An Examination of Undergraduate Student Citation Behavior

• Published in: The Journal of academic librarianship Vol. 32; no. 1; pp. 14 - 22
• Main Author: Carlson, Jake
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY Elsevier Inc 2006; Elsevier; Elsevier Science; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Bibliographic description; Bibliographies; Citations; Citations (References); College students; Data analysis; Exact sciences and technology; Information and communication sciences; Information science. Documentation; Intellectual Disciplines; Internet resources; Library and information science. General aspects; Library resources; Research Papers (Students); Sciences and techniques of general use; Student behavior; Student Characteristics; Student Research; Students; Subject fields; Undergraduate Students; Use and user studies. Information needs; User behaviour; United States; North America; America; Pennsylvania; Information use; Information source; User study; Bibliographic reference; Use study; Citation; User behavior; Undergraduate
• ISSN: 0099-1333; 1879-1999
• DOI: 10.1016/j.acalib.2005.10.001

Using data collected from 583 bibliographies from student research papers, this study analyzes the effect that the class year of the student, the academic discipline of the course, and the level of the course have on the type and the mean number of sources cited by undergraduates. All three variables had some significant effects on student citation behavior. Additional analysis was done to pinpoint which variable was likely to be the primary cause of the observed effects.