Citation Analysis of Grey Literature Reflected in PhD Thesis Submitted to the Karnataka State Universities with Special Reference to Engineering and Technology

Abstract

Information plays a vital role in all aspects of human life. In the Google world, the situation has newlinechanged, though everyone has access to abundant information, users have to be very careful in newlineselecting right and authentic information. Information searching, specifically for academic and newlineresearch, needs specific attention for authentication of information sources and also information itself. newlineThe adage right information at right time to right user is literally most important for teaching, newlinelearning, research and community activities. newlineThe education system is directly affecting socio-economic-status of any nation. Libraries are newlinesupporting all the intellectual activity (teaching, research, and learning) of organizations through newlineproviding quality literature. The volume of literature has been growing exponentially, specifically in newlinethe electronic era. At the same time, universities are facing dearth of information resources, due to lack newlineappropriate technology and access to utilitarian literature (Okoroma, 2011). Some literature, which are newlineavailable and accessible at free of cost, in the forms of Grey Literature are not been considered as part newlineof the core collection of the libraries and they are easily accessible through World Wide Web. newlineThe grey literature is also becoming important information resources and is becoming essential newlinespecifically in social science and management field. In this Internet environment, grey literature has newlinemoved from unexplored literature to mainstream source of information newline