Managing Academic Research Output through ResearchGate: Evidence from Federal Universities in South-South Nigeria
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The reputation of academic excellence is earned by universities because of the commitment of lecturers to exceptional teaching, learning, research and professional updating. Professional updating by lecturers is assessed by the quality and quantity of their research output. This work therefore examines the role of ResearchGate in the research output of lecturers in federal universities in the South-South Geopolitical Zone of Nigeria. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design, using structured and validated questionnaire for data collection. The sample size of the study was 576 Lecturers, drawn from the six federal universities in the South-South of Nigeria. Simple random and proportionate sampling techniques were used to select the respondents. A research question was formulated to guide the analysis of data which was done using mean values. The study findings show that ResearchGate do positively impact on and does have significant influence on the research output of the lecturers. Data collected were computed and analysed using simple percentages, frequency tables, and mean values. Based the findings, this study concludes that ResearchGate is replete with resources, tools and features that facilitate research, enhance quality research output as well as academic visibility. It is therefore recommended that lecturers should sustain its usage, get more acquainted with its tools and features in order to achieve quality research output.
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