CITATION ANALYSIS OF DOCTORAL THESES REFERENCES AS A TOOL FOR COLLECTION MANAGEMENT IN HISTORY: A STUDY OF PANJAB UNIVERSITY, CHANDIGARH (INDIA)

A citation analysis study was carried out on the citations appended in the end of History discipline Ph.D. dissertations to ascertain what types of documents are the most frequently used in the research process, the most commonly consulted core journals and obsolescence rate of the journals and books. The study analysed 8488 citations appended in the 36 Ph.D. theses of History discipline submitted to Panjab University, Chandigarh, for the award of doctoral degree during 2002-2012. The results obtained from the 8488 citations revealed that the most frequently used documents were books, which accounted for 54.16 percent of the total citations and ‘Economic & Political Weekly’ was found to be the most cited journal. Bradford’s law of scattering was used to identify the core journals in the field of History. The result of the study may be used as a tool for the collection management for central Library of Panjab University, Chandigarh