Abstract:
This paper is a study on publication patterns of academics in Science and Engineering in Southern Nigeria for period of ten years from 1997-2006. The problem of the study is to find out the extent of research productivity of academics in science and engineering in Southern Nigeria. The study specifically finds out the influence of rank, length of services, academic qualifications, and age of the academic staff on research productivity. The six out of thirteen federal universities were selected through stratified random sampling. The data was collected through the use of questionnaire. Out of 435 questionnaire issued out, 291 completed their questionnaire well. The data were organised using descriptive statistics and also to the distribution of the publications. While inferential statistics of Analysis of Variance was used to know publication differences among academics in zones, ranks, qualifications, length of services. The study revealed that about 30% of the academics published 0-4 journal articles. That length of services, academic qualification and rank has influence on research productivity. It was found out that academics in south-west publish more in overseas journals, unlike academics from south-south and south-east who publish more in local journals. However age of the university has no influence on level of research productivity. It was recommended that mentoring, co-authorship, collaboration and sponsorship to international conferences will help to improve research productivity. The implication of this study is that if Nigerian academics in science and engineering continue to publish more in local journals, the outcome of their research may not be visible and accessible to other researchers in their field.
