Comparative Analysis of Citation Patterns in Civil and Mechanical Engineering Research Projects

This study investigated the citation patterns in Civil and Mechanical Engineering research projects in a private university in Nigeria. The study adopted Bibliometric method was used to analyse the research projects submitted by graduates of the Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, Landmark University, Omu-Aran, Nigeria from 2016 to 2018. All the references of the research projects were examined. For each research project retrieved, data were obtained manually on some characteristics of cited materials. The findings revealed that the citation in the projects in the two programmes were high. The average number of citation per project was higher in civil engineering than mechanical engineering. It was also discovered that most of the cited documents were very recent in the two programmes. The findings also shows that the most cited materials in the two programmes was journal articles, followed by books among others. It was also discovered that mechanical engineering students cite more books and internet materials than civil engineering students. Also the result shows that civil engineering students cite more multiple authored materials than mechanical engineering students. Based on the findings, the study concluded and made recommendations