Indian Doctoral Research in the Field of Library and Information Science: An Empirical Analysis

Abstract

In this paper, we analyzed systematically the doctoral research works produced by Indian Universities in the discipline of Library and Information Science (LIS). This study aims to find out the developmental pattern, current trends, popular focused areas, most productivity universities, and supervisors, as well as language and gender-wise productivity of LIS theses. Based on two Indian data sources a database was developed on LIS doctoral research and inferences were drawn as per the research questions formulated. It was observed that altogether 957 doctoral theses have been guided by 382 supervisors from 105 universities in India. Lotka’s law of scientific productivity was applied for the first of it’s kind to the ‘guide-ship pattern of doctoral works’ and found validated. Five broad areas of research are found to be the most focused themes of Indian LIS research. This paper highlights the evolution and pattern of LIS research to identify the areas that have influenced the scholars most and to know the direction of research.

Keywords:

• Content analysis
• doctoral research
• Indian universities
• library and information science
• Lotka’s law
• RAKE analysis