluation and to reveal the current situation in TurkeyThe sample of the study involves 25 graduate theses in different disciplines which are in the database of the National Thesis Center and defended in line with music education field. These theses were examined with content analysis and 10 criteria as follows: thesis type, its university, recearcher’s gender, publication year, title of advisor, its institute, its department, research area, research model and research class. The findings were interpreted in tables by calculating the frequency and percentage. The findings reveal that 76% of the examined theses in the scope of this study are master's (MA), 20% doctorate (PhD) and 4% specialty in medicine theses. Most of the MA theses were prepared in Hacettepe University, and most of the PhD theses were prepared in Ankara University and the specialty in medicine thesis was completed in Gaziosmanpaşa University. In addition, most of these theses were written by female researchers and the number of theses in different disciplines prepapred for music education in Turkey is not numerous. Music education and preschool education were associated, and most of the PhD theses had equal distribution in the fields of Education Policies, Preschool Education, Mathematics Education, Empathic Skills and Sociology. Lastly, it was revealed that most of the theses were prepared based on descriptive model and quantitative approach