A study of research productivity of the academic staff in research institutes in south-west Nigeria

This study investigated research productivity of academic staff in research institutes in South-West Nigeria between 2009-2014. Descriptive research design was adopted, questionnaire was the data instrument used to collect data. Total enumeration method was used to capture 782 academic staff in the twelve (12) research institutes. Findings show that a total 15,477 research output was published by the academic staff and the level of  research productivity of the academic staff is low ( (̅ = 11.51; = 2.36).Articles in journals had highest number with 3,486 (22.6%), followed by conference proceedings which had 2,364 (15.3%) of the publications. The patterns of research productivity of the academic staff in research  institutes in South-West showed that majority 10,016 (64.7%) of the publications were published locally while 5,461 (35.3%) were published  offshore(international outlets). The patterns further showed that majority 5,604 (36.2%) of the research productivity has single authorship, 5,216 (33.7%) while the remaining 4,657 (30.08%) were multiple authorship. Major factors hindering research productivity of academic staff in research institutes are family challenges, financial constraints, inadequate information accessibility, inadequate information literacy and inadequate motivation from employers. The study therefore recommends among other things: establishment of Special Research Trust Fund for development of the research in these institutes, adequate research funds/grants for academic staff, continuous training programmes on information literacy skills, mentoring, improved research skills of academic staff and encouragement of collaboration and interdisciplinary researches among the  academic staff in the research institutes. Keywords: Research Productivity, Academic staff, Research institutes, Nigeria