INFORMATION LITERACY, RESEARCH SELF-EFFICACY, AND RESEARCH PRODUCTIVITY OF DOCTORAL STUDENTS IN UNIVERSITIES IN OGUN STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Aim/Purpose The main purpose of the study was to find out the influence of information literacy and research self-efficacy on the research productivity of doctoral students in universities in Ogun State, Nigeria. Background The prosperity of any nation is inextricably tied to its research productivity in both quality and quantity. Hence, doctoral education, among others, is meant to sustain research productivity by training students that will possibly assume the role of researchers in the future. However, despite the importance of research productivity to the prosperity of a nation and the sustenance of scholarship, evidence from the literature has shown that doctoral students globally and in the study’s locale do experience low research productivity, manifested as low publication count, underdeveloped strategies for thesis writing, and unusually prolonged doctoral education. This study, therefore, examined the influence of information literacy and research self-efficacy on research productivity of doctoral students in universities in Ogun State, Nigeria. Methodology The study used a survey research design. The population of the study was 1,418 doctoral students from six universities in Ogun State already undertaking doctoral programs out of nine licensed by the National Universities Commission (NUC). The Research Advisor’s table was used to select a sample size of 306. A structured and validated questionnaire was used for data collection. Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient for the constructs ranged from 0.72 to 0.98. The response rate was 92%. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential (simple and multiple regression) statistics. Contribution To the best of the researcher’s knowledge, this is the only study that has combined information literacy with research self-efficacy as predictors of doctoral students’ research productivity. Therefore, it has added to the existing literature on information literacy, research self-efficacy, and research productivity by shedding light on the influence of information literacy and research self-efficacy on research productivity.