Information Use by PhD Students in Agriculture and Biology: A Dissertation Citation Analysis

This article reports the findings of a study conducted to examine the types of information used by graduate students in the fields of biological and agricultural sciences at Iowa State University (ISU). The citations of doctoral dissertations submitted in nine agriculture and biological science subject fields (crop production and physiology; molecular, cellular, and developmental biology; entomology; genetics; microbiology; plant breeding; plant pathology; plant physiology; and soil science) at ISU from 1997–2006 were analyzed. The article discusses the types and ages of resources cited in the different subject fields studied. The most cited journals in each discipline were identified, and the journal title dispersion was examined.

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