Assessing Reference Management Practices among Research Scholars of Indira Gandhi National Open University

Library Herald 

Year : 2024, Volume : 62, Issue : 3 

First page : ( 490) Last page : ( 503) 

Print ISSN : 0024-2292. Online ISSN : 0976-2469.

Assessing Reference Management Practices among Research Scholars of Indira Gandhi National Open University

Ashok Kumar* Pankaj Kumar** Amit Kumar***

*Assistant Professor, Faculty of Library and Information Science, School of Social Sciences, Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi. Email: ashokkr@ignou.ac.in

**Assistant Professor, Department of Library and Information Science, School of Arts, Communication and Languages, Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University, Uttarakhand. Email: informpankaj1994@gmail.com

***Library and Information Assistant, Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur. Email: amitkumar@vnit.ac.in

Abstract

In the academic world searching and managing references is a tedious task. By communicating with publishing houses scholars have to face difficulties i.e. creation of bibliographies and references in multiple citation styles (i.e. Chicago, MLA, APA, etc.). The development of Reference Management Software (RMS) has solved this problem for scholars. This study aims to explore the awareness of reference management software among the research scholars of Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU). Design/ methodology/ approach: The research scholars were requested to participate in the online survey to seek information regarding their awareness and choices of using RMS. There were 91 respondents in the study who completed the survey. Findings: Results indicate that despite having authored a dissertation or thesis with a master’s degree still many don’t have expertise in the use of RMS and manually managing their references. Participants are aware of the growing importance of RMS and are willing to adopt it in the future. Mendeley and Zotero RMS are highly used. Participants also expressed the need for the organisation of the training programmes. Originality/ value: Management of reference using the RMS is becoming increasingly popular among the academic and researcher community. The use of RMS facilitates numerous advantages to the researchers i.e. search, manage, organise, share, and cite their literature & references. However, various factors affect the use of RMS, i.e. training and support from the library, commercial or open source RMS, and features of RMS.

Keywords

References, Citations, Reference Management, Reference Management Software’s