Abstract
Background: The challenge of research funding constraints has brought to bear enormous pressure on researchers. Research productivity is relevant to prestige and career progression of academic staff. However, this study aimed to explore significant challenges associated with researchers’ productivity and the impact of non-funding of research in Nigerian research and tertiary institutions. Methods: This study adopted a qualitative exploratory design involving academics at various research and tertiary institutions across the six geographical regions in Nigeria. A semi-structured questionnaire was distributed electronically to all participants who consented to take part in this study. Exactly 4,159 questionnaires were administered and 2,350 were completely filled and returned. Pearson correlation matrices with logistic regression were used for data analysis and are presented in frequencies and percentages. Results: On challenges faced by respondents, 42.98% reported a lack of research funding, 17.11% mentioned brain drain challenge while 8.85% indicated a lack of motivation. Of the 23,927 publications reported, the number of those in sciences, engineering, and medical sciences averaged 9.6, 11.5, and 9.5 respectively. The average number of publications by women (10.8) was more than by men (9.7). Lecturers had the highest average research publication number (11.8) followed by researchers (10.2) and others (3.9). Men had the highest (11.9) average number of conferences compared to women (9.2). Participants in engineering had an average number of 13.8 conferences per respondents followed by those in education (11.2), sciences (11.1), and 10.9 for those in agricultural sciences. The result revealed a negative significant correlation between research publication and academic qualification at p < 0.01. Positive significant correlation was observed between research productivity and discipline at p < 0.05. Findings show that the combined influence of the independent variables on research productivity was significant using linear regression analysis. Conclusions: The failure to prioritize research has resulted in underdevelopment in Nigeria. It is therefore imperative that the federal government prioritize research and establish a functional Special Research Trust Fund to oversee research funding in Nigeria.
Highlights
Research includes scientific investigations conducted to explore new facts, and its activities are significant in propelling the developmental process of any nation
Research productivity increases the social prestige of an academic staff member and it is associated with appointments, promotion, and high salaries (Federal Republic of Nigeria 2000; Kotrlik et al, 2002; Bassey et al, 2007; Chiemeke et al, 2009)
The respondents in this study comprise all cadres of researchers, lecturers, and others that are involved in research activities, which constitute the academic staff of the institutions
Summary
Research includes scientific investigations conducted to explore new facts, and its activities are significant in propelling the developmental process of any nation. Researchers with high reputation status are likely to publish in journals with high impact factors when compared to researchers whose reputation are ranked among those of low status. Bibliometric methods such as h-index, citation counts, and publication counts are used to ascertain the impact of an article among scholars (Carpenter et al, 2014; Penner et al, 2013; Dolenc et al, 2016; Agarwal et al, 2016; Moher et al, 2018). This study aimed to explore significant challenges associated with researchers’ productivity and the impact of non-funding of research in Nigerian research and tertiary institutions
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