Use of reference management software among postgraduate students in Greece

2021 ◽  
pp. 096100062199641
Author(s):  
Ilias Nitsos ◽  
Afrodite Malliari ◽  
Rodopi Chamouroudi
Keyword(s):  
Student Discipline ◽  
Bibliographic Databases ◽  
Background Characteristics ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Management Software ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Significant Relationships ◽  
The University ◽  
Degree Level

The use of reference management software in the context of academic work and research is the main subject of this study. The study focuses on the extent to which postgraduate students at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, one of the largest Greek universities, make use of – or avoid using – reference management software tools to organize their bibliographic databases and to automate the process of creating references and citations. The study also tries to find out which are the key factors for their choices and whether certain background characteristics affect their behavior. It should be mentioned that no previous studies have been conducted in Greece regarding the use of reference management software in the academic environment. An online questionnaire was sent to the postgraduate students at the University and a result set of 545 responses was collected and analyzed. The majority (almost two-thirds) of the respondents identified themselves as non-users and one-third identified themselves as reference management software users. Among the latter, Mendeley was found to be the software used by more than two-thirds of the users and was followed by EndNote and Zotero. It is worth mentioning that Mendeley is the software officially recommended by the University’s central library to its users but most of the students (more than 60%) were not aware of this fact. In terms of background characteristics, the analysis revealed, among other things, statistically significant relationships between degree level, student discipline and preferences, reference management software features, and potential future use of reference management software.

scholarly journals Poor Information Literacy Skills and Practices as Barriers to Academic Performance: A Mixed Methods Study of the University of Dar es Salaam

2016 ◽  
Vol 55 (4) ◽  
pp. 293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tina Klomsri ◽  
Matti Tedre
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Focus Group ◽  
Information Literacy ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Focus Group Discussions ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Knowing How ◽  
The University

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is increasingly used in Tanzanian education. Knowing how to operate ICT alone is incomplete without knowing how to use it as a tool for organization, communication, research, and problem-solving. In recognition of this challenge, information literacy (IL) has been identified as a key attribute to students as they progress through their learning paths. Based on a mixed methods strategy, using questionnaires and focus group discussions, this study measured the level of IL skills among University of Dar es Salaam’s (UDSM) postgraduate students, to gain insights into the students’ perceptions and experiences with information problems. A total of 102 students from four institutions answered the online questionnaire and 22 students participated in six focus group discussions. The questionnaire scores of the students were poor in the majority of IL categories, suggesting ineffectiveness of the current IL training in imparting IL knowledge and skills. The study ends by discussing recommendations to improve current IL practices at the university.

scholarly journals Barriers to Doctoral Degree Attainment: Problems of the Period after Postgraduate Studies

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-48
Author(s):  
B. I. Bednyi ◽  
G. L. Voronin ◽  
A. A. Mironos ◽  
N. V. Rybakov
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Doctoral Degree ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Additional Time ◽  
Academic Degree ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Managerial Decisions ◽  
Postgraduate Studies ◽  
Questionnaire Surveys

Increasing the effectiveness of postgraduate programs is now becoming one of the most important issues in ensuring the economic development of the state. As a rule, Russian postgraduate students, who are aimed at getting an academic degree, fail to defend their theses during their postgraduate studies, and they need additional time to complete their work. The purpose of this research article is to identify and analyze the key problems faced by Russian postgraduates seeking to submit their dissertations for defense. Our investigation comes to be original in two aspects. First, in contrast to other empirical studies of postgraduate school, the authors’ attention is focused on the barriers to attaining a degree, which arise not in the course of study, but after graduation. Second, the analysis is based on interviewing those graduates who have successfully overcome these barriers and defended their PhD theses. The empirical base of the study is online questionnaire surveys of Russian PhDs (Candidates of Science) who have recently completed their postgraduate studies, as well as administrative and managerial workers responsible for postgraduate students’ training and certification. The quantitative data obtained indicate that the presence or absence of a dissertation council in an organization wherein postgraduate students are trained is one of the key factors determining the pace and effectiveness of the postgraduates’ proceeding to an academic degree. In general, the results of the study make it possible to conclude that the difficulties at the final stage of preparing a dissertation are largely due to the imperfection of the mechanism for pairing the systems of state scientific certification and scientific and pedagogical personnel postgraduate training. Thus, we discuss possible organizational and managerial decisions of how to bring these systems closer and improve the performance of postgraduate studies. This paper might be of interest for higher education researchers, as well as for scientific, pedagogical and administrative workers involved in the management of personnel training and higher scientific qualifications certification.

