Knowledge Production in Library and Information Science Schools in South Africa: A Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

The current economic conditions, especially in third-world countries like South Africa, requires a highly knowledgeable workforce. In South Africa, this is making knowledge production more relevant to the country’s social and economic needs. This study therefore employs bibliometric research techniques to examine knowledge production in Library and Information Science (LIS) from 2015 to 2019 in South Africa. The results suggest that the production of LIS research degrees has improved tremendously in recent times mainly because of the higher outputs from a few LIS schools. Overall, knowledge production in LIS has improved in recent years but mainly because of a few prolific authors who contributed a large number of publications.