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A study into the availability of and access to electronic journals for teaching and research by the academic staff at the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zimbabwe

Includes bibliographical references.

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Malapela, Thembani
Other Authors: De Jager, Karin
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Library and Information Studies Centre (LISC) 2015
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access_status_str Open Access
author Malapela, Thembani
author2 De Jager, Karin
author_browse De Jager, Karin
Malapela, Thembani
author_facet De Jager, Karin
Malapela, Thembani
author_sort Malapela, Thembani
collection Thesis
description Includes bibliographical references.
format Thesis
id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/13108
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:52:30.430Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2015
publishDateRange 2015
publishDateSort 2015
publisher Library and Information Studies Centre (LISC)
publisherStr Library and Information Studies Centre (LISC)
record_format dspace
source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/13108 A study into the availability of and access to electronic journals for teaching and research by the academic staff at the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zimbabwe Malapela, Thembani De Jager, Karin Library and Information Studies Includes bibliographical references. Researchers have relied on journals as a source of current research information for more than 350 years. In sub-Saharan Africa, researchers and libraries complain about a lack of access to subscription electronic journals despite an increase in electronic journals access schemes for developing countries. Furthermore, African researchers lag behind in publishing their work when compared to their counterparts in the developed world. Research was carried out in the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Zimbabwe, which sought to investigate electronic journal availability from the researchers’ perspectives; to discover how electronic journals are used for teaching and research; and how faculty use journals in their publications. To explore this multi-faceted objective, four key sub-objectives emanated from the main research objective. The first sub-objective was to determine to what extent the available electronic journal collections met faculty’s electronic journal teaching and research needs. The second was to establish journal usage through analysing journals cited in faculty research papers and reading lists given to graduate students. The third was to understand the problems if any, encountered in accessing electronic journals –establishing the nature and frequency of these problems. The last was to explore if academic staff desire and publish their research and in the process, to understand the obstacles they face. This study used methodological triangulation, and data was gathered through three main research methods. These were an electronic journal availability study, a 26 question- 7 survey, and a citation analysis. Each respective method addressed a respective sub-objective, with an overlap of methods for the fourth objective. The findings revealed that 85.5% of the required journals were available across the available electronic journals collections. Faculty members use electronic journals for their work; however, they need training to access and to be aware of what journal content is available. While faculty members aim to be published, evidence indicated that they use less recent journals in their published works. There was no evidence that suggested that access to electronic journals alone leads to increased publications. 2015-06-26T11:02:18Z 2015-06-26T11:02:18Z 2014 Master Thesis Masters MPhil http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13108 eng application/pdf Library and Information Studies Centre (LISC) University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Library and Information Studies
Malapela, Thembani
A study into the availability of and access to electronic journals for teaching and research by the academic staff at the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zimbabwe
thesis_degree_str Master's
title A study into the availability of and access to electronic journals for teaching and research by the academic staff at the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zimbabwe
title_full A study into the availability of and access to electronic journals for teaching and research by the academic staff at the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zimbabwe
title_fullStr A study into the availability of and access to electronic journals for teaching and research by the academic staff at the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zimbabwe
title_full_unstemmed A study into the availability of and access to electronic journals for teaching and research by the academic staff at the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zimbabwe
title_short A study into the availability of and access to electronic journals for teaching and research by the academic staff at the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zimbabwe
title_sort study into the availability of and access to electronic journals for teaching and research by the academic staff at the faculty of agriculture university of zimbabwe
topic Library and Information Studies
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13108
work_keys_str_mv AT malapelathembani astudyintotheavailabilityofandaccesstoelectronicjournalsforteachingandresearchbytheacademicstaffatthefacultyofagricultureuniversityofzimbabwe
AT malapelathembani studyintotheavailabilityofandaccesstoelectronicjournalsforteachingandresearchbytheacademicstaffatthefacultyofagricultureuniversityofzimbabwe