Factors That Influence Choice and Usage of Reference Management Software by Postgraduate Students at the University Of Limpopo, South Africa

Mousaion ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Thondo Morotola Johanna Motlhake ◽  
Solomon Bopape
Keyword(s):  
Random Sampling ◽  
Information Sources ◽  
Stratified Random Sampling ◽  
Advanced Training ◽  
Product Knowledge ◽  
Management Software ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Scientific Papers ◽  
Data Collection Instrument ◽  
The University

Inaccuracy in manual referencing of information sources in scientific papers resulted in the development of reference management software (RMS) for academics, researchers, scholars, and students. It is crucial to constantly assess the use of this software for decision making regarding sustained software purchasing and subscriptions. This study sought to identify factors that influence the choice and usage of RMS among postgraduate students in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Limpopo. Stratified random sampling was employed to arrive at 244 participants. A questionnaire was used as data collection instrument. The study found that the majority of respondents have used RMS before. The respondents used RefWorks and Mendeley, because they were familiar with these packages and because they had received training on how to use them. As such, product knowledge, experience, and skills in using RMS are associated with their popularity and usage. It was also found that postgraduate students use RMS for basic purposes, such as saving and organising citations for easy retrieval and for creating bibliographic lists in a preferred referencing style, as well as for exporting citations from subject databases. Based on the findings, the study recommends intensified and more advanced training on RMS to ensure optimal utilisation of RMS by postgraduate students in general.

scholarly journals The Effectiveness of Interaction between Scientific Supervisors and Graduate Students at the University and at the Academy of Sciences

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-22
Author(s):  
E. V. Biricheva ◽  
Z. A. Fattakhova
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Students ◽  
Academic Community ◽  
Advanced Training ◽  
Highly Qualified ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Postgraduate Studies ◽  
High Employment ◽  
The University ◽  
Academy Of Sciences

The effectiveness of work and relationship of postgraduate students with their supervisors seem to be an urgent issue in the context of contemporary transformations of the Russian system of training highly qualified personnel. The article assesses the understanding of the purposes of graduate school by both “sides”, the specifics of the interaction between mentors and their mentees, the leading difficulties and ways to overcome them. Since in our country postgraduate programs are implemented not only at universities, we also compared situations at a university and in an academic community considering the case of the Ural Federal University (UrFU) and scientific institutes of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (UB RAS). Empirical methods for collecting initial data were applied both at UrFU and at UB RAS and included interviewing scientific leaders and questioning graduate students. A series of in-depth interviews with mentors led to the formulation of research hypotheses and allowed the elaboration of an online questionnaire for graduate students. As a result, we may state the prevalence of the “external” obstacles that reduce the effectiveness of the interaction of young scientists with their scientific leaders; in general, the relationship between them looks quite harmoniously. Among the most pressing problems we have identified (1) disorientation about the concept of postgraduate studies without obligatory defense of the thesis (especially at university); (2) low productivity of the “educational” postgraduate studies; (3) lack of advanced training for supervisors in the field of management in science; (4) high employment of professors; (5) side mentoring and (6) the lack of plans for writing a dissertation. The solution of this set of problems seems to be based, first of all, on a new regulatory framework at the federal level, revising the types and volumes of workload of graduate students and their supervisors, fixing the need to write a dissertation during the course of study, regulating the requirements for scientific supervisors and guaranteeing them advanced training in the field managerial competencies. The positive practice of employing all graduate students at academic institutions, at least for a fraction of the rate, may also help universities in increasing the motivation of graduate students to defend their PhD thesis and build their future career at the university.

