Publishing, Copyright and Ethical Practices as Influencing Factors on the Research Productivity of Academic Librarians in a Changing Society; a Case Study of Two Universities in Niger State, Nigeria.

Abstract

The article investigated publishing, copyright and ethical practices as influencing factors on the research productivity of academic librarians in a changing society. A changing society can aptly be described as the pandemic ravaged epoch; the information revolution age; the age of digital revolution and age that unveils new things in succession. The connecting nexus among publishing, copyright, ethical practices and research productivity of academic librarians was identified. Federal University of Technology, Minna and Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai were selected for the study. Total enumeration was used to capture all the academic librarians in the two universities. Twenty-seven (27) and Sixteen (16) academic librarians from Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai respectively. Two (2) research questions were asked and answered which included: 1. To what extent do copyright influence the research productivity of academic librarians in the selected universities? 2. To what level do ethical practices influence the research productivity of academic librarians in the selected universities? The research design used for the study is descriptive survey of correlational nature. Findings from the study showed that copyright coupled with ethical use of copyrighted works influenced the research productivity of academic librarians. It was concluded that adequate enforcement and practice of copyright vis-à-vis ethical use of published work influenced the research productivity of academic librarians to a very high degree. Based on the findings from the study, it was recommended that: copyrighted works should be fully protected; ethical practices must be imbibed while using copyrighted published work so as to boost the morale of academic librarians with hope of willingness to publish more in the future.