PERCEIVED EFFECT OF AWARENESS AND USE OF OPEN ACCESS JOURNALS BY LIBRARY USERS FOR RESEARCH EFFICIENCY IN MARGARET LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY, DELTA STATE, NIGERIA
Description
The purpose of the present study was to examine the perceived effect of awareness and use of open access journals by library users on research efficiency at Margaret Lawrence University. Three hundred and twenty-nine library (329) users were selected for the study. A specifically designed questionnaire was administered to gather information about the awareness and use of open access journals by library users for research efficiency at Margaret Lawrence University. The collected data were analyzed using the mean () and standard deviation (SD) to answer research questions. The results revealed that library users at MLU are much aware of open access journals and, to a high extent, use open access journals. The study also revealed that MLU library users face a lot of challenges in using open-access journals to promote their research efficiency. It was then recommended that there is a need to accept and acclimate to the changing model of scholarly communication with particular reference to open access journals, and university management should support library users by developing an intrinsic drive for knowledge creation and publishing research output through internet subscriptions for use of open access journals. Keywords: Awareness, Use, Open, Access, Databases, Library, Perceived effect, University, Margaret Lawrence, Delta, Nigeria, Electronic