The Student Room Survey: Changes in the Post Graduate Study for Cardiothoracic Surgery

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 71-74
Author(s):  
Md Faizus Sazzad ◽  
Mohammed Moniruzzaman ◽  
Dewan Iftakher Raza Choudhury ◽  
Arif Ahmed Mohiuddin ◽  
Raafi Rahman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Thoracic Surgery ◽  
Retrospective Analysis ◽  
Primary Objective ◽  
Graduate Study ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Depth Interview ◽  
Secondary Objective ◽  
Cardio Vascular ◽  
The University ◽  
Day By Day

Background: The number of postgraduate students in Cardiac surgical discipline is increasing day by day with incremental proportion are measurably suffering from the unnecessary lingering of the present course curriculum. The primary objective of this study was to find out the last 5 years’ of results of Masters in Surgery course under the University of Dhaka from a student room survey. A secondary objective was to find out positive changes that could show us the way of a step toward up-gradation. Methods: It is a retrospective analysis of all examination results of Cardio-vascular & Thoracic Surgery published since January 2008 to January 2013 from the University of Dhaka with in depth interview of 11 participants. Results: 85.24% students failed to pass part-I of Masters in Surgery for Cardio-vascular & Thoracic Surgery course while, 82.18% in part-II and 71.28% failed to pass the final part. Average 2.51 attempts needed to complete each part of the designed course resulted into lingering of course duration for 42.18 months/student. In the thoracic surgery discipline the number of students alarmingly reduced up to 0% in the recent academic sessions. Conclusions: Masters in Surgery is resulting in unnecessary prolongation of the course. We should step forward to meet the next generation challenge. Journal of Surgical Sciences (2019) Vol. 23(2): 71-74

Sexual health literacy of the student population of the University of Tasmania: results of the RUSSL Study

Sexual Health ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve Simpson ◽  
Christine Clifford ◽  
Kaz Ross ◽  
Neil Sefton ◽  
Louise Owen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Literacy ◽  
Sexual Health ◽  
Secondary Students ◽  
Religious Affiliation ◽  
Sexual Experience ◽  
Student Population ◽  
Sexual Education ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Literacy Scores ◽  
The University

Background Evidence suggests a varied level of sexual health literacy (SHL) among university student populations, so we evaluated the SHL among students at the University of Tasmania. Methods: Students were invited to complete an anonymous online questionnaire during August/September 2013. SHL was assessed using the ARCSHS National Survey of Australian Secondary Students & Sexual Health (ARC) and the Sexual Health Questionnaire (SHS). Predictors of literacy scores were evaluated by linear regression. Results: The study recruited 1786 participants (8.2% of 2013 student population), of similar composition to the general university population. Female sex, older age, sexual education, and sexual experience were significant predictors of SHL. As hypothesised, students in medical/nursing disciplines had the highest SHL. Less expected were the significant differences by birthplace and religious affiliation, many of which persisted on adjustment for confounders. Compared with Australian/New Zealander students, overseas-born students had significantly lower ARC (–3.6%, P < 0.001) & SHS (–4.2%, P < 0.001); this was driven by Malaysian, Indian, and Chinese students. Compared with agnostic/atheist-identifying students, those of Buddhist (ARC: –5.4%, P = 0.014; SHS: –6.7%, P = 0.002), Hindu (ARC: –8.8%, P = 0.098; SHS: –12.2%, P = 0.027), Muslim (ARC: –16.5%, P < 0.001; SHS: –13.4%, P = 0.001) and Protestant (ARC: –2.3%, P = 0.023; SHS: –4.4%, P < 0.001) identifications had markedly lower SHL. Conclusions: This study, one of the first among university students in Australia, found a varied SHL by sex, age, sexual education and sexual experience, as well as by birthplace and religious affiliation. These findings have applications in orientation and education programs at Australian universities.

Technical services and user service improvement

2006 ◽  
Vol 27 (6/7) ◽  
pp. 505-514 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jie Huang ◽  
Katherine Wong
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
Service Improvement ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Content Type ◽  
University Of Oklahoma ◽  
Online Catalog ◽  
Efficient Processing ◽  
The University ◽  
Technical Services

PurposeFrom the cataloging librarians' point of view, this paper aims to present how technical services, especially the cataloging department, can play important roles in the improvement of user services.Design/methodology/approachThe paper examines the practices of the University of Oklahoma Libraries.FindingsThe paper identifies several aspects in which technical services can enhance the quality of user services, especially in the cataloging department. A library's online catalog becomes the first point of access to the library's information resources. Its quality can be improved and enriched in many ways to raise users’ satisfaction. Aside from the improvement in technical aspects, efforts should also be made to promote collaboration between technical and public services so as to ensure efficient processing of materials and to meet the needs of library users.Originality/valueThe value of the paper is in showing that the quality of an online catalog and the cooperation between public and technical services are two of the key factors in achieving high quality of user services.

Postgraduates’ Perceptions in Completion of Their Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 91-107
Author(s):  
Teoh Sian Hoon ◽  
Geethanjali Narayanan ◽  
Raja Normi Raja Mohamad ◽  
Gurnam Kaur Sidhu
Keyword(s):  
Higher Learning ◽  
Research Writing ◽  
Institutional Factor ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Construction Of Knowledge ◽  
Learning Challenges ◽  
Academic Competencies ◽  
Conducting Research ◽  
The University ◽  
Learning Institutions

This study was conducted to investigate the postgraduate students’ perceptions towards their experiences of completion of their studies. The population of this study consisted of postgraduate students in a public university in Selangor. The sample comprised 104 randomly selected postgraduate students from the university. A 5-point Likert scale questionnaire was administered to the samples. The questionnaire consisted of four domains, namely student factor, supervisor factor, institutional factor and challenges faced by the students. This study discovered that (1) the postgraduate students perceived supervisors as a determinant factor that contributes toward conducting research. (2) they perceived their academic competencies in research writing as moderate and (3) the supervisor factor has a significant and inverse relationship on challenges faced by the postgraduate students, i.e. the efforts and competencies of supervisors reduced challenges of the postgraduate students to complete their research. Based on the findings, it was suggested that higher learning institutions should highlight on the construction of knowledge through active interaction between lecturers and students. This type of assistance has become a platform for the students to cope up with the learning challenges they were facing in higher education.

scholarly journals Forging a research community of practice to find out how South African children make their world mathematical

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Henning
Keyword(s):  
Community Of Practice ◽  
South African ◽  
Story Line ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Local Schools ◽  
Mathematics Competence ◽  
Shared Goal ◽  
Competence Test ◽  
The University ◽  
Different Sources

In a search for ways to capture foundation phase children’s competence in mathematics, a small research team was put together at a South African university four years ago. At first, working only in a single school where the objective was to model 80 learners’ growth in competence over four years, the team transformed into a very different entity. This article narrates the founding and development of a community of research practice, which eventually included undergraduate- and postgraduate students, researchers from institutions in Germany, Switzerland and South Africa, teachers at local schools close to the university, and an educational research and survey company. Supported by funding from four different sources, the project is fairly close to reaching the goal of delivering a standardised mathematics competence test for 4-8 year-olds, which is a first of its kind for the country where educational measurement seems to be at a crossroads. In the story line of this community of practice, it is evident that progress can be assessed best by the learning that has been taking place in a community with a notable diversity of people and interests, but with the shared goal of investigating children’s mathematical behaviour on a measure that can be trusted.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document